Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has revealed he is less than impressed with his team's defence.
2021 was the highest-scoring NRL season on record, but Robinson, who recently signed a five-year contract extension with the tri-colours, and is ever the perfectionist, told NRL 360 on Fox Sports that he is still chasing improvement from his team.
It may not come as a surprise given their enormous injury toll last year, but the Roosters finishes the regular season with only the fifth-best defensive record.
They were well short of the Penrith Panthers (286 points conceded), Melbourne Storm (316 points conceded), South Sydney Rabbitohs (453 points conceded) and Parramatta Eels (457 points conceded), with their 489 points conceded winding up marginally ahead of the Manly Sea Eagles.
Despite that, Robinson wants his side to be the number one side for defence in the competition - something that will be achievable back at full strength.
He blamed the coaching, but also acknowledged how enormous the loss of Jake Friend was to the club's defensive fortunes, then asked for his players to stand up in a big way.
“We’ve slipped down the batting order when it comes to defence and we’re not happy with it,” Robinson said.
“We’re trying to improve our system. But we’ve also got to understand that Jake Friend did two jobs when he played and it’s hard to replace that.
“So we expect guys that are going between 50 and 100 games to up their level this season.
“We expect our system to be better, we need to coach better, we also expect those players to do better than what they did last year.
“If we’re going to be No. 1 in defence we need to improve a lot and it starts with coaches then hands over to the players.”
The Roosters will squarely focus on discipline this season, conceding more penalties than any other team in 2021, and making the second-highest amount of errors in the competition.
Robinson's side werethen forced to make the third-highest amount of tackles, with only the Sharks and Panthers and Cowboys missing more tackles than them by the time the season was out.
The Roosters open their season on Saturday afternoon against the Newcastle Knights.
