2022

[Rooster_6]

Is it better than JWH, Friend, Collins, Cordner, Crichton, Radley with Verrills, Taukeahio and Liu on the bench? Cos that’s apples for apples. They were at full strength last night. Not one top 17 player missing. Imagine taking out Garrick, their best centre (plus the two best players they have to cover him), Cherry-Evans, Aloiai, Schuster, Croker and then their bench utility in Walker, plus another bench middle. That’s just to even the teams up. Then to give us the advantage Manly did last night would be to put all our injured/retired/suspended guys back in to play that decimated Manly side. That’s what we were up against to get into a prelim.

To think we won’t be a top 3 side if we get a good run of injuries next year is in my opinion erring well on the side of “grass is greener..”.

My biggest issue with the forward pack and this was my comment at the end of last season and the beginning of this is that we seem to have some really good forwards but its been a while since they've played together as a pack. Something in the makeup of our starting 6 and rotation seems to be off. I think Boyd Cordner & Jake Freind were a huge part of the identity of our forward pack, the toughness, leadership and selflessness that they played with just hasn't been replaced and will be very tough to replace without time. It's the little things, kick pressures, understanding the moment and what's required, line speed, never giving up on any play.

How many times this season did we need a Boyd Cordner carry angled in at the ruck where he gets belted but gets to his front and finds a quick play the ball, in a game that's more heavily based on momentum and up tempo play than ever it's the courageous players and plays that have come to the forefront.

I saw moments from JWH & Radley this year hat I really liked but they seemed to be on their own at times. I liked what I saw from Egan Butcher, he plays fearlessly. But we're missing something in the current group, if we're to be a top 3 side that forward pack needs to find an identity and start hunting as a pack again, no pack leaked more tries through the middle than ours this year. Bondi Wall?

[SamKerrSimp]

Manlys pack is better than the Roosters, Souths, Parra & Penrith in my view.
They have 3 quality middles & the 2 best up & coming backrowers plus a pretty handy 9.
I cant wait to see Manly give it to Souths next week. Des & his coaching team have flown right under the radar & assembled a top forward pack a sensational back 3 & the 2 most experienced halves in the game.
I would love to see Manly win the comp they have got the team & coach to do it.

Manly don’t have a better forward pack we demolished them in round 1 Collins ran for nearly 200m and JWH did 120m off the bench. If we had Collins and SST in the team their forward pack would not get it over us, Collins was a huge loss for us this year

[Yak]

Yak the Roosters at full strength could match them but Im talking right now.
I totally agree with " To think we wont be a top 3 side if we get a good run of injuries next year is in my opinion erring well on the side of grass is greener."

Who do you think will win the comp?

Melbourne to walk it in this year. They’ll be deserved favourites next year. But I think we’ll be right there with Penrith fighting them for the premiership. Can’t see us getting the minor premiership next year though. Melbourne are too consistent. We’ll build into the year. But again, a lot will depend on injury tolls. We can’t afford to play 34 players again.

[ROC181]

I have heard it so many times this year from good commentators that if the Roosters didn't have the worst injury problem in the history of sports, then we would have won this comp. A few of those have tipped us to be favourites next year like Graham Hughes, Tunksie and A Johns mainly due to the coaching of Robbo and what he managed to get out of young players plus the fact that many of these young players have been exposed to this level and next year they will be better for it. The Marschkes, Whyte, E Butcher, Walker, Fletcher and others would have benefitted so much from this season more than if they would have been playing in the Knock off or whatever its called. Thanks to the injuries, these young players got their chance and know what they need to do for next year. We might need a T Simms in our squad but what if one of the players mentioned becomes that Simms style player over the Summer?

Add Keary, Collins, Manu, SST Watson and Suaalii, our team will be fast & furious. The only problem I see is the kicking and this is the second time in Robbos time that we go into a season without a recognised kicker and personally I'm not a fan of doing that. Does Robbo respect the 2 points?

[Davo]

Billy Smith was kicking goals in first grade before he got injured. Maybe they can work on him during the off season. Otherwise its Walker and SST to share it. I believe our Fijian VK kicks goals also. Kierhan's terrible general play with defense and dropped balls means his goal kicking isn't enough to get him into first grade anymore. Well be right.

[Tommy Smith]

The Storm will still be the team to beat in 2022. Who is their strength and conditioning coach?

The bloke is a God because they haven't had a serious injury since Slater missed 2016. After that I think Welch tore his ACL in 2018 but that's it.

They are a great team that ALWAYS has it's great players on the field when it matters.

They lose JAC, Finucane and perhaps more crucially Nicho Hynes next year but they still have the best spine by a mile with the game's two best hookers; and they surround those blokes with forwards that scrap tooth and nail for every inch and put their body on the line in every tackle.

An absolutely incredible footy club.

But again, they should still be a little weaker in 2022. As will Penrith and Souths. We are the only club that has a massive level of improvement in us. The big concern is our leadership and whether or not we'll be slightly too young in key areas.

But we should be top 4 easily, luck permitting.

[bondi.boy]

I kept finding myself blowing up at two players this game in particular.

Crichton

Tupouniua

God. Both were fking shit in defence

Sitili is best off the bench.
Games must be started with big players in every position.

Crichton poor?
Poor won't be good enough in 2022.........or shouldn't be.

"If you can't tackle...don't bother ringing up" - Jack Gibson

[Bondicigar]

A well rested full strength roosters team in round 1 2022 will ba a sight to behold

[BigCok007]

Sitili is best off the bench.
Games must be started with big players in every position.

Crichton poor?
Poor won't be good enough in 2022.........or shouldn't be.

"If you can't tackle...don't bother ringing up" - Jack Gibson

Agree with Sitili off the bench, makes such an impact through the middle. Less pressure on his leaky defence with support around him. Actually wouldn’t mind seeing Egan have a go on the edge.

[FAZ]

A well rested full strength roosters team in round 1 2022 will ba a sight to behold

Thank goodness the World Cup was called off. Roosters could have had 7 or 8 players involved. Now they can rest up and get ready for next year.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

I've had a crack at a Bears possible team next year, allowing for everyone available for firsts as things stand:

1. Josh Bergamin
2. Matt Ikuvalu
3. Adam Keighran
4. Brad Abbey
5. VK or MGT
6. Lam
7. Hutch
8. Fletch Baker
9. Ben Marschke
10. Renouf Atoni
11. Egan Butcher
12.Naufahu Whyte
13. Ben Thomas

14. Jess Marschke
15. Max Bailey
16. Jerry Key
17. Luca Moretti

I'm including big Tapuha in my top 17 for Easts, bit debatable. And left out Volkman which was tricky as he's classy and think has a future.

Sadly we never have EVERYONE available in reality. One can dream.

[Mickie Lane]

The Storm will still be the team to beat in 2022. Who is their strength and conditioning coach?

The bloke is a God because they haven't had a serious injury since Slater missed 2016. After that I think Welch tore his ACL in 2018 but that's it.

They are a great team that ALWAYS has it's great players on the field when it matters.

They lose JAC, Finucane and perhaps more crucially Nicho Hynes next year but they still have the best spine by a mile with the game's two best hookers; and they surround those blokes with forwards that scrap tooth and nail for every inch and put their body on the line in every tackle.

An absolutely incredible footy club.

But again, they should still be a little weaker in 2022. As will Penrith and Souths. We are the only club that has a massive level of improvement in us. The big concern is our leadership and whether or not we'll be slightly too young in key areas.

But we should be top 4 easily, luck permitting.

I cant dislike them because they are so good.
To win the comp this year without Smith just go's to show you what an incredible club they are. They had the 3 best players in the game who all retired & Melbourne dont miss a beat. Look at what happened to the Chooks when Freddy retired & then look at Melbourne instead of going down they go up. Anyone who doesn't rate Bellamy has rocks in their head.

[Yak]

The Storm will still be the team to beat in 2022. Who is their strength and conditioning coach?

The bloke is a God because they haven't had a serious injury since Slater missed 2016. After that I think Welch tore his ACL in 2018 but that's it.

They are a great team that ALWAYS has it's great players on the field when it matters.

They lose JAC, Finucane and perhaps more crucially Nicho Hynes next year but they still have the best spine by a mile with the game's two best hookers; and they surround those blokes with forwards that scrap tooth and nail for every inch and put their body on the line in every tackle.

An absolutely incredible footy club.

But again, they should still be a little weaker in 2022. As will Penrith and Souths. We are the only club that has a massive level of improvement in us. The big concern is our leadership and whether or not we'll be slightly too young in key areas.

But we should be top 4 easily, luck permitting.

I’d say looking at the number of short term injuries is a better indication of how well the conditioning staff have performed. Long term injuries tend to be a culmination of a lot of factors all coming together at once that have a catastrophic effect on major tissues that can normally withstand a lot of load (eg. Achilles rupture, pec tear, ACL rupture, Lisfranc dislocation). In my opinion in most cases where athletes are trained to an adequate standard these are the “bad luck” type injuries, with some exceptions (eg. injuries in the gym). We had six season-ending injuries that I’d categorise as bad luck in Keary, Morris, Suaalii, Smith, Manu and Collins (which was the unluckiest of them all - the way he tore his ACL occurs in less than 10% of cases). Verrills was also out for a long period with a detached retina. Hutchison misses a lot of the season due to a punctured lung. And you could argue that concussions fall into this category as well, however there is plenty of training that can be done to reduce their likelihood (a bit similar to ACLs). But a lot of the time the force from external factors is far beyond what the tissues (in this case the brain) can withstand regardless of training status. Not withstanding further rule changes, I think it would take 20 or so years to see another similar injury toll in terms of total time spent recovering and injury type.

[The Thracian]

Only 3 players on the market to look at

Brandon Smith, no explanation needed
Fotuaka from Gold Coast, absolute beast of a front rower only 21, he and Collins could be the future going forwards
TRiq Simms can add some much needed aggression

[milanja]

Only 3 players on the market to look at

Brandon Smith, no explanation needed
Fotuaka from Gold Coast, absolute beast of a front rower only 21, he and Collins could be the future going forwards
TRiq Simms can add some much needed aggression

I wonder if Bryce Cartwright would be a better option than sims. Adds plenty of variety, and probably still cheap.