With two regular season rounds remaining, Sydney Roosters Coach Trent Robinson says the team are taking it game-by-game as the race to secure a spot in the top eight intensifies.
The Tricolours mentor welcomes Sam Walker back to the line-up this week, after the 21-year-old completed four months of rehabilitation for an ACL sprain.
Robinson: 'Our Mindset is Really Clear'
Robinson says the period on the sidelines allowed Walker to mature as a playmaker and take a step back from the game to refine his focus.
“Time off is often a good thing for players at a young age, usually it comes in an off-season, but for him it was four months in the middle of a season,” Robinson said.
“When you can take one or two steps back and observe, there is some growth that can happen and I feel like that's happened with Sam.
“I've seen it on the training paddock the last couple of weeks as well, that little bit of growth in him just by taking a step or two back observing and then coming back in.
“It wasn't ‘you need to improve your speed’ or ‘you need to improve your kicking’ it wasn't any of that, it was just the maturity as half in the game.
“Playing would be the ideal way to do that, but also taking a step back and observing is another way to do it, so therefore it wasn't a negative.
“The communication had to be really clear between Sam and I and it has been over the course of the four months.
“From my point of view, it's been really simple about developing, getting his rehab right with the physios and medical team and talking about footy at different times throughout that.”
Walker’s inclusion at halfback is one of two changes to the spine this week, with James Tedesco unavailable through concussion protocols, allowing Joseph Manu to step into the fullback role.
Robinson says that Tedesco is recovering well and progressing through non-contact training protocols after failing his Head Injury Assessment in Round 25.
“He's tracking really well, him and Jake Turpin are both in concussion protocol this week,” he said.
“They'll just train together as normal and increase it and get ready for next week, both of them.”
The three-time Premiership-winning Coach expressed his confidence in Brandon Smith, explaining that the hooker is determined to improve each week.
“I've felt like he's got better each game for us,” Robinson said.
“I feel like his best game was last game and we've had some good discussion, I really like how hard he's working at finding his game here.
“Yeah there's a little bit of the natural game that came out and then there's also some more of the responsibility on time that he played last week.
“I don't have a fixed time each week that I want to play him, it's more that I need to get used to watching Brandon and what he needs and then we've got players around that like Sandon Smith, who had a good role around that last week.
“It was only right at the back end of the game, other parts have been in the middle, so I feel like he's adapting to us and I'm adapting to him but I'm loving the way that he's really developed this year.”
Robinson recognises that there is suspense building around the Roosters Round 27 clash with the South Sydney Rabbitohs but says the team cannot focus on anything but this week’s match.
“What's ahead is tomorrow. That's really simple, our mindset's been really clear for a while now about this game, the game that we're playing, the next game and there has been a lot of discussion,” he said.
“I'm not even there yet, I'm 5:30pm tomorrow and that's as far as I've gone and that's as far as we have talked about this week. There is nothing after 5:30pm on Saturday.
“Once we get past that, then will start discussing the following week, so our clarity and belief in what we need to do has been week to week.”
