SG BALL Round 1 Vs Panthers

[Rooster90]

Do you reckon Rodwell & Foley can be top class halves for the Chooks?
What happens with Elliott & Hugo for that matter.
Does Robbo go with Watson as his 14 or does Hugo get the gig?

Foley moved to lock late last year and really excelled, also can play hooker or fullback - would be a like for like replacement when Connor Watson is in the Origin squad
Jake Elliot i believe could make a decent centre at NRL level, also has the body size to play #12 or #13 - he is the one i most expected to move elsewhere to get a shot at NRL

Brett Morris certainly isn't short of exciting halves prospects that's for sure

[David Sutherland]

That would be Josh Durkin

Josh was highly rated by the club but of course has a less cluttered pathway to play NRL if good enough at the Storm rather than the Roosters who seem to be growing halves as they have so many prospects in the pathways coming through.

Josh was player of the year in Jersey Flegg in 2025 for the Sydney Roosters and a dead eye dick in goal kicking - The Sydney Roosters used 51 players in Jersey Flegg in 2025 which must be a record and hence their position on the ladder in finishing 9th.

[David Sutherland]

Full Time SG Ball Round 1

Sydney Roosters 18 defeated Penrith Panthers 16

Penrith led 16-0 after 29 minutes and 16-6 at half time

https://www.nswrl.com.au/draw/sg-bal...rs-v-panthers/

[ChookMaster]

Carter Mareko can play. What a talent he is.

A little rough around the edges today but as you’d expect it being round 1.

[Lockie]

Great win . Down 16 nil . Boyd will be happy with that fight back . We were pretty scratchy but never gave up . Penrith are one of the teams to beat . I’m glad we have Carter wrapped up until the end of 28 . I think he and Darcy will get a run in Reggie’s later in the year along with Rex and Lui Lee who were both missing from this game .

[Mickie Lane]

Josh was highly rated by the club but of course has a less cluttered pathway to play NRL if good enough at the Storm rather than the Roosters who seem to be growing halves as they have so many prospects in the pathways coming through.

Josh was player of the year in Jersey Flegg in 2025 and a dead eye dick in goal kicking - The Sydney Roosters used 51 players in Jersey Flegg in 2025 which must be a record and hence their position on the ladder in finishing 9th.

Could he be another Ethan Strange?

[Mickie Lane]

Carter Mareko can play. What a talent he is.

A little rough around the edges today but as you’d expect it being round 1.

Ive never seen him play Chookmaster but Ive heard about him on here.
Is he a Sandon Smith size in height or more a Sam Walker height?
He's not Hugo"s height, no?

[David Sutherland]

Ive never seen him play Chookmaster but Ive heard about him on here.
Is he a Sandon Smith size in height or more a Sam Walker height?
He's not Hugo"s height, no?

According to the DT who were listing the best 17 year old prospects in Junior Reps Carter was 182cm and 88 kg's when playing Harold Matthews Cup in 2025 for the Central Coast Roosters.

https://www.tiktok.com/@theshortball...44592457256200

[Rooster_6]

Round 1 SG Ball Review

Roosters 18 defeated Panthers 16 @ Mascot Oval

Great come from behind win, down 16-0 to win by 2 points. Very rusty Round 1 game and lack of combinations was definitely on show. However I thought the Roosters were the better team and deserved the win. Penrith just executed a bunch of low percentage plays mainly coming off the back of their crafty number 7 that made them look a little better than I thought they were. We were very dominant in the forwards but a bit rusty when we got into good ball.

Best on Ground

3 - Carter Mareko - put simply had an assist on the first two tries, scored the 3rd himself and kicked the winning penalty goal to seal the game. I loved the variations of tempo that he played with today, at times it almost feels like he's walking just trying to lure the defence out of shape and at other times he's bouncing off his right foot step two or three times to challenge the space. Looks like he just reads the game very well and was a level above today.

2 - Zaylen Ekepati - He sweeps very nicely on the backline plays and seems to have some nice hands, can see him nailing plenty of try assists this year if he continues to put himself in those kinds of positions. Loved the aggression he played with when returning the ball, looks like a handful and has a very sharp step. Also had to make some important one on one tackles which he did well. Impressive debut in SG Ball.

1 - Agapetos Lote-Felo - Promoted into the starting side and thought he was great all game, super aggressive, powerful prop. Very typical of the talent we've been seeing come through these grades lately. Seems to have a very good motor for a big guy.

Other Thoughts
- Mixed day for the wingers Fakauho & J Fesolai, both made errors leading to tries but both had great carries of their own including a big linebreak by Fesolai to set up the 2nd and a nice finish from Fakauho.

- The centres Papa & Armstrong were poor, lots of errors and not a whole lot of impact. Papa's kick and chase from himself on tackle 0 with a minute still left to play capped off what was a very confusing finish to the end of the game.

- Liam Bell knocked out 10mins into the game, won't play next week.

- Te Rore & Seve both very hard to tackle as usual, these two along with Lote-Felo should cause a lot of havoc at this level.

- Brok Elliot struggled to have an impact on the game, didn't engage the line enough with his ball playing for mine. For such a big body would love to see him carry it deeper into the line and even take a run as a lot of his ball playing felt pre-mediated.

- Darcy Smith, James Finegan & Eddy Cayless all put in good shifts but didn't have a heap of impact in attack. Feel like this might be more of a combination building with Mareko/Elliott than anything else though. Finegan looks to have put on a bit of size.

[David Sutherland]

Game 1 for the NSWRL Junior reps metro teams and game 2 for the NSWRL Junior Reps Regional teams, so one expects a lack of combinations for game 1 and 2 in these comps, as a fair few new players in these teams across the board.

Weekend results from 8 games — 6 wins and 2 losses.

It is not an easy thing to work on combinations when players may not train as a full team when they are based on the Central Coast or Sydney Metro. - most players in junior reps would still be at school and unless, for example, they have transport from the Central Coast to Sydney and return then attending training would be impossible if playing for a Sydney Roosters Junior rep side.

The Sydney Roosters NRLW players would rarely train as a team due to where they were based, residential wise (a lot are on the central coast) and or work-wise, as they still had to hold down full-time jobs while still being part-time professionals, so Coach John Strange and team developed individual training programs.

One assumes that would be the same for Central Coast players in Sydney Roosters Junior Rep sides if unable to attend training.