Was it the loss the Sydney Roosters needed to have?
Just a week out from the NRL finals, Trent Robinson’s side had their seven-game winning streak snapped in dramatic circumstances 16-10 by South Sydney on Thursday night.
In the eyes of many, the Roosters were on a steady march to becoming the first back-to-back premiers in a united competition since 1993.
While Robinson would bristle at and dismiss that suggestion, they were seen by many commentators and fans as overwhelmingly the team to beat this season.
However, the loss to their bitter rivals proved they were beatable and flipped the competition on its head on finals eve.
While Robinson stopped short of saying his team needed to taste defeat before the finals, he described it as a wake up call.
“It gives us a really good lesson, our preparation, it hasn’t finished,” Robinson said.
“It’s not about management. It’s about ‘hang on you guys have got improvement left’. There were some things there that we wanted to do better and we didn’t.
“So get your lessons tonight, get some rest on the weekend and get ready to improve on Monday.
“It was really good for us to get a reminder about continually getting better. We should have been better and we weren’t in that second half.”
Playmaker Luke Keary missed the match after his wife gave birth to their first child the day prior and is certain to be back for their week one finals appearance, against either the Rabbitohs or Canberra.
Brett Morris (calf) and Mitchell Aubusson (ankle) are also expected to return after they were given the night off against Souths.
Siosiua Taukeiaho is also a possibility to make his comeback from a rib cartilage complaint while hooker Jake Friend could be another week off after contracting an infection during his recovery from a fractured forearm.
“We do have some guys like Aubo and Brett Morris who will come back in but that hasn’t been our attitude all year,” Robinson said.
“We had 17 guys out there, other than Billy Smith who is just starting to play, everyone else has played a lot this year.
“Whoever comes back in I’m still asking them to improve.
“I should have been better on some stuff in the second half on some stuff in the box, I should have delivered some better information to execute a try or stop that second try (to Cody Walker) from happening.”