‘Have to be honest’: Robbo’s blunt assessment of Roosters’ season after brutal finish
Robbo #Robbo
Roosters coach Trent Robinson said it would be easy to sweep his side’s shortcomings this season under the rug given they made it to the second week of finals.
But he won’t.
Robinson emphasised if his side wants to win premierships they must be honest with themselves and he admitted the cold truth is they weren’t up to scratch in 2023.
The Tricolours’ season ended on Friday night with a last-minute semi-final loss to the Storm after starting the year as premireship favourites.
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The Roosters started the season with the most talented roster in the NRL and were widely tipped to feature on grand final day.
But their campaign proved a slog from start to finish and they only made finals by winning their final five games of the season.
Robinson’s Roosters recovered from 14th on the ladder after Round 22 to scrape into the top eight after other results fell their way.
The three-time premiership winning coach was asked if his side had proved the critics wrong by going within one try of the preliminary final.
“They just got their maths wrong, that’s all. We weren’t good enough this season,” Robinson said.
“Some of the opinions were harsh this year but we weren’t good enough, we weren’t happy with where we were at.
“We didn’t play well enough at different points at the start of the season and the middle of the season and we needed to be better.
“For me it’s nice to pump up the end and cover that other stuff over but it’s not true, if we want to be the best we can possibly be we have to be honest with how we started the season.”
Roosters coach Trent Robinson and captain James Tedesco on Friday night.Source: Getty Images
Robinson did have a message for the critics who wrote off the Roosters after they were pumped by the Broncos in Round 22.
“People also just have to be careful about writing us off too soon,” he said.
“We are a good club, we do have star players, but we have a really good soul about us as well and we will keep coming and keep fighting and play a really tough brand of footy.
“We should have been better. People were writing things quite early about how we were and why we were.
“We knew we weren’t at the level… but we talked about it and just said let’s keep going and keep working at it and I love how we stuck together and got rewarded at the back end of the season and almost, almost made it another week.”
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The Storm were gifted a crucial try to Marion Seve in the 26th minute after it came off the back of a missed knock-on from Harry Grant at the other end of the field in a huge swing.
The incident in the 25th minute with the Storm leading 6-0 saw Grant try to defuse a bomb from the Roosters on his line, but he looked to knock-on before he regathered the ball.
However, referee Ashley Klein ruled play on and the Storm were gifted a penalty that saw them go the length of the field and score through Seve to make it 10-0.
“It was pretty clear it was dropped, it was right there, it hit the ground, what can you do. It was an error then they went down the other end and scored,” Robinson said.
“We should have stopped that but it would have been a try-scoring opportunity to us 10 metres out from the line and in finals games they’re always critical.Key moments are critical for both sides and the referee and you’ve got to nail them.”
However Robinson refused to use it as an excuse for the loss.
“To be honest, like being really clear, we don’t expect 50-50s. It’s not the way it has gone statistically in the competition (our way), so we don’t expect them,” Robinson said.
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“That’s not a big issue for us, we should have defended the play at the end of that, they shouldn’t have scored off the back of a penalty 10 metres off their own line, we should have been better than that. We should have finished the game and won the game. That’s the feeling, it’s a not a call here or there.”
Tedesco was asked for his take on the incident in the press conference.
“He just said he called it as he saw it but I was 30 metres away and I could see that he dropped it and he was right there,” Tedesco said.
“It’s hard when you can’t really have a conversation on the run when you’re at the back, you can’t really stop play and run up.
“I think it was pretty obvious and everyone saw it that he knocked on.”
“I was 30m away and i saw it!” | 09:27
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