This week, Taking it One Week at a Time asks whether Trent Robinson is just winging it at the Roosters, looks at the strong spine being cultivated in Queensland, and speculates on Robbie Farah’s influence on retaining Tiger cubs.
Hen-pecked Robinson in a fowl mood
Another game, another loss for the Sydney Roosters, this time against a Manly side playing well below their best. While the manner of a Roosters defeat is subject to change on a weekly basis, the laundry list of excuses to justify their poor performance remains the same.
Too many injuries, too much inexperience, too little time to work on combinations. Coach Trent Robinson and his men are given another free pass from the media, and we are once again expected to accept that their putrid start to the season is the result of a roster under extreme duress.
Yes, their roster is thinner than the premise of a Liam Neeson revenge thriller, but the cupboard is far from bare. To provide some context, let’s compare the beleaguered Roosters’ playing roster to that of the Gold Coast Titans’, which was tipped for the wooden spoon.
Despite the ravages of injury and suspension, the squad wearing the tricolours on Saturday evening still boasted six representative players with 40 caps for Queensland, New South Wales, Australia and New Zealand. In contrast, the Titans have only three current or former representative players in their team.
The Roosters are burdened by inexperience in the halves, yet the Titans seem to get along just fine with untested Ashley Taylor and untalented Tyrone Roberts. The Chooks watched on helplessly as multiple high-profile superstars left for other clubs, but the Titans also farewelled their three most talented and influential players in Nate Myles, James Roberts and Aidan Sezer.
But while Titans coach Neil Henry once again turned water into wine in the nation’s capital with his defeat of the more fancied Canberra Raiders, his more credentialled colleague continues to search for ways to resurrect the Roosters’ season.
I appreciate that Robinson has earned significant coaching caché for leading the Roosters to three consecutive minor premierships. But the roster handed to him on arrival at Bondi was the envy of every club in the NRL. I liken it to the squad captained by Steve Waugh, where his hardest decision for a day’s play was how he was going to equally share the wickets between Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. So my question is: have we overestimated Robinson?
How do we rate him as a coach? Do we keep him poised on his lofty pedestal based on his early returns, or do we grade him on how he has managed his first bitter taste of adversity?
I firmly believe that Robinson has underachieved during his tenure as Roosters coach. With the absurd combination of talented players and club resources at his disposal, the club would have expected him to feature in more than one premiership decider. The manner in which he handles the remainder of the season will give Roosters fans a true indication of what their coach is made of.
While his job will certainly not be in jeopardy regardless of how far the Roosters plummet down the ladder this season, Robinson may find himself removed from the media’s protected species list reserved for the upper echelon of coaches.
Queensland have spine on tap
Friday night at Suncorp Stadium was a stunning exhibition of rugby league. More than 45,000 rabid Queenslanders foamed at the mouth as the Cowboys and Broncos traded blows in a thrilling grand final rematch.
Brisbane walked away with the all-important competition points, but as I watched Michael Morgan and Anthony Milford repeatedly have their way with the opposition defence, I felt a slight lurch in the pit of my stomach.
As a proud New South Welshman, I have watched on in muted horror as the Cane Toads dominated State of Origin football for more than a decade. As painful and as soul destroying as this has been to witness, NSW fans have taken solace in the knowledge that the likes of Cameron Smith, Johnathan Thurston, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater couldn’t play forever.
On that magical day, when Smith and Slater don matching Fox Sports blazers instead of maroon jumpers, NSW will rise again! Or will they?
Watching the outstanding talent blossoming across the NRL on a weekly basis, my blue blood runs cold when I read that most of these prodigious youngsters hail from north of the Tweed. What’s even worse, the majority of them seem to play in one of the four crucial positions that make up the rugby league spine. With much trepidation, One Week has braved a closer look at the new axis of evil Queensland has in store for Blues supporters:
Fullback
No Billy Slater? No problem. Melbourne utility Cameron Munster has more than capably filled Billy’s shoes at club level, and would slide comfortably into a Maroon jersey. Queensland officials are also said to be closely monitoring the progress of the Roosters’ custodian Latrell Mitchell. The budding superstar hails from Kempsey, the same NSW mid-north coast township (and little known Queensland outpost) as Greg Inglis.
Hooker
Roosters captain Jake Friend has been earmarked as Cameron Smith’s eventual replacement for a few seasons. Despite a chequered history and more tattoos than Smith has hair follicles, his strong club form and improved leadership capabilities will minimise the seismic impact of Smith’s imminent retirement. Broncos dummy half Andrew McCullough is also in the mix.
Five-eighth
This is where things start to get embarrassing. Friday night’s epic encounter was a showcase of the sublime skills and big game abilities of Michael Morgan and Anthony Milford. Each is enjoying a rich vein of form, and if Origin selection was based purely on form, both would be selected ahead of future immortal Thurston.
Halfback
This is the nail in the coffin. Manly’s out of form superstar Daly Cherry-Evans heads the list of worthy contenders for Cooper Cronk’s coveted No.7 jersey, with Ben Hunt gaining ground on him with each performance. Bulldogs youngster Moses Mbye is improving with obscene rapidity, and rookies Kane Elgey and Ashley Taylor are potential superstars. Heck, even Luke Keary comes from Ipswich!
So just when you thought it was safe to rummage through the bottom of your cupboard and dust off your Blues jumper, think again. If you listen very closely, you can almost hear the faint cry of Billy Moore floating on the breeze… QUEENSLANDER!!
Crouching Tiger: Put your gag in
The Wests Tigers will have you believe all is well between coach Jason Taylor and former captain Robbie Farah. In the aftermath of their off-season skirmish, the two men were reported to have hugged it out. Water under the bridge. Nothing a couple of schooners wouldn’t fix.
But does anyone actually believe this? By all reports, Farah is a very proud man. The aspersions cast on his character will have left wounds unlikely to heal any time soon. He was painted as a toxic locker-room cancer, responsible for the removal of two coaches, and looking to scratch a third notch on his bedpost. Farah will need more than a scoop of Napisan to remove the stains to his reputation.
Of concern to the Tigers is how the ill-feeling between Farah and Taylor could damage the future of their playing roster. Farah exerts significant influence among the young tiger cubs.
James Tedesco has even been known to put down his PlayStation controller for long enough to catch the end of yet another of Farah’s retellings of the 2005 grand final victory. So with Luke Brooks and Mitchell Moses still weighing up whether to chase their fortunes elsewhere, Tigers officials will be as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
Farah could certainly take the high road, put personal differences aside and steer the kids towards re-signing with the joint venture. Convince them that they have something special building, and expound on the virtues of retiring a one-club player.
Or, he could choose the much-fantasised-about path of scorned employees. Torch his boss, convince Brooks and Moses that Jason Taylor will never lead them to a premiership, and start filling their heads with stories about the crazy sums of money they might fetch on the open market.
Robbie has publicly stated that he will remain uninvolved in the contract negotiations, but he also said that he fully supported Mick Potter. We all know how well that ended.
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