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Seven talking points from Sydney Roosters vs South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL preliminary final

23rd September, 2018
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23rd September, 2018
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The Sydney Roosters have booked their place in the NRL grand final alongside the Melbourne Storm after beating the South Sydney Rabbitohs by eight points in the second preliminary final at a packed Allianz Stadium last night. Here are my talking points from the game.

No Latrell, no worries. Enter Joseph Manu
There were two obvious problems the Roosters had to address coming into this game before they could even think about winning it.

The first, after he failed to beat a charge at the judiciary was how to replace Latrell Mitchell. Luckily, goalkicking didn’t matter, but Paul Momorovski did a fantastic job. It’s almost a shame he won’t get an opportunity on the biggest stage of them all as the New South Wales representative returns.

The second question, maybe more importantly, was how to shut down Greg Inglis and the Rabbitohs left edge, which has been dangerous all season, but faltered against the Dragons last week.

Whatever the Dragons did to them, the Roosters did it better, and Joseph Manu stopping Greg Inglis just about everytime he touched the footy was a big part of the reason why.

Manu, maybe hidden by the achievements of Mitchell has been an underrated player for the Roosters this year and it’s clear to see his career has come on in leaps and bounds.

He was solid in attack with limited opportunities, but it’s his defence where he came of age last night under the pump, taking on one of the most powerful players in the game.

What happened to Damien Cook?
If the Rabbitohs performance could be summed up, it was in the performance of Damien Cook, who had an absolute howler after a fantastic season.

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Whether it was knockout nerves, fatigue, or something else is impossible to tell, but he didn’t look himself anywhere between the first and the 80th minute.

He only really got into gear during the second half last week, but without the Rabbitohs forwards dominating, he had time taken away from him and struggled to make anything happen for the Bunnies danger men.

It was a problem with has plagued South Sydney for their final 160 minutes of the season, and goes again to show Cook still has lots ot improve on. Whereas Cameron Smith doesn’t need a forward pack to dominate, Cook clearly does.

Despite his fantastic season, this will leave a sour taste in the mouth.

Another pre-season of learning how to control things will do him the world of good, but when it counted last night, Damien Cook came up short. Very, very short.

If Slater is suspended, then Jake Friend should kiss the grand final goodbye as well
As we all know by now, Billy Slater will be headed to the judiciary on Tuesday night to try and get his Grade 1 shoulder charge overturned.

If the NRL stick to the letter of the law, it would appear he has almost no chance and will sit out the grand final as a result – not the right way for a star like Slater to end his career, but rules are rules.

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The problem now is that the NRL will also have to act on Jake Friend, who was pinged for a dangerous throw tackle last night.

It was a pretty ugly incident early in the first half with Greg Inglis ending up well above the horizontal. There was really no defence for Friend either, who was third man in with Inglis standing in the tackle.

The decision could come back either way, but you feel it has to be the same as Slater’s – whether that be a suspension or a let-off.

It’s going to smack of something if they come back opposites because both should attract Grade 1 charges, as Slater’s already has.

Bravo to the Roosters defence, but they will need a lot more to beat the Storm
While it has to be acknowledged the Rabbitohs didn’t throw a heap at them across the 80 minutes, the Roosters defence was part of the reason why.

They were quick off their line, slid well on the edges and applied the pressure all night long, ensuring the Rabbitohs had time and space taken away from them to create anything of substance.

It’s clear they are going to need a similar performance on that end of the park next week whether Slater is there or not, but they are going to need major improvement on attack if they are to beat Melbourne.

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We will talk about Cooper Cronk’s role in this shortly, but essentially, they need to be near-on perfect to beat the Storm in a decider. Melbourne have the experience, the talent and skills to get it done against anyone in the competition.

The Roosters weren’t good in attack last night, and while they have been at times this season, it’s been inconsistent and clunky.

Sure, they won the minor premiership, but their attack has to match the level of their defence from last night.

What they showed against South Sydney won’t win them a premiership if the Storm are anywhere near their best next Sunday.

It’s going to be down to their forwards matching it up the middle, creating pressure, and their outside backs seizing every opportunity presented to them.

If they can do all of that, they will be more than a chance at living up to pre-season expectations of a premiership.

The Rabbitohs kicking game wasn’t good enough
Many of the issues which plagued the Rabbitohs last week in their weak first-half showing against the Dragons came back to haunt them against the Roosters.

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This is a side who have spent most of the second half on cruise control, but if you stretch the mind back to their two losses against the Raiders and Broncos, or earlier in the season when they weren’t quite the team they ended up being, it’s hard to say they have done well getting themselves out of tough situations, which they found themselves in last night.

While the halves might not even be there if the forwards aren’t dominating, they were in the game enough last night for Adam Reynolds and Cody Walker to do a much better job than they ended up doing.

The Bunnies struggled to build any momentum of fluency in their attack, and a lot of that was down to the sloppiness of their creatives.

Of course, they didn’t even get to their kick at times for it to be a problem, but when they did, the pressure simply wasn’t put on the Roosters, who defended well, but didn’t have a whole lot thrown at them.

In the end, the Rabbitohs go out with one try from their last 160 minutes of footy. Anyone thinking the loss in Melbourne didn’t have an adverse effect on them both mentally and physically is kidding themselves.

Cooper Cronk needs to be 100 per cent fit
It was a warrior-like performance from Cronk to get through the 80 minutes last night, basically playing with one arm during the second half.

The fact he stayed on the field and kept fighting is a true testament to his character, but he will need to be 100 per cent fit for the Roosters to challenge the Storm next week.

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Sure, they have Luke Keary and James Tedesco, but Cronk has been the glue which has brought them together during the second half of the season.

Put him on the shelf and they lose the control, the kicking game, the patience and more importantly, a mountain of experience.

Also, can we stop calling this thing a big dance?
Short one to finish off. I’ve been guilty of it, we all have at one point or another.

However, from this day forward, I vow to never again call the grand final the big dance.

This is the biggest footy game of the year, not the ending of that movie Footloose or the school disco, nor are we heading to a nightclub.

May it be a cracker, may the best side win and may this season get the ending it deserves.

Roarers, what did you make of the game? Drop a comment below and let us know.

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