Round 1 has been like watching a car crash in slow motion

[trewhella]

the storm were fast..really fast.
souths weren’t far behind.



The best teams are doing everything at full throttle.
Irrespective of the wet, we were slow and predictable. It’s Round ! ..who cares right?

we need a stopwatch to check the meters gained and the play the ball speed.....this is so critical. Bellamy is amazing on this stat.

poorest coached teams and under prepared in round 1 are Cronulla, Canterbury and Manly

[mattyh]

i dont think you get a true gauge of teams until round 5 or 6, ive been impressed with storm, souths, warriors i think the weather played a big part bar the nz game, hopefully roosters get on the board next week , im jealous of the teams whove won this weekend

[Rooster_6]

The best teams haven't been identified yet.

It's round 1. Give it a month at least.

[The Brain]

I expected the chooks to be a little underdone. I exoected Reynolds to have a better kicking game for now.Bbbuitt.to think we dropped so much ball and were in a whisker of taking the game if Cords scores .Take note if zfergo was there he wouldve score instead of morris diving 3 feet too early towards the end.Not fussed I like the Robbo easing them onto the season and saving the best for the end

[TDK]

I expected the chooks to be a little underdone. I exoected Reynolds to have a better kicking game for now.Bbbuitt.to think we dropped so much ball and were in a whisker of taking the game if Cords scores .Take note if zfergo was there he wouldve score instead of morris diving 3 feet too early towards the end.Not fussed I like the Robbo easing them onto the season and saving the best for the end

Why would you expect the Roosters to be underdone and why not Souths underdone? After all, Souths have the new coach and supposedly a new gameplan. I dont buy that, I think Souths came out to play for Bennett and ambushed us with their hard running, numbers in defence and a new found enthusiasm. But one good game doesn’t make a season and the jury is still out on whether they can maintain this enthusiasm throughout the season.

[The Brain]

Why would you expect the Roosters to be underdone and why not Souths underdone? After all, Souths have the new coach and supposedly a new gameplan. I dont buy that, I think Souths came out to play for Bennett and ambushed us with their hard running, numbers in defence and a new found enthusiasm. But one good game doesn’t make a season and the jury is still out on whether they can maintain this enthusiasm throughout the season.

well Souffs had a trial or two more than our blokes. A Bennet coached team is predictable ...throw side to side with out doing much a few forwards to make ground then get into field position. I really believed we would drop a lot of ball and have a piss poor kicking game at this stage and I regretfully I am right .Hate losing to souffs .
Considering we didnt have our A game ready ..thought we were alright since we were very close to snatching it eg if Cotds scores we are 8 points ahead.
We didnt get up on their line much but from memory 6 times 3 we score one just missed and Morris diving early when he couldve ran a few more meters and possibly score be it much late tin the game.
I like Robbos approach.He will not go all out early in the season .he will try things impliment variety as the season progresses .he doesnt coach to lose thats for sure.
I am certain we will be there on GF day .More certain than last year.
Thats souffs best ....see you at the business end.

["gaz"]

Its like the melbourne cup - dont want to peak too early like the dragons usually do
Last year when the dragons won there 7th game from 8 on Anzac Day, that was the Roosters 4th loss out of the first 8 games
Yet the Roosters still ended Minor Premiers and peaked perfectly during the finals.

[ism22]

Why would you expect the Roosters to be underdone and why not Souths underdone? After all, Souths have the new coach and supposedly a new gameplan. I dont buy that, I think Souths came out to play for Bennett and ambushed us with their hard running, numbers in defence and a new found enthusiasm. But one good game doesn’t make a season and the jury is still out on whether they can maintain this enthusiasm throughout the season.

Souffs were underdone. They beat us by 2 tries despite having the lion's share of possession and penalties in conditions that suit their suit their style of play. Also, they conceded a try pretty much every time we had a chance to attack their line... extremely questionable defence for them in patches and I'm sure Wayne won't be celebrating too hard.

It's too early to tell who the serious contenders will be. Most of the games have been pretty close (i.e. only a few tries in it) and there's no patterns to analyse yet, just isolated games.

Its like the melbourne cup - dont want to peak too early like the dragons usually do
Last year when the dragons won there 7th game from 8 on Anzac Day, that was the Roosters 4th loss out of the first 8 games
Yet the Roosters still ended Minor Premiers and peaked perfectly during the finals.

Bingo. While nobody will intentionally try to have a rubbish start to the season, a 2 try loss in tough conditions for round 1 is hardly a bad result.

I've been doing lotsa distance running lately (30km+) and it's a bit like that. If I want a good time, I don't gun it at the start because I'll end up crawling at the end. Rather, I'll pick a sustainable pace and stick to it so that I can finish strong and be pushing myself hard during the last few kilometres.

[Smee]

It's the early season wins that give you breathing space when the rep footy starts and players are out injured.

[Cockadoodledoo]

Like the Dragons last season. Weren’t we 2 from 5 last year?

[ROC181]

Yes I’m on the bus at the moment and have faith in Robbo after what he showed last year 2/3 into the season where he brought in new tactics like trapping the ball when someone from the other team tries puts a grubber into the try zone however teams will be wise to that and someone like Bennet instructed Reynolds to be be ready for that. Reynolds is good with his foot on ball like a soccer player and perhaps Robbo has to change that next time with a player like that. I think Hunt is good too in that department. I would like to see our players rather than trap it every time where it becomes a lottery on who’s going to fall on it, why not just kick it as far forward as possible because then the opposition team has to turn around. Last year when Cordner tried trapping it, but it bounced of his shin far and Souths were caught out while Cords dives on it and passed it to Mitchell and consequently it went to Fergo who then ran across to Joey to score that awesome try.

In essence if our players try trapping it all the time, the other team will be expecting it and will be ready to dive on it but a different approach might have the opposition team guessing.

Im guessing Robbo won’t be giving too much too soon so he’ll probably stick to the same way as last year so other teams feel that we haven’t changed BUT I’m looking forward to Robbos AND O’Briens new tactics later in the season to ensure that we get there in the end and other teams won’t know what hit them.

[Crab]

Watching the Eels v Riff game how good is Fergo going ?! No longer a Rooster but still a champion . Yes I know you can't keep them all ..happy with Morris and excited to see Hall down the track too . How good is the footy on a Sunday Arvo there should be more of it . Most important Up the Roosters next Weekend !

[The Skeez]

I thought we were alright. They got a few lucky tries.

But surprised by how late Trent went to the bench. Collins was good. Jared was kept quiet.

They seemed to want it more. More desire.

We we will see this from most teams this year. Especially contenders

[QWERTY]

I expected the chooks to be a little underdone. I exoected Reynolds to have a better kicking game for now.Bbbuitt.to think we dropped so much ball and were in a whisker of taking the game if Cords scores .Take note if zfergo was there he wouldve score instead of morris diving 3 feet too early towards the end.Not fussed I like the Robbo easing them onto the season and saving the best for the end

It was quite hard for our kicking game to shine when for most of game we were trapped in our own half

[QWERTY]

It's the early season wins that give you breathing space when the rep footy starts and players are out injured.

True but we played very well when rep footy started. I don’t think we dropped a game last year (correct me if I’m wrong). We have got good depth, and it helps having players like Cronk in those situations