Sydney Roosters still right in race to make NRL top eight
MONDAY BUZZ 1: At first glance the Roosters look to face an impossible task to reach the NRL finals. Not so, PHIL ROTHFIELD writes.
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MOST years teams need a minimum of 28 competition points to make the NRL finals.
You look at the Sydney Roosters’ position on the premiership ladder andat first glance it appears an almost impossible task. Not so.
The mathematics are simple. They have four points, they get another four from the two byes and need to win 10 of their remaining 15 games.
Saturday’s 38-0 victory over the Newcastle Knights showed what a difference Mitchell Pearce makes and why he is the club’s highest-paid player.
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Afterwards Pearce got the three Dally M points from Fox Sports judge Gary Belcher.
Yet it wasn’t necessarily what he did individually that stood out.
It was more how his return lifted the pressure on teammates who have struggled for much of his absence.
None more so than five-eighth Jackson Hastings, who had found the pressure of steering an NRL team around the park too demanding in the opening eight rounds.
And, not surprisingly, considering his lack of senior football experience.
Jake Friend also produced his best game of the season without the sole responsibility of leadership.
They may have stripped him of the co-captaincy but there is no question Pearce was in charge against the Knights at Allianz on Saturday night.
Edge runners and outside backs who have struggled for much of the year suddenly returned to form. Blake Ferguson grabbed three tries and looked like a Test player.
Importantly, the Roosters have a good draw over the next five weeks.
A week off for the rep football round, the Titans, the Bulldogs, a bye and the Wests Tigers.
Most teams with two wins from nine games you’d put the red felt pen through.
Not the Roosters. They have too much talent. The morale and confidence are fine.
They are only in 15th spot on the ladder because Pearce, Boyd Cordner, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Dale Copley have been missing for so long.
Put their full-strength line-up on the field and they can just about beat anyone.
Plus, they are still $500,000 under the salary cap with room to move before June 30 if suddenly a good player comes on to the market or Jarryd Hayne fails at San Francisco.
Not that you’d want to move the outstanding young Latrell Mitchell from fullback.
He, like everyone else, will get even better under the direction of Pearce.
The only team with a worse record after nine rounds which went on to make the finals was Brisbane in 1999. They were one win, one draw and seven losses from their first nine games.
We’re not suggesting the Roosters can win the premiership but they are certainly still in the race to make the finals.
Originally published as Sydney Roosters still right in race to make NRL top eight
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