{"id":910693,"date":"2026-09-30T06:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T06:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910693\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T06:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T06:30:15","slug":"its-easy-to-hate-the-roosters-but-their-success-is-built-on-a-culture-of-respect-sydney-roosters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910693\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s easy to hate the Roosters \u2013 but their success is built on a culture of respect | Sydney Roosters"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is somewhat lost to history given he is now the longest-serving Sydney Roosters<\/a> coach but when Trent Robinson was hired by the NRL club in late 2012, it was a surprise. Jason Taylor was heavily favoured even after his tumultuous departure from South Sydney. The league\u2019s coaching ranks were filled with old school disciplinarians and those of the ranting and raving bent. Another new hire at the time, Michael Maguire at the Rabbitohs, had enjoyed a successful debut season but was very much a football obsessive who viewed players as his pawns.<\/p>\n

Robinson was and is the antithesis of Maguire and has operated very differently to the traditional macho dictatorship often seen in top tier rugby league coaching. As he prepares for his fourth grand final in his 14th season at the helm of the tricolours, Robinson stands tall as the leader of a new way that prizes personal connection, treats players as people, and understands that stability and happiness hold tremendous value.<\/p>\n

Measured and methodical, few who have played under him have anything bad to say about the 49-year-old as a coach or a human \u2013 and the results have spoken for themselves. Across his tenure, the Roosters have made the finals on 13 occasions, winning three titles. He has managed big-name, big-ego recruits like Cooper Cronk and Daly Cherry-Evans, handled the development of talents like Latrell Mitchell and Sam Walker, championed hard-workers like Mitchell Aubusson and Victor Radley, and got the very best out of the mercurial Michael Jennings and Daniel Tupou.<\/p>\n

He did so, first and foremost, through authenticity. Robinson is a rugby league intellectual. He is measured in his temperament. He is clear in his communication. He is compassionate in his treatment of others. His desire to win is as great as any coach in the NRL<\/a> \u2013 you don\u2019t last 14 years if it\u2019s not \u2013 but he truly understands that footballers are more than their football. They are family men, social creatures, community leaders, standard-bearers, ratbags who worry about finances, babies, partners, mortgages and all the other stresses that come with life.<\/p>\n

The Roosters train ahead of the NRL grand final under the watchful eye of Trent Robinson. Photograph: Mark Kolbe\/AAP<\/p>\n

No club in the NRL involves partners more. The club has had a creche for a long time. Family milestones matter. To this day Robinson attends birthdays, funerals or major events of current and former players. When the Roosters recruit, they look for those that will buy into the culture.<\/p>\n

In hiring John Strange to coach the NRLW<\/a> team in 2021, the club looked to extend that culture to their women. Strange is an intelligent, deliberate, considerate, worldly coach who could build success through hard work and mutual respect. In six seasons under Strange, the women have achieved three minor premierships, two titles, three undefeated seasons and made four grand finals. The club has lost just four regular season games across the last five seasons.<\/p>\n

Five-eighth Jocelyn Kelleher is effusive in her praise for the 51-year-old coach: \u201cHe\u2019s literally one of the big reasons I play footy \u2026 I can\u2019t say enough nice things about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Kelleher has signed on with the Roosters until the end of 2027 after debuting in 2020. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts\/AAP<\/p>\n

It is that kind of approach that has won Strange and Robinson respect around the league, adoration among players \u2013 at the Roosters and from those elsewhere hoping to play for them \u2013 and a loyal following who believe their way represents what the present and future of coaching should look like.<\/p>\n

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The \u201cRoosters Way\u201d has clearly delivered success on the field while ensuring the roster always ranks among the most elite in both competitions. It is not just money that attracts players to a club \u2013 see the men\u2019s Broncos on that front \u2013 but how players are treated. The likes of James Maloney, Cronk, James Tedesco, Angus Crichton and Cherry-Evans all moved to the Roosters as established superstars, while the likes of Jessica Sergis, Tarryn Aiken, Millie Elliott, Amber Hall and Keeley Nizza all left other clubs to play for Strange.<\/p>\n

For the men and women there is a sense of destiny as much as redemption this Sunday.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s Roosters have never lost a grand final and he has missed September football just once in his storied career. Yet the drums have been beating for the club to make a coaching change. Strange\u2019s team are unbeaten across the last two regular seasons, and losing last year\u2019s decider to rivals Brisbane hurt. Throwing two unbeaten seasons away seems unimaginable.<\/p>\n

The Roosters have long been positioned as a soulless, transactional club. The reality in 2026 though is that they have built success on culture, on the ethos of two men with the simple view that truly respects the talented men and women they coach. Destiny awaits on Sunday. Both teams will enter ready \u2013 because both teams know that win, lose or draw there will be a tomorrow where the club and their coach has their back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is somewhat lost to history given he is now the longest-serving Sydney Roosters coach but when Trent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-910693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}