DANE ELDRIDGE: Roosters betting on Daly Cherry-Evans helping them continues their winning run in NRL
They pencil themselves in for every September and take until about August to make sure they don’t get rubbed out of the competition.
Only a trophy-rich consortium like the Sydney Roosters can boast a mantra like “We Play for Premierships” and not be accused of having tickets on themselves.
Even though it makes them sound like they’re pretty high on their own reflection, this ethos has a double meaning which is more authentic than you think.
Not because they’ve got a history of success, but also because in recent times they can’t be arsed turning up anytime before August.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.The Chooks pride themselves as perennial title contenders who’ll get out of bed for nothing less than the Provan-Summons, but recently they’ve taken their September focus too far by neglecting the other six months of the season.
For the fourth time in five years the Roosters began their NRL campaign on Friday night with an unexpected defeat, this time at the hands of a well-drilled Warriors side in Auckland.
Widely tipped as premiership favourites, it was a scrappy and ill-disciplined performance almost as sour as James Tedesco’s mood, with the skipper scolding the referees all game like they’d interrupted his nap.
Many described the 42-18 trouncing as a wake-up call, but it’s not a reality check for the Eastern Suburbs club - it’s just round one.
While nothing is achieved in March in the NRL other than sunburn, to label the Roosters as slow starters is an understatement.
There’s the time constraints of Cherry-Evans’ dwindling shot clock, with the 37-year-old at a stage where he’s an avocado that could brown in to guacamole at any moment.
Whether conceding 50 to the Broncos last year, stumbling at home to perennial strugglers Newcastle in 2022 or the boil over loss to the Dolphins in the fledgling club’s 2023 debut, this club starts like an oil heater.
But it’s not just the opening round, their premiership campaigns in recent years have been the footy equivalent of boiling the kettle with a cigarette lighter.
Beginning last season with a 1-4 start only to string five wins in six games to slip in to seventh place with a tardy note, this all-powerful team was also reduced to backdooring it in 2022 and 2023 after slacking off early.
It’s a pattern that’s grown long in the tooth for the club’s expectant fans who are now thinking it should be ‘We Play for Procrastination.’
Chasing tail in this fashion is not a viable model for a club like the Tri-Colours, an organisation where it’s either the premiership or the trough every year.
There are no excuses - and little sympathy - especially considering it’s a glamour beachside club that bathes in money, alkaline water and top-notch recruits.
Take for example, Daly Cherry-Evans.
The general expectation following the champion veteran’s signing has been that, give or take, the Chooks should win everything in 2026 - so there’s already external pressure on the club.
Plus there’s the time constraints of Cherry-Evans’ dwindling shot clock, with the 37-year-old at a stage where he’s an avocado that could brown in to guacamole at any moment.
Furthermore, the Chooks need to dominate simply to avoid buyer’s remorse.
The way the club has lost Sandon Smith and bumped Hugo Savala down the pecking order hasn’t been as savage as the time they kissed Mitch Pearce on the forehead at bedtime and changed the locks before sun-up.
But after 2025 saw them unearth two halves they didn’t plan on, punting instead on a veteran with an axe to grind against his former club is a gamble - because unlike money at the Roosters, halves don’t grow on trees.
Not only did Smith offer valuable utility depth, Savala is the perfect strait-laced complement to Sam “Magic Eight Ball” Walker and with a sublime boot that regularly lands the ball on a sixpence, which ironically was the currency in which Cherry-Evans’ first ever deal was signed.
Add the stifling standards of chairman Nick Politis - whose one expected outcome from this signing will be global domination - and the Chooks meek recent record against top four sides, and there’s only one outcome for 2026:
A top four finish is required at the absolute minimum - and last time we checked, you can’t finish in the top four when you’re scraping in to the top eight.
This is why the Chooks need to be pocketing wins now instead of pissfarting around.
Otherwise expect another banged-up finish in the lower reaches of the finals bracket where the only thing they’ll be playing again for is a premature evacuation.
