{"id":914721,"date":"2026-10-03T14:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T14:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914721\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T14:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T14:08:13","slug":"nrl-grand-final-2026-connor-watson-reaction-hia-concussion-sydney-roosters-trent-robinson-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/914721\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL grand final 2026: Connor Watson reaction, HIA, concussion; Sydney Roosters; Trent Robinson press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sydney Roosters<\/a> coach Trent Robinson<\/a> has spoken of Connor Watson<\/a>\u2019s disappointment at missing out on the grand final after a failed bid to have a concussion stand-down dismissed<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Watson was concussed during the preliminary final against the Dolphins<\/a>, with was designated as a category one HIA by the independent doctor which meant he was subject to the 11-day stand-down policy. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Connor Watson as Roosters training. \u00a0Getty Images<\/p>\n

Robinson said the team found out at training on Friday and Watson had to control his emotions in the middle of a training session.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnor\u2019s a good man, a strong man, he\u2019s his own man, so he had to control all that … the absolute devastation that it is for him and all the work that\u2019s gone into his football career for his family and friends and then you get the news like that, it\u2019s quite tough,\u201d he told media.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe spoke to the group quite clearly that this is about the group and he passed that on.. and the player that took his spot, Benaiah Ioelu, spoke about the love for Connor and what it means for his role coming into the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what teams are about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson was unsure where Watson will watch the game. <\/p>\n

The Roosters coach was also asked about whether a bye before the grand final should be implemented to ensure a player doesn\u2019t miss out due to the protocol. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think these are unfortunate things that happen but we have protocols for a reason,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more for we have a week off before the finals than I am before the grand final. I feel like momentum is built throughout the finals series and the attrition is a part of our game, so I understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Watson\u2019s overall reaction, Robinson said there was \u201ca lot of pain\u201d for him but described his Origin star as someone who displays stoicism. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows who he is, what he\u2019s done, his role in this team and what he wants from this team,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone as stoic as Connor is going to hold that emotion, give positive energy to the crew and move on and that\u2019s exactly what he did.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has spoken of Connor Watson\u2019s disappointment at missing out on the grand final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-914721","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\/914721","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=914721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}