Roosters five-eighth Luke Keary has insisted his side are “confident” ahead of their preliminary final with the Storm, believing their key to victory lies in their forward pack.
Speaking to Tuesday night’s NRL 360 panel, the diminutive No.6, who is preparing for potentially his final Roosters game this Friday, stressed the importance of his side “getting in the grind” with their hosts.
“They are a tough footy side. We’ve got to match it with them physically, especially at the start,” he said.
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Keary revealed his side learnt several key lessons during their loss to Penrith, with Trent Robinson’s side failing to nail the fundamentals in that game, notably during the start of the first half.
“We went down to Penrith, we had a lot of confidence in what we’d done all year. We just didn’t put it on the park,” he said.
“We had a lot of errors at the start of the game, we gave a lot of penalties away (and) when you give Penrith that amount of possession it’s a very very difficult game.”
After 20 minutes of that match a fortnight ago the Roosters had allowed Penrith to run for 350 more metres than them, conceded a sole penalty, given away two set restarts and made another two errors.
During this period the Panthers capitalised on their 72% possession and 78% of the territory to score three times – with Luke Garner scoring a fourth in the 22nd minute – to take the game away from the Roosters before the halftime whistle sounded.
While disappointed by the outcome, Keary noted the loss taught his side a “lesson,” one which carried them through their win over Manly and could potentially help achieve the same outcome against Craig Bellamy’s side.
The three-time premiership winner insisted his side have “got to be disciplined, which we weren’t against Penrith, and we’ve got to hold the ball coming out of our own end.”
Key to any Roosters victory will be the club’s forward pack, spearheaded by departing prop Jared Waerea-Hargeaves, who’s intensity was there for all to see on his return from suspension against the Sea Eagles.
In 37 minutes, JWH ran for 92 metres, 34 of those coming post contact, and made 19 tackles in a stint that set the tone for the rest of his pack to continue on with, notably bench forwards Spencer Leniu (76 metres, 15 tackles) andTerrell May (116 metres, 17 tackles).
“He came back at the start of the week, he was jumping out of his skin. He gives us so much energy at training and then on the field you see what his presence did for us,” Keary said of his middle forward enforcer.
Not only will the Roosters need to overcome the minor premiers on Friday night, but also their poor record against Melbourne, who they’ve beaten just once since 2020.
Asked by Fox League’s Paul Crawley how his side can overcome that hoodoo, Keary jokingly asked if Crawley’s “got any ideas,” before admitting there’s nothing his side can do to change the past and so they must focus on being at their “very best” this weekend.
“We’re not disillusioned here. We have to be at our very best, the best we’ve played all year, to go down there and beat Melbourne in a preliminary final,” he said.
“It’s going to be a steep challenge but we’re up for it. We’re ready.
“We turned up in October (pre season) last year to turn up for games like this.
Should the Roosters beat Melbourne and book their place in their first grand final since 2019, it would increase their chances of sending their departing core of stars – Keary, JWH, Joey Manu, Sitili Tupouniua and Joseph Sua’ali’i – out on a high.
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And while externally a lot of focus is on who the Bondi club are losing this year, and the chance to send them off in a Last Dance-esque blaze of glory, Keary revealed that reality hasn’t been too heavily focused on internally.
“For myself and Jared we don’t really want it to be brought up. We don’t need that extra motivation.
“We as a group are very hungry.
“This is what we’ve been waiting for.”
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