Rabbitohs to put Roosters’ bid for back-to-back premierships to the test

Winning back-to-back premierships isn’t just about being better, it’s about being different. And the Sydney Roosters’ evolution will face severe scrutiny from a fired-up South Sydney on Friday night.

The Roosters have options to change their game. Image: AAP Image/Craig Golding

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To go back-to-back you need several elements.

You don’t just have to be better, you have to be different. Every team studies the premiers, not just in the hope of stopping them, but in the hope of being them.

As the great David Bowie once said when accused of taking key principles from others’ music, “talent borrows, genius steals”.

So, from the moment the Sydney Roosters held the trophy aloft, every also-ran would’ve been rolling through the tapes finding the key elements to their success.

The other elements you need are fresh troops. New blood, fresh fire injected into the squad.

And you need hard-nosed experience. Tough, seasoned professionals who can hold their nerve in the face of heightened expectations and have the endurance in their bones to last a season against teams who, week-in-week out, want to beat up the best.

It will be Cronk, if anyone, pushing the Roosters to improve. Image: Jonathan Ng

Going by all these key factors the Roosters look very well placed. In fact, they appear most likely to go back to back than any team in recent memory.

For the majority of 2018 the grand final-winning Roosters looked a work in progress.

New faces in key combinations and the arrival of Cooper Cronk, a halfback who plays the game of rugby league as an exact science, took time to bed down.

In the early season their attack looked clunky, in the middle months it got smoother and on the cusp of September, it started to find its rhythm and capabilities.

But it never looked better than it did on grand final night, where certain events would’ve given coach Trent Robinson some food for thought going into this campaign.

Cronk’s injury showed the Roosters a way forward. Image: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

On that night Cronk’s shoulder injury forced Luke Keary to step forward and play a more dominant role.

Cronk still talked the team around the park, but was forced to get the ball into Keary’s hands a little earlier and more often.

Keary’s Clive Churchill medal-winning performance should signal to him that the team benefits more from him being an equal partner rather than junior partner in his combination with Cronk in 2019.

But in the quest to be different, the signing of Melbourne’s attacking coach Adam O’Brien, last August, will be crucial.

Angus Crichton looks every inch a Rooster. Image: Jonathan Ng

O’Brien will bring new ideas and new attacking principles to the premiers.

He and Cronk have enjoyed great success together in the past and expect him to bring another dimension to the Cronk/Keary partnership, along with Tedesco.

As far as fresh blood and experience are concerned, the Roosters’ new signings are brilliant.

Angus Crichton is an elite player, still with a mile of improvement left in him.

Crichton will benefit enormously from developing a combination with Cronk, who would have had him out on the training pitch all preseason, giving him lessons on running angles and hitting gaps, schooling him on what the No.7 needs from the back-rower.

Ryan Hall will bring some English steel. Image: Matt King/Getty Images

Blake Ferguson and his yardage game are a big loss, but the two experienced outside backs they have brought in are top drawer professionals.

Brett Morris has done it all and showed what he will bring in 2019 by his hat-trick against Wigan, while English veteran, Ryan Hall, arrives determined to follow in the tradition of great Yorkshiremen like Malcolm Reilly, Ellery Hanley and Sam Burgess, and have a huge impact in Australia. The winger is big and physical and will be a real asset once he comes back from knee surgery and gets to full fitness.

Yes, the Roosters look very well placed, but there’s a reason no side has gone back to back for a very long time. Success brings its own challenges. Some thrive with success, others prefer adversity.

But just the very nature of a defending premier’s preseason is challenging.

First the premiers must get past this old master. Image: Mark Evans/Getty Images

While you were still celebrating, other sides had begun preparing.

You were the last side to return to preseason training.

You were then sent to England to play in the World Cup Challenge, that’s disruptive. And of course, you are hunted.

Every single week you are playing teams who elevate themselves because beating the premiers is about more than just two points.

And no team will derive more pleasure in bringing down the Roosters than their first opponents, their oldest, closest and most bitter enemy, South Sydney.

In the Bunnies lies one of this season’s most intriguing storylines, with Wayne Bennett at the helm.

Wayne arrives at Redfern with a point to prove, coaching a tough, experienced team who look well equipped to allow him to do it.

Friday night’s match will be played at the SCG, the Roosters’ home ground in 2019, but an address which is steeped in historical success for the Bunnies.

This will be extremely tight. Defence will be the dominant factor in this contest, and don’t expect a lot of points.

Originally published as Rabbitohs to put Roosters’ bid for back-to-back premierships to the test