Roosters always start slow. They will improve but not sure by how much this season.
Something about Trent Robinson reminds me of Tim Sheens a bit. Thinking mans footy coach, and like Sheens thinks a bit too much at times. Getting DCE is out of that playbook. On paper its smart, but Cronk was doing it for Melbourne when he moved to Sydney... DCE is older, not as good on his best day, and couldn't do it in a Manly team built around him.
Like when Sheens got rid of Heino for Braith Anasta.
Penrith are an all time great side playing without any pressure.
I get your point, although I don't think Trent Robinson is like Sheens at all.
Maybe they both do overthink things. Sheens does the crazy plays, but like to let the boys have fun.
Trent seems to be able to train his team into what he wants, getting decent defense and the most out of players that IMHO would be close to burned husks (Angus, etc).
But working with this, we saw Manly punt Des at one point for Anthony Siebold. Which seemed mad at the time as Siebold had just destroyed a successful Brisbane side. However thinking about Siebold and DCE, Siebold had always done this "attacking flow" and this style may suit DCE. Even DCE may not have the flexibility to adjust to a different style.
Should we blame the HALFBACK?
I hate doing this, as often it's not their fault. Yet I think there is a case here:
Sydney Roosters versus Penrith Panthers match centre includes live scores and updates. Includes official live player and team stats. Run metres, fantasy points scoring.
www.nrl.com
Looking at the stats, we see the Roosters had far shorter kick meters per kick (23 vs Penrith's 29).
They seemed to be doing grubbers and this wasn't working for them.
DCE couldn't kick his side to good field position and couldn't work out that whatever tactic his team was applying wasn't working.
