The Chronicle

Keary won’t solve all problems

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RUGBY LEAGUE: Trent Robinson warns Luke Keary won’t be a panacea for the Sydney Roosters’ problems as the star five-eighth makes his NRL return against Canterbury tonight.

Keary has been cleared to play his first game of the season after being sidelined because of a broken jaw following a training accident and subsequent­ly suffering worrying headaches.

The heavily hyped Roosters misfired in their openingrou­nd loss to the Wests Tigers and coach Robinson said Keary (pictured) wouldn’t immediatel­y solve their problems.

“It’s not a matter of him making a difference,” Robinson said.

“You train for five weeks with your halves pairing and then he goes out with a broken jaw and you change that.

“There’s a combinatio­n between the forwards, the halves and the backs – there’s got to be some links. That’s up to us as coaches to make sure we have those links on.”

Tonight’s clash with the Bulldogs at Allianz Stadium will mark Keary’s first game alongside Cooper Cronk.

While the Roosters came into the season as the shortest-price premiershi­p favourites in years, questions have been raised as to whether their newlook side will take weeks and months to gel following the addition of Cronk and James Tedesco.

Robinson was bullish that they would hit their straps sooner rather than later and said there were still promising signs against the Tigers after holding them to just 10 points.

“We defended fairly well for about 70 minutes,” Robinson said. We held tight for a long time, that was a good thing to see early in the year.”

“You want to see your defence on and we did that for the most part until the last try.”

 ?? PHOTO: MARK KOLBE/GETTY ??
PHOTO: MARK KOLBE/GETTY

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