Extending Robinson's contract is a bad move for the Roosters

I read with great interest last week that the Roosters have extended coach Trent Robinson’s contract for an additional two years on top of his current contract, meaning he will now coach the side until the end of the 2019 season.

This is something that I, as a fan of the Roosters, am a little uncomfortable with and I fail to see any rhyme or reason for the club doing so.

State of Origin Game 2 teams
» QLD: Myles out, Lillyman in
» Roar’s Reaction: Maroons
» NSW: Graham in, but faces ban
» Roar’s Reaction: Blues

If the Roosters were playing well and delivering results on the field then, fair enough, I could understand why they might want to hang on to a good thing and do all within their powers to retain the services of the one person perceivably responsible for that success – the coach.

However, they are going worse than bad and, with the roster they have (even sans the talent on the sidelines through injury and suspension) it’s only fair that the attention be turned to Robinson, and to ask why the more-than-capable starting side on any given week are playing way below their potential?

On paper, Robinson has an impressive record to boast of, given his relatively short time as a head coach in the NRL.

In 2013 he took the club all the way to a grand final and they took the honours there and capped off a remarkable season, one whereby the return of Sonny-Bill Williams to the NRL brought much hype and intrigue to the club, as well as the overall game.

And while I’m grateful for the Roosters taking out the premiership that year, I’m under no illusion that Robinson was ultimately responsible for that happening. SBW’s re-emergence had a euphoric affect on the squad that year and it was glaringly obvious that the rest of the team were in awe of him and were thrilled to bits to be playing alongside him. His presence boosted the team and they were galvanised by it.

They played as a team and their demeanour suggested they were a team in perfect harmony with one another. Quite simply, they were a joy to watch and their enthusiasm was infectious. 2013 was a stellar year to be a Roosters supporter.

2014 promised to be a continuance of that unparalleled form the Roosters possessed the previous year and the dream of winning back-to-back premierships seemed entirely possible. After all, they had managed to retain SBW for another season and the team was relatively unchanged from that which won the premiership the previous year.

But alas, the players seemed to have lost the intensity that was ever present the year before and SBW was more or less a passenger the majority of the time and seemed content with what was achieved in 2013.

That they made it as far as they did (they were defeated by Souths in the preliminary final) was amazing, considering their largely inconsistent season and they failed to turn up for finals football – something which I believe to be the fault of the coach, more so than that of the players.

The season starts all over again in finals football and a good coach is one whom ensures that his charges are in the right headspace for the entirety of the finals series. Robinson failed to do that, and the Roosters resultantly fell short of the mark. It was disappointing to see them finish as Minor Premiers but with little else to show for it.

In 2015 the Roosters looked unstoppable near season’s end and fittingly took out the Minor Premiership the third consecutive year before once again falling at the final hurdle. They were bundled out of the finals by a Brisbane side that were far hungrier and yet another season ended with little to show for all their hard work.

Again, finals football is played at another level and the onus is on the coach to ensure that his team is playing at that level when the time comes. In my opinion, Robinson failed to do that and should have bore all responsibility for the disappointing end to 2015.

After two straight years of making it to the finals, only to be bundled out in the prelims, 2016 was always going to be interesting in terms of how the Roosters would turn up mentally. In addition to losing a host of top players to other clubs, suspensions came as a further and unwanted threat to their 2016 campaign and emergence of young and inexperienced talent meant that there were no guarantees as to how the Roosters would perform as a team this year.

As a supporter, I was banking on the coach to steer the ship through rough seas and to calmer waters. I’m still waiting.

The 2016 Roosters side are a joke. I can’t sugar coat things and there are, unfortunately, far worse words I could use to describe what I’ve witnessed from them this year. As much as I believe the players are not putting in, my better sense tells me that the coach is largely to blame for their diabolically poor performances.

Since taking the reigns in 2013, Robinson has failed to address the team’s poor discipline and there have been numerous games whereby the Roosters lost and the difference could be attributed to penalties given for poor discipline.

The Roosters lose many games on the back of a lopsided penalty count and will continue to suffer enormously unless that area of their game sees dramatic improvement.

Another factor of their game that is an obvious setback this year is their lack of direction and their inability to be where they need to be on the field at any given time. Time and again I’ve seen them penalised and/or disallowed tries due to the fact that they have no idea how to play within the obstruction rules. These are clearly factors that are indicative of a poorly coached team.

Among many other areas of their game that are in need of repair, the fifth-tackle option has got to be the biggest problem and one that any decent coach would have addressed by now.

A coach can’t be on the field with the players but a good coach is always there in his players heads and what he has instructed is always at the forefront of their minds when they’re on the field. I’m not seeing anything from the Roosters that suggests they have any semblance of faith in their coach.

So my next logical question is why? Why re-sign a coach who has lost the confidence of his players, bang smack in the middle of a season where his team sit second-last on the competition table?

I have no doubt that Trent Robinson is a good man (he seems very likeable and down-to-earth) and I’m sure that Nick Politis holds him in high esteem, otherwise his contract wouldn’t have been extended. But I am absolutely certain that the Roosters have made the worst decision by extending that contract at a time when there ought to be zero rewards for the poor performances from the Roosters this year.

And to those who make excuses for him and say things like, “Oh, they’re a team who haven’t know each other long, they’re inexperienced in the top grade.” Ask yourselves this: Would this team be second last on the ladder if they were coached by the likes of Bennett, Hassler, Bellamy etc?

If you answer honestly, you will be saying no.