Winning a narrow contest is always a good feeling and whilst the win has moved the Sydney Roosters into outright first, it may have come at a cost, with in-form back-rower Boyd Cordner suffering a potential season-ending injury in their 28-22 win over the Canberra Raiders.
It was almost a decade ago when the Roosters at the top of the NRL premiership summit, back in the days of Freddy Fittler, and with James Maloney yet again starring for the club, they have taken the bull by the horns and asserted their premiership credentials.
Despite the win, however and the prospect of winning their first minor premiership since 2004, coach Trent Robinson was in no mood to discuss that, instead heavily concerned with the potential season-ending injury for Boyd Cordner.
“He couldn’t weight bear, so it didn’t look good,” Robinson said.
The hope is that Cordner will not be sidelined for the entire season, though the injury did not look good.
“He’s such a key player for us, Boyd,” Robinson said.
“And for such a young player, he’s such an important part of our team.”
Although they are Buy Cialis in first and enjoying a stellar spell of form, Robinson knows that improvement and better all-round footy is still needed from his club.
“It’s nice to be where we’re sitting, but we need to play better footy,” Robinson said.
“It’s not a night that we’re going to be proud of.
“We’ve really tried to set our standards high this year and we let ourselves down tonight, I think, on those standards.”
The news was not much better for the Canberra Raiders, who not will not only potentially drop out of the eight if other results occur, but they will also be without captain and five-eighth Terry Campese, who suffered what appears to be a fractured eye socket.
“He’s not in a good way,” said Raiders coach David Furner.
The one bright light was the return of Blake Ferguson, who slotted straight back into the Raiders line-up with a solid performance, one that saw him score two tries.
“We’ve said all week, we can’t knock his on-field performances. He’s a really special player,” Raiders prop David Shillington said.
3. James Maloney
2. Blake Ferguson
1. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves