Roosters coach Trent Robinson interview | JWH Milestone, Angus Crichton re-signs & more!
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Now, we spoke earlier about a big week for the Roosters. Angus Crichton locked in for two more years. Chad Townsend's announced that he'll be joining the Roosters in 2025. But I think this is just a phenomenal achievement. Jared Reahar-Greaves...

one of the tough men, one of the nicest blokes off the field that you'll ever meet, becomes the most capped rooster tomorrow when they take on the St. George Illawarra Dragons at Allianz Stadium. There'll be a big old boys contingent out there to congratulate him. And I thought we'd catch up with the coach, Trent Robinson, who's finished up at a function, and I'm pleased to say he's called through. He's on the line. G'day, Trent.

Mark, how are you? Hey, guys. Mate, I'm very well. Thank you very much. This is huge, I think, to think that the Roosters have been around for 116 years and you think about some of the great players to have worn the Tricolours jersey, but Jarrabriah Hargreaves becoming the most capped. What an achievement.

Yeah, it's special moments for us tomorrow, Jared. 307 games. He did it in his style and a few more games to go. But yeah, big celebration for us. Jared's quite special for us and in our club. So yeah, he's a pretty unique player.

Tell us a bit about him, mate, because I said before we were talking about him. To me, he seems like he's come through a couple of different eras in rugby league, like the old era when it was a bit of, you know, a little bit more physical. Not physical is probably the wrong word, maybe a little bit dirtier, you know, but he would have, I think he would have fitted in in that era. In fact, I said he would have fitted in in just about any era that there's ever been in rugby league. He's just a special talent like that, isn't he? Yeah, Darrell, I think he...

That's the thing is he, I mean, usually a generation of in rugby league is about five years, you know, every five years it changes and he's gone through three different versions of that in his time. And so when he came on, you know, he was pretty wild and a fire brand and he used to,

sort of throw his arms and shoulder charge about and big carries and then he had to start playing starting then to be a starting prop playing more minutes through the middle of his career and then

The game got really quick. I mean, six again, it ruined a few front rowers. It ends up being really tough for them in that style. So he just adapted. He worked on his game again physically and he's been able to hold it. And he would have played in any era. If you take Jared to what I've heard stories of, I think about Ray Steer and the front rower that he was for us.

in the 30s and 40s, and then you think about the 60s and 70s now, he can play any of those eras. Rob, I'm going to put you on the spot here, mate. Have you got a favourite story or memory from Jared throughout your time coaching him on or off the field?

Well, he did almost bite my finger off in Los Angeles. That's the one. I think he said it the other day. We got in a wrestle and I tried to fish hook him and he seriously tried to bite it off. And anybody that knows Jarrett, he took one bite, but while he was halfway through that one, he took another one. He said he felt a crunch. Yeah, he did. But I just, I mean, and then I like...

you know, that's the hard thing. I've had a couple of times where people have asked me, what are you going to say to him when he crosses the line? And you don't like it in the moment, but I've enjoyed him crossing the line sometimes. I think it's

It just shows how close you can go. He can go 300, well, probably not all of them. He's probably gone 290-odd games where he's gone close to the line and he's probably got about 20 where he's crossed over. So I'll take those 290.

Robbo, I think you're doing really well this year on the back of your forward pack. But one player, Sammy Walker, he's really come of age this year, I think. Particularly defensively, I feel like he's getting a lot better defensively and steering that team around the park, creating line breaks. I think he's been outstanding, particularly the past sort of six weeks. Yeah, Gal, I think, I mean, everyone knew he could play 80 to 100 and tear teams apart and

And when I say 80 to 100 metres, he's very dangerous, you know, kick, run, pass. But the mark of a half is zero to 50 metres. How do you steer your team when you don't touch the ball or you can't have a tri-assist? How are you going to steer your team around and how are you going to defend? Yeah, there's a couple of moments there at the start of the season which were, again,

you know, pushing his defence and I think Radley out there with him and Joey Manu stepped up as well. And Sammy's really taken that on. He knows he needs to steer our team around and defend well.

for us to improve in this competition. So he's still on that path, but it's been a big improvement for him this year. One more, Trent, before you go, and we appreciate you giving up some time. I wanted to ask you about Angus Crichton because we spoke earlier about some of his, what the personal issues he's had to go through to rebuild himself

not only as an individual, but to get himself back into a first grade side and then an origin side. It's a credit and a testament to the individual that is Angus Crichton, the work that he's put in to rebuild himself, to get him back into the NRL and now playing unbelievable footy at club level and at origin level.

Yeah, he obviously, you know, it wasn't a great year for him last year, but it also, you know, and he was, you know, in reserve grade and on the outer at the start of the year, but he just, you know, and that created a fire in him and some people wilt and some people rise and he rose and said, no, no, no, this is my spot and

and then you know it's a really value his loyalty there as well you know after what happened to say no no I want to stay here and continue playing and he's an absolute beast the way he trains constantly I mean Paul a part of Sam's development has been tackling Angus the left edge back rower against the right edge half at training every week and

Gussie plays full on at all times. So, yeah, it's a credit to him. And he's used that fire in the right direction. Yeah, well said. Good on you, Trent. Good luck tomorrow, mate, on what's a big day for the club. And, of course, Jared Breer-Hargreaves. Good luck against the Dragons. Thanks for your time. All right. Appreciate it, guys. There he is, Trent Robinson, the Roosters coach. And, of course, Boydie's boss. Boydie's boss. When you said, I'm going to put you on the spot, I thought, what's he doing? You want to keep your job or what? But you've done brilliantly well. I think...

I think anyone who's a Roosters fan would agree that they, to me, they're just starting to warm into the season. They're starting to look dangerous now. They were a bit, you know, hit and miss early on, but at the moment they're... I was worried about their halves, really. That's where I was worried, because their halves don't miss a lot of tackles, but they weren't winning a lot of tackles. And there's a difference there, meaning that every time a back row ran at them, they'd fall through the line, get a quick playable and be able to do something off the next play.

But they seem to have fixed that up, particularly Sammy Walker. He's defending really well at the moment. He could be a superstar. And some of his play, like he's really now finding his feet in first grade.