The Serve

Anderson writing on wall after first game

Eighty minutes was all that was needed to know that this relationship was going to end badly.

Chris Anderson returned to the NRL with his chest puffed out. An opportunity to put his player friendly touch on a club crying out for love, following its acrimonious split with Ricky Stuart. A perfect way to write the wrong of the Sharks four years earlier.

Round one was to be the statement game. Souths on Monday night. Boy, was a statement made. The Roosters produced one of its most insipid displays in recent history, barely troubling the opposition, its only try coming from a bomb. A bold attempt to resurrect a single marker defence was easily picked off.

A disaster.

Upbeat before the game, Anderson was a broken man in the dressing rooms minutes after fulltime. He could barely speak as he politely laboured through media interviews. Didn’t see this coming. Didn’t have an answer. Anderson looked like someone who wished they could walk away right then and there.

And this was the first game.

It’s a sad demise. The Cronulla debacle brought what appeared to be a premature end to Anderson’sbig time coaching career. At least there he could blame a stuffy management with a losing culture. Despite the suits at the Roosters having a reputation for being overtly hands on, it seems Anderson wheeled and dealed as he pleased.

There can be no blame on anyone else.

Anderson reportedly referred to coaching as a ‘young man’s game’. It’s easy to forget he started his first grade coaching career eighteen years ago. A fruitful career at Canterbury was followed by his piece de resistance, the 1999 premiership with Melbourne Storm. Taking an expansion team to a title in its second year sealed his legacy, no matter what may have happened in the following decade.