Rooster's efforts in the past few weeks..

Only 3 weeks ago, Phil Gould came on the Sunday Roast and stated that the Sydney Roosters were simply not trying – not putting any effort in. Looking at the last 3 games played – against the Sea Eagles, Titans and Cowboys, I think it is fair to say that they have responded to these accusations.  Despite losing all three games, many positives can be taken out of each one; and as each game ends, the losing margin decreases and the Roosters come closer to winning their next game.

The last 2 times that the Roosters played at Manly, they lost by almost 100 points to nil.  However, this season they were in the game until the last 10 minutes.  They kept fighting back and despite losing by 20 points in the end, the score line was not reflective of the closeness of the game. 

Against the Titans, the Roosters were down 18 – 6 at half time and thanks to a fantastic try to the Roosters local junior Tom Symmonds, with 3 minutes remaining the Roosters were in the lead.  However, a beautiful cut out pass by Prince and a freakish effort to stay in the field of play by winger Chris Walker in the final 2 minutes of the game stole the 2 competition points from the Roosters.

Two tries in their opening 2 sets of 6 by the Roosters say them winning 10 – 0 10 minutes into their game against the Cowboys on Saturday night.  However, some terrible goal line defense saw the home side take the lead coming into half time.  With 2 minutes remaining and the score at 24 – 22, the Roosters were unable to secure a win and recorded their 6^th consecutive loss of the season. However, there is no doubt that the effort was there.  It was little things that let them down like their goal line defense, inaccuracy of their kicking game and hospital passes.  Also, their goal line defence was something to be concearned about.

The Roosters are missing many players such as Mason, O’mealy, J Aubo and Minichiello however even with these players I think the result would have been the same.  It will be interesting to see how the roosters go in their next game as they will be missing their key play maker Braith Anasta who was forced off the field with an ankle injury.  Shaun Kenny Dowall is the man to watch under the high ball, him and Ben Jones have created a fantastic partnership down the left hand side.

The young players in the side such as Jones, Pearce, Cherrington and Symmonds are players of the future.  However the Roosters coaching staff much coach these players as individuals in order to ensure that they become beneficial to the team and bring the club back to its form which saw them play 3 grand finals in a row.

It should be pointed out that the Roosters lost their last two games because of mis – kicks by Craig Fitzgibbon…it will be interesting to see who will replace him in his goal kicking duties after he leaves for England in 2010.