Roosters back-rower Boyd Cordner says his side is back on track after an unexpected loss to Melbourne last week and credits the chance for an extra game against Canterbury for helping the side fight its way back into form.
Had the Roosters beaten Melbourne they'd have enjoyed a week off – seemingly an ideal scenario with halfback Mitch Pearce still battling to get back from a hamstring strain and Cordner himself dealing with a hip pointer injury, but the Test and State of Origin forward was happy to put a positive spin on the extra workload after his side's dominant 38-12 win on Friday night.
"We're trying to look at all the positives to play that extra game. I think we gained a little bit of momentum tonight which was good. Hopefully we can carry that onto next week," he said.
Of his own hip injury, he added: "It was a bit tender. Hats off to the medical staff here at the Roosters, I worked really closely with them throughout the week and they got me ready to go so I'm very happy about that."
Cordner was a standout performer and a try scorer against the Bulldogs but it was tough going early as the Dogs dominated the mid-field arm-wrestle.
"Obviously we knew being semi finals football and the class of the Bulldogs, they're a great side and we knew we were going to have to get in that arm-wrestle early with them and stick it to them there and not go away from our game plan," Cordner said.
"I think it showed late in the second half there, we got to play a bit more of our footy and it was good, it was pleasing.
"We felt that [they had the better of the early stages] but we just had to stick at our game plan and keep in that arm-wrestle and it was a massive improvement in both attack and defence from last week.
"It's something we have to keep building on now going up to Brisbane, it's going to be a massive task for us. We're looking forward to it already.
"We'll have a couple of days to rest the body and recoup and get ready for Brisbane. Obviously they've been the standout team of the comp so far so it's going to be a massive ask for us to go up there and play them up there but we're looking forward to it. Hopefully we can just keep building on tonight's performance."
