Sydney Roosters Head Coach Trent Robinson has relayed his belief in his squad ahead of their clash with the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Tricolours mentor will celebrate the anniversary of his first Premiership at the Roosters this week and backs Daniel Tupou and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves to step up to the challenge against the Sea Eagles 10 years on.
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Despite the Roosters loss to the Broncos last week, Robinson was confident in his side’s ability to return to the winner’s circle and backed his belief in the team with the final rounds remaining.
“There's always the clarity that you get after those games as well, about what you need to do,” he said.
“That’s no different to what happened last week, we have that belief in what we need to do tomorrow night and we need to go out and do it, it's pretty simple.
“I think Teddy spoke about it at the start of the week. We want to play the footy that deserves to honour the way that we want to play and it's going to make a difference towards the end of the year.
“It's really important to us about how we play and how we want to go about the game, it's not much use looking too much further down the track, but we also know the importance of tomorrow night.
“There’s not much use hiding from that, we were pretty clear on what we need to do and the way that you play decides the result, so we’re really focused on how we want to play and the improvements we want to make.
“We know what we’ve got in the team and what we’re capable of and it’s pretty simple, we’ve got to go out there and do it tomorrow.”
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After falling painfully short to the Sea Eagles in the first week of July, Robinson recognises that Thursday’s clash will be a challenge, but knows the team are excited to be back on hallowed ground.
“The mindset is always to start fast and nail your game plan right from the beginning and then seek opportunities throughout the game as to what to exploit,” he said.
“We only played them something like three weeks ago, so it's only recent memory for us our game over there. We know our position but it's about finding our best version of ourselves to play that tomorrow night.
“Love playing here [at the SCG] … the old ground, it’s got so much memory for rugby league and Cricket and AFL now. We love coming back here in the old dressing rooms, there’s lots of good memories.
With Egan Butcher ruled out from Round 23 after sustaining a concussion against the Broncos, Robinson has named Siua Wong to start in the second row for the first time.
“We want to keep developing him, keep giving him the tools but also he's gonna have to learn on the run.
“This will be his first starting opportunity, so yeah, they're all good progressions for a young football player.
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“He's started many games in his career right through the grades, but first NRL starting game is a real highlight for young players.
“It's just giving him belief about what he can do and the role that he's going to take on tomorrow night, I’m just looking forward to getting him out there, it's going to be a long career and getting him started on that next journey of starting is important.”
With members of the 2013 Premiership-winning playing squad in attendance for Thursday night’s clash, Robinson says he’s excited to catch up with some familiar faces and reflect on the Club’s 13th Premiership this week.
“It’s really good to celebrate that tomorrow and over the next couple of days with our Hall of Fame on Friday night,” he said.
“To see those guys still playing [Tupou and Waerea-Hargreaves], and guys that are coaching or playing overseas as well.
“It will be a special time for the current players to meet those players tomorrow night and then also celebrate that over the next couple of days, those were good memories.”