good  one steve  
still im surprised we let zac woolford go  & didnt give him a chance in the top grade  he along with cleeland which i rate as a decent player who is off 2 queensland 
on cam munster for that tittle tap kick to manu back of the head should miss 1 game easily which isnt in the sprite of the game 

Martin may not have got MoM yesterday or last week but I doubt we win either without him on the field.

Real Captain's knock, both games. Whenever we were treading water it would be a Martin run that would get us moving again. He knew when we needed it and stepped up to it. This whole final series will do plenty for him. He'll come back into NRL next year thinking he's too good to ever play Reggies again, and he'll be right.

Melb saved their worst performance until last and Easts their best till last.

Credit to Easts forwards, they've been their weakest link all season, and really still are, but they played out of their skin especially that first 20 mins or so and that's where it was won. They just trampled Melb, didn't think they had it in them and I doubt they'd be able to do it two times in a row or even two times out of six, but they did it when it counted.

JWH especially, that was the best stint I've ever seen him play and that alone must have got him close to MoM.

Hard to take Easts being Premiers. But on the bright side - at least being the first team to go back to back in The NRL era is still there for us to do.

It's amazing what a little bit of HGH can do...

i say 2019 the roosters will be NRL top heavy weight favorites again next year 
they will have 3 wingers 2 battle it out  in tupou , b morris  ryan hall  1 will miss out 
then they will have cordiner & a criton as there 2nd rowers  ,with lui  ,auberson , nappa on the bench 
has any other team improved in player personnel  after a team wins the grand final instead of losing players they gain more 
i still say get rid of the salary cap its not working 

I still say Cordiner is overrated ...he and the Queensland razor blade man are not a touch on Josh Jackson

forgot 2 mention the roosters also signed newcastles no 6  in brock lamb  is there anymore players they want 2 sign yes forgot cam munster been said if coops cronk retires 
the 1 mill his on they will give cam munster a crack 

Chooks are the Chooks, they always try to buy a premiership and sometimes that formula works.

My only reflection is that playing an injured Cronk seemed to distract the Storm, I think they were in 2 minds as they like and respect the guy.
Except for Nelson who seemed overly eager to get at him and that lead to errors.

I would love to know what Bellamy's instructions were as I have it down as a coaching fail.

The correct instructions we ignore Cronk and play our game. Sooner to later he would be forced to make tackles, especially if the Storm had high completions, ran hard and  executed well.   

I agree with Zef that the Roosters forwards won, Cronk might have provided some inspiration, but again I have the Storm forwards down as a fail.

Our ISP game was a perfect example of how the Storm should have played, the opposition had the better of the first 30 minutes of the game, ran hard and were well organised. 
We hang in well and took out chances when they were presented. The first Cleeland try was great counter-punching, credit to all 3 players involved. 

You could view the premiership as more purchased than earned, but on the day the Roosters were better and the Storm dropped the ball. That is how it goes in sport, no 2nd chance on GF day.

Tony, scrapping the cap will only create a greater division between the clubs that are wealthy and the rest of the teams. The results of games would be so lop-sided that the fans will just turn off. At the moment only clubs that are masters of creative accounting (see 2018 premiers) have an advantage. The only way that the NRL will be able to battle this would be to further raise the salary cap (say $12M) and decree that TPA's are included in this figure, or alternatively set a cap discount against players that have been developed by a club and not imported. I am not against any player being paid what they think they are worth, hell we all work the same way with our jobs. What I am against is clubs that are able to lure the most valuable and experienced players, while pretending to adhere to the same restrictions imposed on the other clubs(again see 2018 premiers).

True... Nick Politis has very deep pockets....the only CEO who is also chief sponsor...his left hand knows what his right hand is doing hence his ability to legitimise the Rorters as far as salary cap goes but is there any fan across the other 15 clubs and indeed Rorters' fans themselves who believe it is legit. (I wonder how many Rorter's fans wore jerseys with the tags still attached in case they lost...they could then be returned today...now it is they can be true fans for a year)

I think that is why the Rooster club is always so desperate for results, they don't have confidence in their fans to hang around in the bad times.
Like call clubs there is a small core of dedicated fans, it is just smaller.

I'm more interested in what our club can do, starting with 2019.
A successful Dogs team playing attractive football will always draw big crowds and have good TV ratings.

Cronk with a busted shoulder

Ferguson with a broken leg



I’m already farking sick of these Rorters love stories the journo’s are putting out

Dylan Nappa low IQ?

You can't fake legitimacy.

2019 season our team i think will be a competitive as can be 
1  meany
2  crition
3  hopoate 
4   h niera
5 smith
6  lewis
7   foran 
8 toleman
9   brown / lichha/ j m king 
10 klemmer
11 jackson
12  f marniner
13 martin

res  
14  sue
15  faloalo
16  elliett
17  ogden / tooamanga  

i think its will be a competative side 

1   hopoate
2  crition
3  Holland 
4   h niera
5 smith
6  lewis
7   foran 
8 Jackson
9   lichha/ j m king 
10 klemmer
11 martin
12  f marniner
13 Elliott
res  
14  sue
15 odgen / tooamanga 
16  Tolman
17  j m king / Harper  

I've been thinking about it, this isn't set in concrete, but we want to start the season with an experienced side.
As the season progresses, we can draft in some young pups based on form.
I think we can be competitive, we just have to find a way of turning close losses into wins.

Boy's so dumb he thinks a Mexican border pays rent

In 2019.... I reckon it’ll be goodbye to Fualalo

Martin & Elliott will fight it out for a spot.... with the emergence of Renouf T & Ogden, both of them to fight it out for a spot on the bench


What will be interesting is where Pay plays RFM & CHN?

Pay clearly showed he wasn’t scared to change things up/blood players....


Segeyaro’s name keeps coming up..... interesting next few months ahead I reckon

Tony Ayoub.... maybe just the best signing, the finals series reaffirmed yet again.... Speed & Aggression across the park are 2 ingredients we need

He would have to be the most unintelligent footballer in the game. Dugan and Fifita are safe.....

This whole Cronk thing had me thinking...... if only Foran could deliver HALF of what Cronk has for the Rorters in season 2019..... we’ll surely then give the Top 8 a fair crack!


Just HALF!

I'm with HD and believe we will start the season with just about the closest side as what we finished with Crichton on Bmoz wing, someone on Jmoz's spot and Foran at half. 
CHN will take Eastwoods bench spot.

That's it. 
I personally feel Meany is behind Cerruto from what ive seen. Mason doesnt know how to get back behind the defensive line after he makes a fullbacks tackle but he can learn that from watching videos of Slater who was a master at it.

Meany seems to have more errors in his game and not sure about his body atm. 

I don't understand the doubts about Meaney, apart from being a rookie without much NRL experience, but then where's that put Cerruto? Everyone's got to start sometime.

He played 5 games for The Knights this year, the first three really well, including a near MoM against The Titans (in fact I think he might have got it?). Last two fell away a bit but so did The Knights too.

Stats are good - Try assists, tackle breaks, none wrong with that. Like to see a bit more metres but that depends on where he could get them I suppose. Decent defense, sure it needs more work but what rookie NRL player doesn't?

Don't know what's wrong with his body at 90k's at 21.Nobody will be rag-dolling him.

I don't get it.

He's as decent a prospect as plenty and better than many.

If he puts in during the off-season he gets the shot at the spot, what's wrong with that?

I really think Marki that if you can't have your Valentine Holmes then everybody else is sh.t.

I'll add too he got Knights players player v Cronulla when they got flogged. So two games out of his 5 he was if not the best Knight on ground at least he was in the top 3ish.

Just let the bloke lace on a boot for us before you write him off. You'll have plenty of time for that, plenty of time.

Listening to that Idiot Buzz Rothfield on NRL on Fox..... he sounds more & more like the Grandmother from the movie Nutty Professor

Anyone watched the after game presser with Steve Georgalis & Reece Martin yesterday?


Steve can not believe that Cleeland has not been given a shot at first grade.... he was pretty filthy


Steve Seems very passionate about his players & development, good guy to keep a hold of

Zef, for him to displace Hoppa, he either has to be better than Hoppa (I dont think he is - not right now) or he has to better than whoever else is to play fullback if hoppa is moved to centres.

Not saying he doesn't deserve a crack. Just saying the right thing to do IMO is start the season with the strongest team first up and I firmly believe Hoppa at fullback is just that. That means Meany has to bide him time. Him vs Cerruto is just my opinion. Probably a toss up but I have mason in front at this stage.

I watched it Villi, I guess Georgalis was saying Cleeland was unlucky as Frawley and Brown were in the top 30, he wasn't so we could pick him.
When a spot opened up we went with Lewis which turned out to be a good option.
I remember when Des went with Frawley over Cleeland, I thought that it was a mistake. But Frawley showed some promise for the first 2 games.
I understand the need for the top 30, otherwise the Bronco and Roosters reserve grade sides will be all rep players.
When you know that Cleeland lost 2-3 years due to a bad injury at a bad time and no insurance, it simply backs up what I have previously said, he is very unlucky not to to have played NRL, especially considering some of the duds that have.

Let the pre-season and trial form decide. Hoppa will be in the team, that's a given.

I think we’re all anticipating a great pre-season at Belmore


Pay will have no more/fewer distractions & excuses..... everyone needs to step up across the board = exciting times ahead

The problem with starting the year with the idea of the strongest team is that at the moment we have no "strongest" team. Pay is going to have to use the pre-season to figure out what combinations may work and go from there. Still exciting times ahead and I reckon we will have a few of the heavyweights worried by seasons end 2019.

While I agree, banking early wins is very important in a NRL season.
It is usually physically intense for the first 10 rounds, one to two young guys to add enthusiasm isn't a bad idea, but there is a lot to be said for having seasoned professionals.
For 2018 we trained all off season with Frawley at halfback and the players were odviously struggling to forget DesBall.
There is no negative overhang at the start of 2019, on the contrary we have something to build on.
I am backing Pay to mostly get it right.
I still don't think early season wins will be easy, but we can probably win enough games to stay right in the mix.
The young guys will then further improve the side as the season progresses.
I expect Meaney might be fullback by the end of the year, but let him earn the spot first.