Sydney Roosters great Brad Fittler blasts Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Dylan Napa

SYDNEY Roosters great Brad Fittler has singled out props Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Dylan Napa for lacklustre preliminary final displays.

Jared Waerea-Hargreaves during the preliminary final loss.

SYDNEY Roosters great Brad Fittler has slammed props Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Dylan Napa for lacklustre displays in the preliminary final loss to the Cowboys.

The Roosters bowed out of the finals race with a 29-16 loss to North Queensland and Fittler, who led the Roosters to the title in 2002, laid blame on a lack of pressure and intensity from the starting props.

“Their front rowers, Dylan and Jared, they made comments at the start of the week (laying down the challenge to reigning Dally M Medallist Jason Taumalolo).

Jared Waerea-Hargreaves dejected at fulltime.

“(But) they ran for 86m and 57m. They just weren’t in the game. There was no aggression. They weren’t coming off the line. I didn’t see them take it to the Cowboys at all,” Fittler told The Sunday Footy Show.

“The Roosters just waited for that last 10 minutes to try and steal the game, but it just wasn’t there, it was the other side ...

“There was no pressure. There was no pressure from kicking. There was no pressure from people coming out of the line. Every time Morgan kicked, there was no pressure.”

Dylan Napa has been singled out for criticism.

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However, Cronulla captain and 2016 premiership winner Paul Gallen came to the defence of the Roosters’ forwards.

“I think a lot of the pressure came from the Cowboys’ completion rate,” Gallen said. “They completed at 90 per cent...

“It was as on the back of the Roosters’ errors, that’s why those big boys in the middle for the Roosters could never get going because they were constantly defending back to back sets of six.

“That’s the hardest part of defending - when you’re as big as blokes like Napa and Hargreaves, doing those back to back sets of six you have no energy in attack whatsoever.”