Six talking points from Sydney Roosters vs South Sydney Rabbitohs qualifying final

The Sydney Roosters have made an emphatic statement about their standing in the NRL finals, hammering the South Sydney Rabbitohs by 24 points in the first qualifying final. Here are my talking points from the game.

South Sydney are going out in reverse
Straight sets. They are the two words which horrify every rugby league fan once their side finishes in the top four and then loses a qualifying final.

And fair enough as well. It’s hard to take. Your team has done well enough to make the top four, lose momentum, then run into some winner’s and fall down like they were never in the fight at all.

That, after last night, that is the fate smacking the Rabbitohs in the face, and what will follow them around this week like a bad smell.

I know I would have written the same thing last year after their loss to the Melbourne Storm in Melbourne, and it almost came true, only to be pushed into the third week by an understrength Dragons three Adam Reynolds field goals.

But here is the difference. Last year they could take momentum out of the finals loss in Melbourne, which was a close, hard-fought game.

This year, they can’t. The Rabbitohs performance was an abomination, and one they have been threatening to have, given the way they have played throughout the season, despite slipping into the top four.

They lose games at bad times, won in less than convincing circumstances during others, and since their Round 1 win over the Roosters, haven’t looked like a team who are going to challenge for the premiership.

Sam Burgess will be back, so that’s a help, but all South Sydney can really take out of last night is “hey, at least we won the second half,” and even then, it was only by a conversion against a clearly clocked off Roosters.

That’s not great for momentum, and nor is the way they have played all season. Playing at the soulless pit Homebush won’t give them any real advantage either.

Souths will be out in straight sets.

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Jake Friend shoudn’t come straight back into this Roosters side
This would have been a fairly unthinkable statement to make at the start of the season when Sam Verrills was a virtual unknown except for those who follow junior footy and reserve grade.

But right now, Jake Friend is not the best hooker at the Roosters. That honour belongs to the 11-game rookie Verrills, who has held his own at both ends of the park throughout the games he has played for the tri-colours this year.

In his first finals game at the top level, Verrills was close enough to perfect. He ran the ball seven times, making strong gains each time and looking dangerous, while he also had a try assist, a line break, and a line break assist, illustrating his danger with the ball.

There is talk Friend will be ready to go when the Roosters run out for their preliminary finals, likely to be against the loser of tonight’s game between the Storm and Raiders, but he just shouldn’t.

The attack Friend offers at this stage in his career is somewhat limited, and he has been a liability injury-wise.

There is also the thought process that Friend provides more in defence up the middle third, but that’s hardly proving true either, given Verrills was the Roosters top tackler with 46, missing just three in an 80-minute performance.

Maybe there is room for Friend on the bench, but the starting jumper is no longer his.

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Wayne Bennett got it wrong, but are the master coach’s days numbered?
It’s pretty rare a coach sits in a press conference and admits he got it wrong. But that’s exactly what Wayne Bennett did last night, saying his decision to swap Adam Doueihi and Alex Johnston around was a bad one.

And it showed throughout the game, with Souths absolutely getting torn up on the edges, particularly during the first half were the tri-colours were utterly dominant.

But, that’s just one part of the puzzle in talking Wayne Bennett. There is no denying he is one of, if not the greatest coach this game has ever seen, but he is getting on in age now and the game seems to be passing him by at big moments.

The Broncos were destroyed like nobody’s business in last year’s elimination final, the Rabbitohs destroyed last night, and to put it simply, Wayne Bennett-ball hasn’t really worked for a number of the years.

And if you need more evidence, Bennett’s finals record since the 2015 grand final now stands at two wins and five losses.

Let’s get one thing clear. He has still gotten Souths to the finals, but that’s on roster talent alone rather than game plan.

There won’t be calls for his head yet, but the ageing coach needs to prove he has still got it in the coming weeks.

(AAP Image/Dean Lewins)

When will Jared Waerea-Hargreaves learn?
Let’s paint the picture for you.

Eight minutes to go in the second half. The Roosters have the game in the bag. Heck, they could have intentionally taken two players off and still won with 11 on the park from the situation they were in.

And yet Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, the big front-rower who only just beat a trip to the judiciary for a high shot, and was so influential for the tri-colours throughout the contest, decides to stick a leg out and send James Roberts crashing to the turf.

While it’ll be interesting to see what the match review committee do at this point of the season, it was a fairly blatant bit of work from the prop, who made 171 metres in 16 runs during what was a barnstorming performance.

The bottom line is that, given his proper suspensions and indiscretions across the board, anything from the judiciary should come back negative, and if Waerea-Hargreaves is playing the preliminary final, there will be questions asked, and rightly so.

Maybe this time, the big prop will learn his lesson about not doing dumb things on the footy field.

Souths forwards don’t have what it takes to win the competition
If my first point does come out to be void – and it could, but it probably needs Manly to beat the Sharks this evening at Brookvale – then I’d make the call now that South Sydney’s forwards don’t have what it takes to go up against the best in the competition and succeed.

As I mentioned in the opener, the Rabbitohs do get Sam Burgess back for next week’s semi-final, whoever it may be against, but this is a side who have struggled against both Manly and Cronulla this season, and now need to pick themselves back up off the deck.

Burgess can only do so much, and he sure wouldn’t have made all that much of a difference last night.

It’s gotten to the point in the season where John Sutton looks like he has gone one too long, George and Thomas Burgess can’t be relied upon for consistent performances, and opposition teams have worked out players like Dean Britt, Tevita Tatola and Mark Nicholls, leaving the South Sydney bench almost useless at times.

And while I have just knocked Sutton, he was one of South Sydney’s best last night upfront, alongside Liam Knight, with the duo the only two players to clear a century of metres.

Even with only 43 per cent possession and a mountain of errors, those numbers are not good enough. The possession problem came about from their lack of intensity in the forwards, which then caused errors, with Souths players trying to overplay their hand at various points in catch-up footy.

Sure, the pack were better in the second half, but the only time they have matched the Roosters in the last fortnight was when the tri-colours were on cruise control.

That doesn’t exactly scream premiership-winning material.

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

James Tedesco is the best big-game player in the world
There is an argument that says Tedesco is the best player in the world, period. In fact, I’d argue he is, and have done for the last 12 months, but others, like Cameron Munster, do come into that discussion.

But when there is a big game, be it a final, must-win contest, State of Origin game or Test match, James Tedesco is the first player picked on every single day of the week.

While Tedesco’s worst Origin game to date has been better than some players best Origin performances, and his regular season was a fairly strong one, he was immense last night in helping the Roosters shred their arch-rivals.

The man known as Teddy came away with 222 metres from 18 runs, including almost 100 kick return metres to get sets off to strong starts, a try, seven tackle-breaks and an offload, to go with not missing a single tackle, or having one recorded as ineffective.

Even factoring in that he dropped the ball a few times, it was a standout performance, and if Trent Robinson’s side do become the first team to go back-to-back in two decades, Tedesco will be a huge part of the reason why.

Roarers, what did you make of the second qualifying final?