If you’re on a wild soiree and the barkeep tells you there’s fifteen minutes until closing time, do you steadily finish your refreshment, throw your stilettos over your shoulder and leave like a sap?
Unless you’re a responsible human being with class, of course you wouldn’t.
Like any prudent fellow who’s imbibed to the stage of wearing a mini-skirt, you would stumble up to the well in your pumps and fill every spare pocket on your outfit with pre-mixers before chugging as many you can before time runs out.
Not only is this responsible drinking, it’s an inherent human behaviour. Always make the most of something before it’s gone.
With Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and James Maloney leaving at season’s end, such eleventh-hour gluttony should be on the minds of the Roosters as they close in on September.
With half of the side’s offensive core being somewhere else in 2016, I’m calling last drinks on their current premiership window, even despite their laundered playing list and Mensa-calibre coach.
For the sake of nobody except themselves and their fans, it’s imperative the Bondi club wins a premiership this year. They need it more than anyone else in the league.
Not only would it be a fairytale win for the battlers, it would also cap off a stellar period of prosperity and place them near other famous mind-numbing premiership dominations of yesteryear such as Tim Sheens’ Canberra, Des Hasler’s Manly and the Wayne Bennett decades at Brisbane.
Season 2015 presents a juicy opportunity for the Roosters. If they let it slip, they may not have another chance until Nick Politis seeks restitution from Jarryd Hayne for hire car costs, and that could be months away.
With no obvious blue-chip replacements, can the staff briskly unearth some gems- or lure someone else’s- to replace the gaping holes left in the spine by Tuivasa-Sheck and Maloney? Or is there a string of moderate sixth-place finishes on the horizon for the club?
Whatever happens, the Roosters predicament proves The Premiership Window is now a real thing in modern rugby league.
For the uninitiated, The Premiership Window is a term relentlessly bandied around in the AFL’s 24/7 news cycle, yet is only just catching on in the NRL world as the game’s media gradually moves from court reporting to covering issues about rugby league.
Bookended by rebuilds and clean-outs, The Window is a restricted period of time when a club’s core group of players hit a unified high for the first time somewhere other than a nightclub.
Signed long-term, free of tomfoolery and focused by fatherhood, it is a collective crescendo that provides the best chance at a premiership, or on the flipside, a lifetime of ridicule from unfulfilled club members.
The key to The Window is making it count. Like the cash grab machine on The Price is Right and those pesky closing bars, the idea is to get as much as you can while can get it, because inevitably you’ll be burgled by the equalising powers of the salary cap or hamstrung by an inter-group sex scandal.
When a club really takes advantage of a Window, that’s when you get St George 1956-66. When you don’t, that’s when you get the 2000-2004 Roosters and the anger management issues of Ricky Stuart.
See why it’s important? Nobody wants forehead wrinkles like Rick’s.
So after arguably picking one up ahead of schedule in 2013, can the Roosters close off a premiership window in 2015 with something special? Can this greedy bunch of gluttons grab a final handful before closing time?
I know most of you would be disgusted by such a notion, but I’ve got my mini-skirt full of UDLs at the ready.
pjm
Roar Rookie
Is it just me or does this article hold no substance at all and is just filled with cliche's?
Clint
Guest
No dramas, MAX. I love a good stat! Interestingly, from the NRL's inception in 1998 until 2005, defense didn't really win premierships like it has in the past 10 years. Bulldogs 2004 - Ranked 3rd in defense Panthers 2003 - 7th Roosters 2002 - 1st Knights 2001 - 9th Storm 1999 - 5th Brisbane 1998 - 1st It's really from 2006 on-wards that the defense wins premierships trend really began - coincidentally about the same time as the widespread adoption of grappling in tackles (i.e when teams other than the Storm started wrestling). Former referee and match review chief Greg McCallum discussed it in an SMH article last year: "There was holding down at the play-the-ball but that is completely different to applying holds and pressure," he said. "It was probably 2006 that it started and we on the match review committee raised it with the NRL. We got on top of the grappling but it went just progressively around the whole body to the point now where players are really being put at risk."
pete bloor
Guest
Don't like fergo at 1, he is a horrible decision maker.
Little Red Rooster
Guest
Fergo will go to custodian, ju ju to 6 and Jackson to 7 and kicker . Make NO mistake, Hastings is the VERY real deal.
MAX
Guest
Thank you Clint for a telling stat. that is so easy to digest.
pete bloor
Guest
I think Maloney is heavily over rated, he is risk taker that can play you out of as many games as his pace and kicking can win you. If he was just a bit more inside the box his skills and speed off the mark would make him one of the best attacking halves in the comp, but he isn't..so he isn't. RTS is a major loss given his likely development but they do have a decent crop of young outside backs they've been trying to blood so hopefully it isn't too bad of a hit
Clint
Guest
They say that defense wins premierships and the stats seem to agree. I had to go back to Wests Tigers' 2005 GF win to find a premiership winning team who didn't finish the regular season as either the best or 2nd best defensive team. From that same time-frame, 4 of those premiership winners were ranked 3rd or below in attack: Souths 2014 - 3rd in attack St. George Ill. 2010 - 8th Melbourne 2009 - 11th Brisbane 2006 - 12th We know Easts are already a great defensive team, so if we assume that Hastings and Mitchell (or whoever ends up as FB next season) can cover for the loss of Jimmy and RTS in a defensive capacity, I think they can still be premiership contenders. It will be interesting to see how Trent Robinson handles it.
maximillian
Guest
A bit harsh considering hes only 19! Im sure he will be the 1st to admit he's far from the finished article & has a few aspects of his game he needs to work on but I think he will go well. I look at someone like Brooks at the Tigers & think his development would've been better served playing alongside a senior half & in a better team for a few seasons. Hastings will get that playing with Pearce & also have Jennings/Cordner on his side of the field. He can just play his natural game & let Pearce do all the organising. I think he will be a gun in the next 5 years.
Steve Holt
Guest
Hastings is a myth. Typical minnow basher, goes against the better teams and gets thumped. Also a massive ball hog.
Rod
Guest
They will be up near the top of the ladder that's for sure
MAX
Guest
One of Rugby Leagues' great tragedies is that the man who can make words dance and breath life and humour into any topic is an Easts man. So is Muzz. Ah, well, nobody's perfect . Dane,your team may have peaked too early. That is your biggest problem. On the plus side the way the whole team is hunting is bloody scary. Beware of the horse and rider at your rear window. If this be your season of opportunity and need it may be appropriate to spare a thought for the teams yet to fly the premiership pennant. That rider at your rear window is wearing headgear to protect the best brain in the game and the whistlers love him.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
Is the window ajar, shut or deadlocked....... At this stage you would think it was ajar, but it's blowing in the breeze....And If the breeze gets any stronger.........
Mark
Guest
If the club wanted to keep Maloney they would have, in saying that Hastings will take time to develop and will take most likely a season to get there. The core of the team is intact and has arguably the best pack in the comp, they will miss RTS but have options in the future with Latrell Mitchell who by all reports will be better than RTS. It takes more than a good team to win a comp as injuries, desire and luck play their part.
Pravin Chanmugam
Roar Rookie
Hastings and Burgess will be ever so vital next year. I think Hastings is better suited in defence and Burgess will provide a big hard running winger.
Dan
Guest
Hastings is an absolute gun I don't think they will struggle next year that's for sure -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
The big clubs seems to be able to reinvent themselves pretty quickly. They still have a good core of players, it's just ensuring that those next in line blokes are the answer, or else they will be out to market pretty quick.
Rod
Guest
I think they will be rudderless with out Maloney, Jennings is not a creator and neither is Pearce. Whilst that backline is impressive, will young Hastings be the answer to that?
Benny
Guest
I actually don't think it's closing. I agree that it will be much harder to win next year but they will still have one of, if not the best side in the comp imo. They will still have the likes of ferguson, skd, jennings, hastings and pearce in the backline and they have a young forward back, particularly the forwards off the bench. Nevertheless, if it does close, it won't be for long as it won't take more than a couple of years for hastings and mitchell, the replacements for rts and maloney, to fill the gaps nicely.