The woes for the Sydney Roosters continued earlier today, with Brad Fittlers men somehow losing to the Warriors 30-24 after looking set to take the points with only 5 minutes left in the match at the Sydney Football Stadium.
With Mitchell Pearce in good touch and a hard running Willie Mason getting over the score early, the signs were good for the Roosters – but as they have done so often in 2009, they continued to make simple errors and couldn’t maintain their focus for the full 80 minutes.
As the clock wore down, the Roosters sliced through the Warriors defence to score through Tom Symonds – a real stand out talent for the Chooks it seems. The red headed Symonds earlier linking with Pearce to score an impressive try down the Warriors right hand edge.
But despite the efforts of rookie Symonds, it was the most underrated man in NRL – Wade McKinnon who would cut through the Roosters to score a match winning try on the 75 minute mark.
After gobbling up a Pearce grubber from his own red zone, McKinnon stepped, weaved and sped through the defence and dished out a late fend that Greg Inglis would have been proud of – to score his team the crucial try.
Its only the second time this year the Warriors have won away from home and it keeps their extremely feint finals hopes alive if they can go close to winning the majority of their remaining matches.
For the Roosters, it seems many players will be fearing for their lives with Brian Smith on his way next year. Continued poor showings could see another clean out similar to what happened in Newcastle post Michael Hagan.