‘Not playing good enough’: Robbo’s brutal ‘four year’ Roosters admission as changes forecast

Roosters coach Trent Robinson has admitted his team’s game style hasn’t been “good enough over the past four years”, forcing a much-needed shake up.

The Roosters struggled to get their attack going for much of 2023, before going on an impressive run late to reach the finals.

Despite a last minute loss to Melbourne in the semis, Robinson believed there was much to improve over the off-season.

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Speaking on NRL 360, Robinson said the Roosters have “modernised” their game style to suit the spine members including halfback Sam Walker and hooker Brandon Smith.

“We were a bit unstable in the first half of the year for different reasons and that was on us, so we needed to rectify that and there are some things that are stabilised there.” Robinson said.

“A couple of other things were our game style needed to be modernised a bit so we needed to wake up a bit.

“At the end of the year we had a good look at the way our spine was playing, having Brandon coming in, Sammy coming in, around Luke (Keary) and James (Tedesco) we had to adapt to them a little bit more. That needed a good look from coaching staff and we’ve done that.

“It’s been good through pre-season, we had a good start in the trial and now it’s time to lay it on the line so we should show improvement there.”

When NRL 360 co-host Paul Kent asked if that was the glaring issue that needed to be fixed, Robinson said it was in addition to keeping players healthy.

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“I thought we had a really good team but we haven’t been playing a good enough style of footy over the past four years, pretty simply for different reasons and we’ve had high injury rates,” the three-time premiership winning coach said.

“It’s not as black and white as that. It’s not going to be a radical change but it shifts towards the players who are going to be stable in that spine for a few years.

“It’s still going to look like Roosters style, but there are going to be additions that we think are a little bit more modern.”

Keary’s form was mixed throughout the season, especially when Sam Walker was out of the side.

Walker was axed from the first grade side early in the season before a knee injury sidelined the talented half for a couple of months.

When he returned late in the year, he and Keary’s combination had vastly improved.

Keary, who signed a one-year extension with the club earlier in the week, believes the change in game style is something the Roosters needed to stop letting “the game go past them”.

“It’s been good. Since I came to the Roosters in 2017, there’s been a certain style that we played. We played it with Pearcey (Mitch Pearce), we adjusted it a little bit for Cooper (Cronk) but there’s been a certain style that we played with,” Keary said.

“The game has kind of moved and shifted and we identified that it kind of went past us. It’s not an obvious thing that you’ll just see off the bat, but we’ve shifted our mentality around how we want to play the game.”

Kent didn’t hold back in his view on why the Roosters took an age to show their best in 2023.

That problem, in turn, limited the impact of the Tricolours skipper.

“I think they struggled in the halves. They were schizophrenic in the halves. They were trying to play a game that I don’t think was comfortable for either Luke Keary or Sam Walker. Young Sandon Smith did come in and I thought he was very, very good,” Kent said.

“They just didn’t click in that area. They didn’t gel and didn’t play the way the Roosters like to play, and I think that’s why James Tedesco didn’t have one of his best seasons last year because he had uncertainty from the halves.”

The Roosters kick off their 2024 campaign against the Brisbane Broncos on Sunday (AEDT) in the second game of the historic season opening double header in Las Vegas.