NRL finals what we learned: Roosters two wins from improbable, not impossible

The final four are locked in.

The Sydney Roosters are now just 80 minutes away from an NRL grand final spot, which after the penultimate round and last week's hammering to the Panthers looked almost impossible. But tonight's display, where they easily swept aside the Sea Eagles, has proven there's still plenty of life left in the Roosters. 

Here's three things we learned from the game:

Roosters two wins from the improbable, not the impossible

In the penultimate round of the regular season, the Roosters lurched from premiership heavyweight to club in crisis in the blink of an eye. Their bid for a home final went up in smoke with an inexplicable loss to Canberra, but the far bigger issue was serious injuries to Brandon Smith, Sam Walker, and Victor Radley.

They were blown off the park early on against Penrith last week and were only mild favourites going into week two -- but it might be time to reset the doom meter if you're a tricolour.

Radley returned far earlier than expected and played well, Connor Watson's increased role looks like a winner, and Sandon Smith's solo try put the exclamation mark on a terrific first half. A month ago at this very ground, obituaries were being written for the 2024 Roosters. Now, they're full of life.

The most exciting thing if you're a Roosters fan was the variation in attack. There wasn't just one area of the field that was focused on, but on multiple occasions when Manly showed a weak point anywhere in the defensive line, it was sought out.

For Smith's try, Daly Cherry-Evans was on the other side of the field to where he'd been defending a few sets prior, having chased hard on a kick and was turned inside out by the young halfback. For James Tedesco's first, the Roosters noticed that Reuben Garrick had got up very gingerly making a tackle just moments earlier and went right at him. Smart football from start to finish.

Their terrible recent win rate against both the Panthers and Storm is well documented, but they'll give themselves every hope on Friday night.

There's a bit of a 'last dance' vibe around this current crop of Roosters; Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is retiring, Luke Keary is off to France, and both Joseph Suaali'i and Joseph Manu will play the 15-player game next year. Not to mention the long-term injuries to Walker and Smith and the miles on the odometer for star players like James Tedesco, even if the Chooks get some superb injury luck in 2025, they don't look like they'll be anywhere close to the level of threat they are right now.

The NRL desperately needs to update the rules around the 18th man

Another game, another outside back being taken out early. Whilst there was no foul play in the case of Tolu Koula's concussion, it immediately put Manly on the back foot, as it's done so many times this year.

Plenty has been written about the impacts of losing a back early in a game, and the win rate of teams that experience that is awful, to say the least. Allowing teams to have a specialist 18th man to be activated for ANY injury seems like a no-brainer.

Yes, there's the crowd of people who will kick up a fuss and scream about how if you allow that change, that teams will take advantage of it. But ask yourself this; why would a coach willingly sacrifice an outside back who WASN'T injured, just to replace them with someone who they clearly think is worse, and hence not in the team to begin with.

Plenty of big games this year have been ruined by an early injury. Let's get it fixed.

Allianz Stadium is the absolute benchmark for watching sport

This was the last game of the NRL season at Sydney's newest venue, and it was a fitting send off with some 40,000 fans packed in. Roosters crowds have spiked upwards massively since the re-opening of the SFS, and with good reason.

The noise for this game, even for what was mostly a blowout was superb, as it was last night for Cronulla's win over the Cowboys (and that was with only half as many fans as tonight).

Romanticism for small suburban grounds aside, both Moore Park and Parramatta now have world class facilities that should be used as often as possible. It's not a shock that the Roosters' arch-rivals South Sydney are reportedly very keen to leave Homebush to return to where they used to call home.