{"id":316595,"date":"2023-07-16T20:18:21","date_gmt":"2023-07-16T20:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=316595"},"modified":"2023-07-16T22:00:41","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T22:00:41","slug":"season-from-hell-highlighted-by-69-year-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=316595","title":{"rendered":"'Season from hell' highlighted by 69-year record"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Roosters<\/a> are having the season from hell, with just two wins in their last nine games and a finals berth slowly disappearing in front of their eyes.<\/p>\n

And one man who has especially haunted them is exciting Storm<\/a> winger Xavier Coates, who has remarkably scored hat tricks in both his games against the Roosters in 2023.<\/p>\n

Coates bagged three tries when the teams met in Melbourne in round six and repeated the feat on Saturday night at the SCG.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussies retain the Ashes with thrilling victory<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Alcaraz downs Djokovic to clinch first Wimbledon title<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Freddy's telling answer to Blues coaching question<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

You have to go way back to 1954 to find the last time a player managed two hat tricks against the Roosters in the same season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The player who achieved the feat in 1954 – when Sir Robert Menzies was prime minister – was Newtown winger Ray Preston.<\/p>\n

Origin star's promise to teammates\ufeff<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Val Holmes<\/a> made a promise to his Cowboys team-mates to have a big game in the crucial clash with the Sea Eagles at Brookvale on Saturday night after having a rare shocker in Origin III last Wednesday.<\/p>\n

And Holmes was true to his word – the classy centre ran for nearly 200 metres, came up with a wonderful try assist for Reuben Cotter and also made a line break in the Cowboys' 19-8win at Brookvale.<\/p>\n

Holmes was as good as anyone on the field in a tough old school game in which Manly were up for the fight but just couldn't convert their chances into points.<\/p>\n

In a vital game before their home fans, Manly were a major disappointment and are in danger of missing out on finals footy.<\/p>\n

Tago steps up \ufeff<\/h2>\n

Under-rated centre Izack Tago has proved a godsend for the Panthers during the Origin period.<\/p>\n

Two weeks after producing the game of his life against Melbourne, Tago was at it again against the Dolphins yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

Tago scored two tries and was involved in two more – basically proving the difference between the teams in the Panthers' 24-14 win.<\/p>\n

With Ivan Cleary resting his Origin brigade and Nathan Cleary still hamstrung, the Panthers needed someone to step up – and Tago did the job in style to get the weakened Panthers home.<\/p>\n

Cronulla can no longer ignore fringe players<\/h2>\n

\"Sharks<\/p>\n

Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon needs to give his team a major facelift if Cronulla hope to make an impact in the finals.<\/p>\n

The Sharks are well entrenched in the top eight but were cannon fodder for the rampaging Warriors 44-12 in Auckland on Saturday.<\/p>\n

In a major concern, it was the Sharks' sixth loss in their past seven games against current top eight teams this season.<\/p>\n

Fitzgibbon is showing faith in his top 17 but they simply aren't doing the job and meanwhile, talented players like Connor Tracey, Braydon Trindall and Kayal Iro can't get a look-in.<\/p>\n

\"Connor<\/p>\n

The Sharks can put a score on the likes of battlers Canterbury, the Dragons and Tigers – but struggle against the big boys and changes are clearly needed.<\/p>\n

Year of the Warrior?<\/h2>\n

The Warriors have emerged as the game's new entertainers in the run-in to the finals.<\/p>\n

Andrew Webster's men have scored 30 points or more in five of their past six games and simply dismantled the normally well disciplined Cronulla side 44-12 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"Tigers<\/p>\n

The Warriors have always had the ability to play sparkling attacking football but Webster has added a new consistency and steel in defence.<\/p>\n

Shaun Johnson has wound back the clock to his glory days, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak is scoring tries for fun (15 in his past 11 games), five-eighth Luke Metcalf has proved a great buy, as has Jackson Ford, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad is playing inspired football at the back and Addin Fonua-Blake is leading the charge up front in rousing style.<\/p>\n

The team has a potent mix of youth and experience and who's bold enough to say 2023 may not be the year of the Warrior?<\/p>\n

Young gun starting to arrive<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Broncos have had big raps on Brendan Piakura for some time and the 21-year-old came of age at Belmore on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

A former Maroons under 18s rep, Piakura made his top grade debut in 2021 and has played only a handful of games in the top grade.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong> 9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But the Cook Islands international got his chance with the Broncos down on troops against the Bulldogs and made the most of his chance.<\/p>\n

Piakura laid on the Broncos' first try for skipper Adam Reynolds and then scored a four-pointer himself and really added some spice to the Brisbane attack in the 44-24 win over the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n

Knights star key to resurgence\ufeff<\/h2>\n

If the Knights can keep Kalyn Ponga fit and firing, they could go deep into this finals race.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

The Knights looked in strife a few weeks ago – so much so that there were reports that coach Adam O'Brien was on thin ice.<\/p>\n

But the Newcastle boys have now scored 100 points in their last two games – thanks largely to the brilliance of Ponga – and are well and truly back in the hunt for September football.<\/p>\n

They followed up the 66-0 smashing of the Bulldogs with a 34-18 win over the Tigers on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\"Serial<\/p>\n

Ponga was simply superb – he laid on his team's first three tries then scored a dazzling solo four-pointer before coming up with a fourth try assist.<\/p>\n

He appears over his head knock problems and if he continues in this hungry mood, the Knights are capable of troubling any team in the race.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Roosters are having the season from hell, with just two wins in their last nine games and a finals berth slowly disappearing in front […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":316598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=316595"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316609,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316595\/revisions\/316609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/316598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=316595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=316595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=316595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}