I always have a particular match, trend, team, or player in mind to focus on heading into each round of the NRL season. This week, I’m looking into the changes the Sydney Roosters are trying to make on Saturday.
These are meant to be short and sharp articles to introduce the weekend, but they can sometimes become full features. If you like what you see, pass it on or sign up for a Premium membership for only $5 a month to have The Short Dropout delivered straight to your inbox every week.
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Rugby League podcasts can be hit-and-miss sometimes. I don’t have too many on my rotation at any one time. However, Jam & Cheese with James Graham and Brandon Smith is one that I’ll get to on a Wednesday to review the round.
Graham is close enough retired that he still has a good feel for what’s going on out on the field while Smith is still running around out there, and his lack of media experience provides us with some little pieces of gold.
He let out early in the episode that the Melbourne Storm intend on resting players for Round 26—not 27. Later, he alluded to minor differences between how the Melbourne Storm and Sydney Roosters defensive systems treat the inside shoulder—hopefully, more on that in a few weeks.
But his disucssion around the Sydney Roosters’ loss to the Melbourne Storm in Round 20 is what draws my attention to the Roosters in Round 21.
On the 24-8 defeat at the hands of the Storm last week:
“We tried to finesse our way around the game early on and tried to pull them apart too early. We didn’t respect their defence a lot.”
While they’re constantly one of the most dangerous—if not best—teams in the NRL, their record against the Storm and Panthers is poor.
Asked if they need to tweak how they play or get better at what they’re doing now if they’re to consistently beat the top teams in the NRL:
“Over the camp we just had, we had a breakthrough on how we wanted to play, and we went out there and did exactly the opposite. Sometimes you have a plan and we didn’t exectue the plan. We missed the mark completely.
That’s not how we wanted to play against them. We wanted to go tit for tat with them, try to grind them out, but we ended up losing too much ball.”
The Roosters lead the way in many attacking categories. They’ve worked things out between Luke Keary and Sam Walker, Brandon Smith has found some form, James Tedesco is still a top-three fullback in the NRL, the outside backs can beat anybody, and the forward pack consistently gets the team up the field.
They are good enough on genuine talent alone to beat most teams in the NRL.
So, what will that breakthrough on how the Roosters want to play look like?
The Roosters have always been a high-risk/high-reward team. They won NRL premierships with the worst completion rates in the competition. But the game is changing. The Panthers have led the NRL in possession in three of their four Grand Final-making seasons and are second again in this one.
There is a bit more patience to the game in attack at the moment. We see it in kick-chase plans and more teams being prepared to run it on the last. “The grind” is mentioned more often and the early exchanges can define a full game. It’s there, in the early grind, that I think we’re going to see the Roosters front-load their energy through the middle before opening up once there is fatigue in the game.
Angus Crichton is in career-best form and dominating on the edges. He’s primed for early touches if the Roosters look to keep the ball within the tramlines. Punch him at a half and take the momentum around halfway. They won’t shy away from a shortside opportunity, but the first thought might be to play back to the middle (probably through James Tedesco) for a strong kick to the corner.
Closer to the line, he’s the trigger for a long shift.
You can see what he does to the spacing around the ruck by standing in the tackle in this example, and he brings the four-man inside the posts which is a great look for any attacking team on the edges.
With the defensive line stretched out wide following the Crichton carry, Walker is able to skip across the field to engage the four-man and create the indecision and overlap out wide.
Spencer Leniu, who is named to start, plays into a more narrow approach early, too. He only knows one way—straight up the guts. He’s no threat of moving the ball into wider areas where the Roosters can come unstuck. Again, Keary, Walker, Brandon Smith and Connor Watson won’t turn away an opportunity to play on the back of a strong carry, but the first thought is to play up the field for possession and field position.
Against the Sea Eagles this week, a team that will shift the ball from anywhere and play to the edges, is the perfect test for the Roosters as they look to nail down an adjusted approach. The possibly contrasting styles make for an entertaining game between two teams fighting for a Top 4 spot on the NRL ladder.
I’ll be watching closely, looking for any noticeable changes to their system. It might be something simple as a tweak to their yardage sets and kick plan. Roosters faithful, message through anything you notice and check back in on Monday for my thoughts.