4th spot

[Spirit of 66]

I'm not very confident about the Roosters' chances of finishing fourth, but it's worth pointing out that if we do, it's as good as finishing first. I reckon there's very little chance any team will have a home semi this year.

[Jarlicho]

Fifth is better. Would you rather play Melbourne in week 1 or whoever limps into 8th? Go into week 2 after a win & play someone coming off a loss.

[player 1]

Eels have a worse run home than us, so if we can beat em tonight we have a 50/50 chance of 4th spot I reckon.

That is of course barring us having another 2 or 3 career ending injuries tonight, which is always on the cards.

[Kentucky_Fried_Rooster]

Parra will drop out of the top 4.
We are more chance of finishing 4th and possibly Manly then Parramatta.

[Johnny Tobin]

Fifth is what we want. Fourth is a death sentence.

If we win tonight we should end up fifth because I expect Manly will be fourth and Parra sixth.

Massive gane.

[Mickie Lane]

To be even talking about the Chooks maybe making 4th is unbelievable considering this year.
If the Chooks suddenly got all their players back including the retirees & everyone was fit & firing they would give Melbourne a run for their money. Its so unlucky for the Chooks because if they come 4th with half their side out I can only imagine what would have been if we were at full strength.

[zac]

Eels have a worse run home than us, so if we can beat em tonight we have a 50/50 chance of 4th spot I reckon.

That is of course barring us having another 2 or 3 career ending injuries tonight, which is always on the cards.

pretty much and if we lost tonight then 4th is very unlikely.

on balance i'd prefer fourth but it's close. put it this way, i'd be open to resting players who are carrying injuries for our last game before the finals, even if it meant missing out on fourth

[Johnny Tobin]

To be even talking about the Chooks maybe making 4th is unbelievable considering this year.
If the Chooks suddenly got all their players back including the retirees & everyone was fit & firing they would give Melbourne a run for their money. Its so unlucky for the Chooks because if they come 4th with half their side out I can only imagine what would have been if we were at full strength.

It's an incredible effort. All time actually.

[Thirteen]

Better finishing 5th and not having to play Melbourne or Penrith. Win our first semi and then come up against a team who are low in confidence after being thrashed in week 1.

Dare to dream….

[Big Dog]

Fifth is better. Would you rather play Melbourne in week 1 or whoever limps into 8th? Go into week 2 after a win & play someone coming off a loss.

Zachary.

[Nicola Tesla]

The only team behind East’s I would consider a threat is Canberra! A game against them would leave some sore bodies!

[Batemans Bay Rooster]

Fifth is better. Would you rather play Melbourne in week 1 or whoever limps into 8th? Go into week 2 after a win & play someone coming off a loss.

I'd much rather play Melbourne and have the second chance. Beat Melbourne and you get a week off and are one win away from the GF.

[player 1]

I'd much rather play Melbourne and have the second chance. Beat Melbourne and you get a week off and are one win away from the GF.

100 %. Gotta beat em sometime, may as well be first week of semis and aim for a week off and a prelim berth.

[ism22]

I'm not very confident about the Roosters' chances of finishing fourth, but it's worth pointing out that if we do, it's as good as finishing first. I reckon there's very little chance any team will have a home semi this year.

We'd basically have to:
- Beat the Eels (who have a much better PD)
- Win all of our remaining games (excluding the Pemriff & Souffs games)
- Hope the Eels don't have upset victories against the Riff, Drizz and Souffs (plus Manly) while concurrently keeping a 1 game gap between us and Manly (who also have a much better PD than us (partly) thanks to the fukking NRL imposing its temporary 'zero tolerance on all "high" contact' during a time where we played the Drizz, Riff and Souffs.

It's doable and I hope we get there purely because I wanna see us win as many games as possible. I mean, it's a flog's attitude to try and lose games coz you don't wanna play the Drizz/Riff in round 1 of the finals. I mean - ideally we'll play the Drizz in round 1 of the finals and kick their butt. As a fan that's certainly what I WANT to see

That said... I won't be too bummed if we come 5th as (like last year) it could give us a better run during the finals.

[ism22]

I'd much rather play Melbourne and have the second chance. Beat Melbourne and you get a week off and are one win away from the GF.

Yep exactly.

If you pray for mediocrity coz you don't think you can beat a team then

Last year we got within 1 point of beating Pemriff in round 1, despite having similarly crippling injuries. That's all she wrote, but had the guillotine fallen down a little bit differently, our fortunes coulda been vastly different.

To me there's two ways of looking at this, noting we are 5th. It's not a Willie Wanka moment where we were 16th and he was saying we could still make the finals with roughly 5 games to go. Despite having horrible luck, we're in this...
- A bean counter would say 'you have no chance and you've got better odds of beating the Dragons (for example) in round 1... so who cares... you should aim for 5th, not 4th'. If you're a fukking bean counter like this then go grab yourself a vomit green cardigan with a knitted viking on the front and start blowing on that massive, fake horn they've got stored out the back somewhere (while all the guys cheer you on with a synchronised clap) coz that's all the action you're gonna get during these finals.
- The athlete/competitor/fanatic says 'dare to dream a little muddafukkaz? A shot beating #1 and then a 2nd chance is better than having the possibility of getting bundled out by a lesser team in round 1...'

IMO it's a but like a tennis grand slam. Some poor b*gger will always draw the top seed in round 1. Lleyton Hewitt always said 'well that is good because if I beat him, I'll take the #1 seed's schedule'. Same here. The chance of stealing the Drizz' finals schedule (while improbable) is what you live for as a competitor. We've seen it every day at the Olympics... favourites can choke & others can lift. I live for those 1% moments where we've been written off and still show up.