You can’t help but admire how the Roosters get things done, writes Paul Kent
A SEASON after finishing second last, the Roosters are once again premiership contenders. You can’t help but admire they way they get it done, writes Paul Kent.
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TWO philosophies with one purpose crash on Saturday night.
Penrith run on to Pepper Stadium in the seventh year of their annual five-year plan, finally where they were always heading. As premiership favourites.
The Sydney Roosters don’t have the patience for five-year plans.
No coach can afford to.
You don’t have a choice but to rise quickly as coach of the Roosters. “Otherwise,” says coach Trent Robinson, “someone else will rise quickly.”
That’s how it is. Ricky Stuart took the club to three successive grand finals and missed the playoffs the following season and then he was gone a season later.
So, after three successive minor premierships collapsed into a 15th-placed finish last season, a few interested eyes turned towards the Roosters and the sharp blade of chairman Nick Politis.
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It was an unusual season. This time last year the Roosters were stubbing their toes on headline after headline, the year beginning badly and getting worse.
After beginning the season 1-7, and ultimately missing the playoffs, the less said about it the better.
But this one little gem needs to be polished.
In the midst of that 1-7 streak I called Robinson to talk about where the Roosters would go and the coach was quiet, but sure.
Despite where we are now, he said, he was confident that come season 2017 the Roosters would be in the position to challenge again.
The next year?
It looked like optimism gone mad. I looked at Robinson’s roster and wondered what it was that he saw. The under-20s looked good but hardly imposing.
They finished the regular competition fifth, in the finals but out of the all-important top four. Besides, Penrith were on a tear in the under-20s and the only question appeared to be who would play them in the grand final.
As it turned out it was the Roosters. They trailed St George Illawarra 14-0 in the preliminary final and scored 26 second half points to win and then, in the big one, came from 28-6 down at halftime to beat the Panthers 30-28.
But the NRL team finished second last, going 6-18.
Still, within those results many young players got blooded for NRL. Not content with a five-year plan, the Roosters also signed Luke Keary and Michael Gordon.
Robinson knew the bones were there. It shows the might of the Roosters.
Building football clubs is the hardest job in the game.
NRL coaches can bore the ears off a marble statue talking about Xs and Os and the difference in their collective knowledge is negligible.
Roster management, though, is the key.
The Roosters and Panthers have managed it better than most. \
When Phil Gould first got to Penrith the salary cap was in disarray. Gould knew the trick was not what you pay but value for money.
The Panthers had $500,000 players delivering $300,000 performances and some worse examples. There the light flashes red.
Over time, the Panthers brought balance to their cap and their recent seasons now show that.
Now look around the league.
The Wests Tigers have their four best players all coming off contract in the same season, all managed by the same agent, along with coach Jason Taylor.
This is complete madness. The Tigers are at their mercy.
Quite rightly the players are cautious to sign without knowing who will be their coach while the club, through its lack of action around the coach, appears unsure who the coach will be.
The short money says at least one of those players and possibly more will lose patience and go elsewhere before the club acts.
Josh Dugan warned this week he is thinking of taking French money after it became clear St George Illawarra are not going to offer fullback money for Dugan to play centre.
Having already paid overs for Ben Hunt next season both Dugan and five-eighth Gareth Widdop have been offered deals less than their current value.
The Roosters have the cap down to a fine science.
Robinson thinks differently from most coaches.
Every season there is a small pilgrimage of NRL coaches heading to overseas markets to check out how the big boys do it in the NFL or English Premier League or wherever they can get an audience.
“People go and meet teams but it’s only ever shallow conversation,” he says.
Instead, Robinson picked his mark.
“I met good sporting individuals and had one-on-ones with them and,” he says, which is the difference, “had really good conversations.”
After that he sat at home, thinking. He went to work and sat in his office, thinking and occasionally getting up to write notes on the whiteboard, ideas bouncing into each other.
Many nights he would spend on the phone talking to Mitch Pearce. Other nights, Pearce would call him.
Now, just a season after finishing second last, the Roosters have emerged once again as premiership contenders.
You can’t help but admire they way they get it done.
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