MARK ‘SPUDD’ CARROLL: Trent Robinson silences the nay-sayers with finals performance

The things I read and heard about Trent Robinson in the lead up to the weekend’s semifinals had me doing a double take.

If you believed some of the crap, you’d swear they were about to drop the axe on the two-time premiership-winning coach if the Roosters hadn’t knocked off Cronulla.

WTAF?

Robinson engineered back-to-back premierships in 2018-19 to go with the title he collected in 2013.

He has guided the Chooks to the top eight every year since that last premiership triumph.

Ok, they haven’t won the comp in that period.

But guess what? Neither has any other club outside of Penrith, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Fans from just about every club would take Robbo’s record any day of the week, yet we had a few pelicans suggesting he had lost his touch.

I bet you they are silent this week.

After taking it to Penrith in the first week of the finals and only just going down, the Roosters blew the Sharks out of the water on Saturday night to move to within one game of another GF appearance.

Cronulla weren’t at their best and had a few things go against them, but the Tricolours still made one helluva statement.

All their big guns – and there are plenty of them – fired in an ominous warning for the Dolphins ahead of Friday night’s preliminary final at Suncorp.

And the best of them was the oldest player on the park – Daly Cherry-Evans.

Regular readers would know he and I don’t see eye-to-eye after his departure from Manly, but I wrote a few weeks back that his move to Bondi had been “a winner for player and club”.

And while the veteran half deserves praise for his outstanding form, so does Robinson for taking a calculated gamble and realising DCE was the missing link his team needed if they were to take that next step.

It will go down as one of the all-time great buys should Daly be lifting the trophy on the first Sunday in October.

And I believe he will get the chance to do just that.

The decision by Robinson to rest nine players for the “nothing” last round clash with the Bunnies has proved a masterstroke.

They had the hard hit-out they needed against the Panthers and were primed for the Sharks.

On top of that, Angus Crichton made a successful return from injury and Sam Walker will back in his playground at Suncorp.

The Dolphins have had a great year but I think it’s about to come an end.

As for the other prelim final, I love a fairytale as much as the next person.

But I don’t think Newcastle can get past Penrith despite the incredible win over the Warriors.

They have no fear and plenty of momentum, but the Panthers know the back end of September better than anyone and will be refreshed after a fortnight off.

As long as Nathan Cleary plays – and I reckon they’ll get him out there on crutches if they have to – I see a Roosters v Penrith GF looming large.

AND DON’T GET ME STARTED

Craig Fitzgibbon is talking about a reset and not a rebuild in the coming years as Cronulla looks to overcome yet another early finals exit.

And that’s fair enough, the coach would know better than me what he’s got rising through the ranks to replace a host of departing stars.

But from the outside looking in, I can see the Sharks turning into tadpoles as far as being a premiership threat.

The current group has been the most settled in the NRL for the past few years and it’s little surprise they have made the play-offs five years in a row.

But Saturday night’s thumping at the hands of the Roosters means they have fallen short of the grand final on each and every occasion.

Next year they will be without Sifa Talakai, Jesse Ramien, Sione Katoa and Cameron McInnes.

That quartet has played 733 NRL games between them.

That sort of experience is irreplaceable.

I look back at that great Manly side I played in during the mid-90s and we only came away with one premiership to show for it.

In all honesty, we should have collected three premiership rings.

That regret and thoughts of what could have been never completely leave a footballer.

It’s something this school of Sharks will have to live with forever.

Same deal the Warriors.

They had two finals matches at home in front of all their fans and couldn’t get the deal done.

Talk about stage fright.

Finals aren’t for everyone.

It takes a special team, a special coach and, quite often, one special player to get you across the line.

The four teams remaining all have at least one X-factor player.

You can’t say the same for the Warriors or Sharks.