Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has slammed his team for their poor performance against the Melbourne Storm, but has belief in the club's abilities to turn things around.
The loss to Melbourne saw the tri-colours slump to their third-straight loss, and seventh in their last nine games dating back to a magic round horror show against the at the time struggling North Queensland Cowboys.
In a game where the Roosters went to halftime 6-4 down and held the Storm to a single try for the next 12 minutes, the men in purple then ran on four tries in 21 minutes to kick clear with the game, before a pair of late consolation tries saved an embarrassing scoreline for the Roosters.
Robinson, who labelled it a disappointing period, said that the club's attack needed more from individuals, and on the fifth tackle, where the Roosters have been horrifically poor over the last fortnight.
“We aren't having individuals creates things on their own. We got to have a lot of guys combine to have our moments this year,” Robinson said.
“It's a lot of combination play that many guys are having to come up with, which is good, you got to do that but then you got to come up with some moments around that.
“The ends of sets were really poor. The ends of sets were as bad as I've seen tonight.
“Runs on last tackle down short side, kicks five metres short than they should be, just the ends of sets there is no pressure applied.
“There's no tries being scored, there is just nothing coming off those plays. I think they count for 28-30% of tries come off that and we aren't applying pressure on them either.”
The Bondi-based club now sits 14th on the ladder ahead of Sunday's games, with all three of their byes used. While they are only a couple of games out of the top eight, there is a very real chance the Roosters will need to win at least five or six of their last seven to qualify for the finals - given a for and against worse than the teams ahead of them by a substantial amount, they may even need to win all seven, pending on the mark to qualify for finals this year.
While Robinson said his focus wasn't on finals but rather on the game, he had a belief they could turn things around.
“I'm not thinking about finals, I'm thinking about the game we just played,” Robinson shot back.
“I have belief in what we can do but we have to back up game after game after game. We have to get many in a row. That's the truth and I think many can see that.
“But it's not much use planning your seventh one (win) when you've got to get your first one."
The Roosters, who play the Gold Coast Titans away next week, have a difficult run to the finish line, with games against the Brisbane Broncos, Parramatta Eels and South Sydney Rabbitohs headlining their final six weeks of the season - provided they don't slip up elsewhere, they will likely need to beat at least two of those sides.
