‘Embarrassing, disgusting’: Roosters lash out after horrific all-time low

Sydney Roosters stars have faced the brutal truth after living through a nightmare in Penrith after the side was handed an absolute shellacking.

It doesn't get much worse than that for the Roosters. Photo: Getty Images and NRL.com

If the Sydney Roosters want to go anywhere in the 2023 NRL premiership, they may just need to heed the advice of Ted Lasso and “be a goldfish”.

The Bondi side was blown off the park as the sleeping giant that is the two-time defending premiers the Penrith Panthers roared to life in a 48-4 annihilation in Penrith.

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About everything that could go wrong went wrong for the Roosters.

After 17 minutes, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was taken off the field after suffering a pectoral injury and didn't return.

Five-eighth Joey Manu left the field in the 54th minute with an ankle injury, after the man he replaced, Sam Walker, suffered a knee injury and was withdrawn from the NSW Cup match before the Roosters hit the field.

The BluBet Stadium demolition was Penrith’s biggest ever win over the Roosters, eclipsing the 48-6 demolition in 2009.

This is not the Roosters we were all expecting. Photo: NRL PHOTOS

And it wasn’t like the Panthers just go on a roll — it likely should have been more lopsided.

While the Roosters sit outside the top eight after the hit to the points differential, the side is still in the group of teams on 12 competition points from the Sharks in 5th down to their position in 10th with five matches still to play.

But as the pre-season favourites head into their second bye after next week’s match against the Dragons, the club has lost four of its six matches and weren’t too convincing it its wins.

Roosters captain James Tedesco labelled his team’s effort against the Panthers “embarrassing”.

“We had a short week (after Sunday’s 20-6 loss to the Cowboys at Magic Round) and we were clear: get back to working hard for each other.

“And we probably did that for ten minutes of the game and that was it.

“It was really hard to be captain and serve that up. It’s embarrassing.

“Definitely not used to it. We pride ourselves on that at the Roosters, working hard for each other. The last few weeks, just hasn’t been there.

“It’s hard when try after try to keep the boys positive behind the posts but we’re just not resilient enough. A something bad happens, they get a few tries, we just drop our heads and it just gets worse and worse. So pretty hard to swallow that.”

James Tedesco wasn't happy. Photo: NRL.com

Speaking on Nine after the match, Roosters lock Victor Radley was fuming about his side’s performance.

“Really disappointing mate, I’ve been involved in a couple of games like this and yeah it’s not good, it’s a horrible feeling,” he said.

“All effort, it’s just disgusting really, that first half, players stopped moving … me included.”

While the NRL is not yet at the halfway point of the season, it’s fast approaching and the Roosters need to start to do something to turn their season around.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson is confident the side has it in them.

“(Against the Cowboys) it was hard going home and looking at that performance. And backing it up with a worse one, that’s really tough,” he said.

“(But) you’re in the middle of a competition; you never get too down, there’s always a chance to turn things around.

“We’re not moving for each other. We’re just not in the kick-pressures, kick-chases.

“A lot of the things that we started the year with we’ve just fallen completely away.

“We got an incredible lesson tonight.”

The Roosters couldn’t believe what they were living through. Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

For the Panthers, it was all systems go.

Even NSW and Australian halfback Nathan Cleary took a back seat as Jarome Luai had his best game of the season with two line-breaks, two line break assists, two try assists and two tries himself.

He was well supported by Scott Sorensen in what Greg Alexander told Fox Sports was “the game of his life” with two tries and 183 run metres, as well as both Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards and lock Isaah Yeo both running 210m with the ball.

In a sign of how lopsided the game was, the Panthers had 59 per cent of the ball, 17 more completed sets of six, ran just under 1000m more than the Roosters, and made 131 less tackles.

With Matt Cleary, NCA Newswire

Originally published as ‘Embarrassing, disgusting’: Roosters lash out after horrific all-time low