Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson praised Lachlan Lam but refuses to confirm whether halfback Kyle Flanagan will return for next week’s clash with Melbourne.

Robinson made the bold call to drop the top pointscorer of the 2020 NRL season in favour of Lam for Thursday’s match against St George Illawarra, citing Flanagan’s need for development.

“It’s tough. It’s really tough,” Robinson said of the 21-year-old, who leads the NRL with 126 points this season.

“He works so hard at his game, and he’s sort of one of the first in and one of the last to leave so it is really tough.

“But we’re here to get everybody better. We don’t want to hurt anybody but we want to push people ‘for more.”

Firm in his refusal to put a time limit on Flanagan’s demotion, Robinson said it would be unfair to both players to announce his decision directly after Thursday’s 24-16 win.

However, he was complimentary of Lam who was a steady influence on Keary, allowing the Test half to create points late in the match.

“I thought (Lam) was really good. I thought he played a lot,” he said.

“I think you could see he and Keary had a lot of trust there, so the combination between the two of them was really good.

“Lachy went into the role of kicking which allowed Keary to play so it was a really good game. Defensively very strong.”

The Roosters have now won nine games for the season and have moved into the top four with Thursday’s win.

With seven games remaining until the finals, Robinson is building for the end of the year.

“It’s an important period, get guys experience, recover some guys and then keep getting the wins up,” he said.

“We’re building our squad at the moment, obviously some guys can’t play, and we’re building some really good principles.”