Wing: Roosters have what it takes to go back-to-back

On paper, there is no reason why the Roosters shouldn't go back-to-back in 2019.

However, once you win a grand final you're all on such a high afterward, it can be hard to refocus. Once you've just won your first grand final it's really hard to get that last half a percent of desire that comes from never winning one.

The road to the big dance gets tougher as well. Everyone's coming to get you in every single game. As defending premiers every time a team plays you through the year, they going to bring their A-game.

You're the benchmark and they know if they can beat the benchmark they're in good shape.

There's no sneaking your way up the ladder going unnoticed, or surprise wins against teams focused on other rounds.

You're the example for what works, other teams study you more and adopt your plays. You start to see your plays and your defensive patterns appear in other teams and they start to get some success using them.

You have to take it to another level or change your game and evolve. It doesn't take long in rugby league for what once was the benchmark, to become the norm.

As premiers you are always the favourite so there's no excuse you shouldn't win, there's extra media attention and extra pressure, particularly at the start of the year.

Yes, all of that is head noise and it shouldn't affect the way you play but that’s the hard part, every sportsperson knows 90 per cent of the game is mental.

It's up to the coaching staff and senior players to be able to refocus and recalibrate their goals. Trent Robinson's intelligence, pragmatism and commitment has them in good hands on that front.

Then, there's luck. Injuries, suspensions, off-field incidents. When I look back on my experience in 2003-04, we were firing in those years. I thought they were our better years but there's always a bit of luck that comes into play during the season.

If the Roosters played the Storm again the week after the 2018 decider there's no way the Storm deliver the same performance. Yes, they were blindsided by the Roosters near-perfect start, but a lot of their errors were uncharacteristic as often happens in a high-pressure game where you've got one opportunity and that's it.

With a grand final, you've worked so hard for 11 months and it comes down to that 80 minutes. There's a lot of pressure associated with that in itself. The Storm will go away rueing that grand final performance. The 2003 and 2004 grand finals were matches I didn't watch until years later.

You know you could have played better, executed better, taken better options or worst of all, you left something in the tank. That's the worst thing and that's why I feel for Melbourne.

But the Roosters can keep improving

In 2019 the Roosters will still have an advantage because they've got a formula that they know works. They have combinations that work and they were still going from strength to strength toward the end of the year, particularly with their attack.

They'll start the season with room to grow which is the exciting thing. They've lost Blake Ferguson who was an important player and got through a ton of work for them in 2018 but they pick up Brett Morris and Angus Crichton.

Defence was the foundation of their season and was so rock solid in that finals series. That foundation wins premierships.

Their attack started to really evolve late in the season. Luke Keary was outstanding in that grand final and deserved the Clive Churchill Medal and that in itself will stand them in good stead attack-wise.

It will be a more balanced attack structure with Cooper Cronk back to full fitness as well. Keary will be more confident he can take a dominant role in the team and Cronk can take a step back and focus more on his own game. I envisage their attacking combinations really evolving.

The way they were shifting the ball later in the season, loading up together on one side of the field and playing like a half and five-eighth in unison rather than one side each (as they did earlier in the year) was a really good sign.

They looked a lot more dynamic and had many more options around them hitting holes and putting the defence in two minds. They even began faking one set-up and shifted late to form another adding a new dimension to their attack.

Now they've worked out who plays what role, who's capable of what role, now they've got that really sussed out you'll see a lot more finesse come into their game. Much the same way the Storm had that finesse once Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk were all in sync.

The things that happen with a little wink or wave of the hand, the instinctive plays where they know what each other is doing, almost as though they are reading each other's minds.

So can the Roosters go back to back? Absolutely, they have all the ingredients and are still on an upward trajectory in terms of growth in their game plan and attacking structures. The bigger question will be how satisfied each player is with already winning a grand final.

The views in this article do not necessarily express the opinions of the NRL, ARLC, NRL clubs or state associations.