As the Sydney Roosters return to the Central Coast for a not-to-be-missed NRLW clash with the Parramatta Eels, Head Coach John Strange says he and the team are happy to be ‘home’.
With almost a third of the squad, including Strange, residing on the Coast, the Premiership-winning Coach believes the team will continue to build on their momentum as they head into the final rounds of the regular season.
Strange: 'The Focus Is On Us'
“It's a bit of a home game, we had a home game at SCG and one at Allianz and this kind of feels like a home game going to the Central Coast.
“We’re preparing really well like we do every week, there’s a heavy focus on us and we feel like we're building really well and gaining some momentum.
“We're also looking at the Eels, they had good win last week against the Cowboys so we know they're going to be buoyed by that and coming out and hopefully creating that momentum that they've started last week.
“So yeah, a bit of focus on them but more on us to be honest, on how we're progressing.”
Strange has named Joeli Morris to take the number 14 jersey after Shawden Burton sustained a season-ending ACL rupture against the Tigers last week.
He is confident the 21-year-old utility can step up and do her job for the team wherever she’s required.
“[She’s] really valuable for our squad, she can play a lot of positions,” he said.
“She's played the first couple of games in different positions in the back row, a bit on the wings and lock, so obviously she will come in and she will take off a little bit of that load from hooker from Keeley [Davis].
Morris Seals the Win
“I’ll look to player her in the middle as well, but we know what we're going to get out of Joeli, she will get out there and work really hard and do her best for the team.”
The Roosters will host an Open Training Session at their NRLW Captain’s Run at Industree Group Stadium on Saturday at 1:15pm – an event Strange says he and the team are extremely excited for.
“At least a third of the squad are from the Central Coast, they live there and travel down, myself as well,” he explained.
“We had a fair bit of interest from the girls’ teams that want to come out and have a look at our girls.
“We’re hoping as much of the Central Coast community can get out and be around these girls. They’re an awesome bunch of girls that we have.
“They’ll spend their time and have a chat, take selfies and sign autographs and all that part of it, it’s growing what we're doing here the Roosters.”
With the opportunity to secure their fifth consecutive win and a home Semi Final within reach, Strange says the team are still working to perfect certain elements of their game.
“We’ve still got areas that we want to keep building on every week only it’s not about necessarily about the score line,” he said.
“It's just about us being the best we can in all areas, defence and attack, so yeah this will be no different for us, you know we’re expecting they also come out really strong and try and put it to us, but we just got to focus on us.
“Just keep working on all the little areas that we focus on, a lot internally, which there's still a fair bit of those little points, we’ve got to just tidy up and if we do then we can hopefully keep building towards the Semis.”
