Roosters assistant coach, Justin Holbrook spoke on The Jimmy Smith Show, reflecting on the disappointing 48-18 loss to the Melbourne Storm in Friday’s preliminary finals match.
Holbrook expresses he was “very disappointed”, as the team felt confident going into the game, so was not expecting the ultimate blow out.
Following a few errors and back-and forth, the Roosters entered half time down 22-6, but were able score a few quick tries to get within a 6 point margin.
“We scored a couple tries and mounted a bit of a comeback,” he told The Jimmy Smith Show.
However, the Storm were then able to shift momentum as they capitalised on a controversial knock on and took home an ultimately convincing victory.
“They got that 12-point lead on us and stored our comeback and then they finished the game well on us,” he added.
Holbrook spoke to Hughes controversial try, which saw a knock on missed call halt the Roosters comeback.
Holbrook pushed no blame on the referees but expressed disappointment in errors like these in ending the Roosters momentum.
“They are the things that hurt you and you need things to go your way if you’re going to win.”
Holbrook paints the Roosters loss as coming down to too many small errors and inability to control Melbourne’s key players including Munster, Papenhuysen and Jahrome Hughes who led the game with a hat-trick.
“We didn’t control Melbourne’s spine.”
“Overall, we need to play better than what we did. We let too many soft tries in, and it made it too hard to try to win the game,” he added.
Despite a disappointing finish, Holbrook reflects a strong season and a sad farewell to stand out players Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Joey Manu and Luke Keary.
“To work with those boys this year has just been a pleasure.”
