The Roosters will likely be taking the “cold-blooded” strategy to their must-win conflict with fierce rivals the Rabbitohs on Friday night time.
That’s based on captain James Tedesco, who admitted to the Fox League Podcast they “shot themselves in the foot” within the notorious ‘sin bin Sunday’ recreation final yr.
Friday’s conflict between the Roosters and Rabbitohs is shaping as much as be the most important common season spherical recreation in current reminiscence.
They confronted off in Round 3 with the Roosters escaping with a 20-18 win. But a lot has occurred since then.
Both sides have fallen wanting expectations. The Rabbitohs sit eighth, whereas the Roosters are tenth — nonetheless it was solely six weeks in the past that punters put a crimson pen by way of their premiership probabilities.
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South Sydney led the competitors after 11 rounds. They misplaced their famous person fullback Latrell Mitchell to a calf harm a few weeks later and their season began to take a dive.
Mitchell returned in Round 22 and the Bunnies celebrated with a win. But they’ve solely had yet another win since then.
After their Round 25 loss to the Knights, the headlines got here thick and quick.
Accusations of Mitchell and Cody Walker receiving particular therapy was on the centre of the drama engulfing Redfern and membership legend Sam Burgess — additionally an assistant coach to Jason Demetriou — was proven the door.
There had been even rumours of rifts throughout the enjoying group.
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Friday would be the first likelihood the Rabbitohs get to reply — by way of their efficiency — to the headlines.
But they’ll do it with out Mitchell, who’s serving a one-game suspension for a harmful contact cost.
Tedesco acknowledged that’s “a big loss” for the Rabbitohs, however he doesn’t see it was a win for the Roosters.
“You always want to play against the best — especially as a fullback — and I feel like we do a pretty good job on Latrell as well,” he stated.
“There’s always a bit of heat there obviously with him being at the Roosters before, but it’s a loss for them for sure.
“Latrell is a superstar, what he can do out the back, him and Cody create a lot of opportunities for their outside backs.
“It’s a loss for them but Blake Taaffe, whenever he’s been in for them he’s done a really good job for and they were winning games when he was there as well.”
Perhaps the Bunnies will likely be respiration a small sigh of aid although that Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves will likely be watching on from the sideline on Friday.
Waerea-Hargreaves copped a monster seven-game suspension for 2 separate incidents within the Roosters’ Round 26 win over the Tigers.
“It is (a big loss),” Tedesco stated when requested concerning the suspension.
“That’s how Jared plays the game, he plays it aggressively and sometimes he’s on the borderline of getting suspended or going over that.
“He’s gutted, he’s disappointed that he’s going to miss some time.
“But I’m excited for the young front-rowers to step up.
“Jared’s missed a couple of games this year and when he has guys like Fletcher (Baker), Terrell (May) and Egan (Butcher) really stepped up and led the way. So it’s a good opportunity for those guys and we’ve got all the confidence in the world in them.”
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The Roosters have taken a variety of classes from their heated loss to the Rabbitohs in week one of many finals final season.
There had been seven sin bins in that recreation — one for Waerea-Hargreaves and two for Victor Radley.
Tedesco solely featured for the primary 18 minutes earlier than struggling a head knock which finally ended his night time.
“I was in the sheds and was a bit out of it but watching it I didn’t really know what was happening, it was just a chaotic game,” he recalled.
“‘Rads’ got sin-binned twice and when he came in the second time I said to him ‘just keep it nice and calm out there, we don’t need to buy into emotion, just do what we need to do and get the job done’ … But I don’t think that worked.
“It’s easy to look back and say ‘don’t do that’ but in the heat of the moment that’s footy sometimes.
“There’s guys that could look back and think ‘I should’ve been more calm there and I didn’t need to do that.’
“But it’s hard in the heat of the moment when tempers are flying and there’s a lot of aggression.”
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The Roosters had been the primary to place the blowtorch on themselves after that recreation.
“It was definitely something we talked about in review — we just need to be in control of ourselves. That’s definitely what cost us in the end,” Tedesco conceded.
“We shot ourselves in the foot.
“It was just disappointment because we beat them the week before. We knew it was going to be a different game but we should’ve given ourselves every opportunity to win and we just didn’t do that.”
Champion Roosters halfback Cooper Cronk advised foxsports.com.au that the workforce “would have learnt a lot” from ‘sin bin Sunday’.
When requested if that’s certainly the case, Tedesco stated: “Yeah definitely.
“That’s something we’ve definitely addressed in the pre-season, keeping our emotions intact and not getting in the push and shove and sin bins — especially sin bins these days, if you lose a guy for 10 minutes it can really turn a game.”
So with some essential classes learnt, what’s the Roosters’ mindset heading into their greatest recreation of the season?
“We’ve probably let our emotions get the best of us, especially in that finals game last year — it was a pretty crazy game,” Tedesco stated.
“But you can’t let that emotion get to you.
“It’s definitely got to us a couple of times because of the build-up, the fans and the rivalry — there is that extra bit of emotion and intensity in the game.
“But I think for us, we’ve just got to focus on the game, take one moment at the time and not get caught up in any emotion or any niggles.
“Just stay cold-blooded about what we need to get done.
“It’s easy to talk about but it’s about in that moment holding your nerve, whether it’s a good shot or an error, just getting onto the next moment.
“You can still do that (lean into the rivalry). You can still hit hard, you can still be aggressive but not taking it too far where it can cost you a player for 10 minutes.
“Our forwards and how we play, it’s always going to be that aggressive style but just nice and cold-blooded and not dwelling onto a moment too much.”
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When requested if the Roosters are out for revenge for final yr’s finals loss, Tedesco caught to that ‘cold-blooded’ strategy.
“We’re out to win the game,” he burdened.
“It’s not revenge or anything, the media can put it up however they want to but we’re just out to win the game.”
Tedesco is “excited” concerning the match although and every part that comes with enjoying the Rabbitohs.
He places this conflict proper up there with Anzac Day as the most important common season recreation he’ll play.
“It’s obviously the biggest rivalry, it always seems to be this time of year — whether it’s finals or the end of the year — we always play Souths in a big game,” he stated.
“I remember this time last year it was a massive game so it’s going to be something similar. There’s going to be a big crowd, a lot of intensity so let’s enjoy that experience.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
