- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Following the Sydney Roosters’ crushing 40-0 win over the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks overnight, you’d have to think to yourself whether this is the best Sydney Roosters side that has ever been assembled.
A side featuring Sonny Bill Williams, Michael Jennings, James Maloney and Luke O’Donnell are proving very tough to beat at the moment. Throw in the club form of Mitchell Pearce and this team is even tougher to beat – let alone score a point against.
Last Saturday’s crushing victory over the Sharks marks the fifth time this season (and the second time this season they’ve done it back-to-back) in which the Roosters have held an opposition team scoreless over 80 minutes.
And this victory was made all the more impressive given the fact that Sonny Bill Williams was out injured.
This marked the first time Williams was forced to miss a match through injury since making his impressive comeback to the NRL.
Mitchell Pearce also responded to his State of Origin flop to produce his best performance all season, as the Roosters crushed an injury-ravaged Sharks outfit missing their two most important men on the field, Paul Gallen and Luke Lewis.
The Roosters added the Sharks to their list of shut-out victims, which also include the Broncos, Eels, Bulldogs and Dragons.
Not since 1977 have the Roosters held their opposition scoreless in five matches over a single season.
Upon being appointed head coach of the Roosters over the off-season, Trent Robinson made defence a huge priority for the club, after they finished the 2012 season with the worst defensive record in the competition.
Robinson was the club’s defensive coach when the Roosters made the grand final in 2010, in which they lost to the St. George Illawarra Dragons, who had the best defensive record in the competition that year.
Now, with seven rounds left this season, they have the best such record in the competition, and sit second on the premiership ladder.
The Roosters have now learnt from the Dragons’ successful 2010 season, as vindicated in the grand final when the Roosters only scored eight points.
Should they go on to win this year’s premiership, then it would also complete somewhat of a rags-to-riches rise for the club, after the club was tipped to go further down following a disappointing 2012 season which saw the departures of coach Brian Smith and captain Braith Anasta.
Anasta might surely be regretting his decision to leave Bondi, after he led the club through its’ highest of highs (think the run to the 2010 grand final) and the lowest of lows (think the absolute mess that was the wooden spoon season of 2009) during his seven years at the club.
And while the Roosters are flying near the top of the competition, his Tigers are going absolutely nowhere and seem to be closer to a wooden spoon than they are to another premiership.
A Roosters premiership would also see Anthony Minichiello become a dual Roosters premiership player, eleven years after featuring in the side which defeated the New Zealand Warriors to win the 2002 title.
Two more players from that side – Justin Hodges and Michael Crocker, still remain in the NRL, with Hodges winning a second premiership with the Brisbane Broncos in 2006.
Already the current Roosters side is being compared with that of 2002, which was coached by Ricky Stuart. Stuart achieved the ultimate glory in his first year coaching the side.
Robinson now has the chance to do exactly the same as what Stuart did. The current Eels mentor is the last man to coach any club to a premiership in his first year.
Now, the big question for this Roosters side will be: can they ultimately go on and win the premiership this year?
They have the squad to do so. Now it’s just that they need to perform in September, and very importantly, if they do make it to the first Sunday in October, in the grand final itself.
The Roosters have lost five of their last six deciders dating back to 1980, and have also lost 15 grand finals in their existence, which is the most in Australian rugby league history.
These statistics have led to the team being dubbed “the Collingwood of the NRL” – like the Roosters in the NRL, Collingwood also have the record for most AFL grand final losses since the sport was first invented in the 1800s.
A grand final victory would see this Roosters side eclipse the 2002 premiership side as one of the most well-assembled ever.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.