Robinson still hopeful Morris will end up with premiers

Trent Robinson said the chances of Josh Morris linking with his twin brother Brett at the Roosters was a wait-and-see prospect.

The Roosters coach had just watched his second-string side get pummelled 58-0 by the Knights at Gosford's Central Coast Stadium when he was asked about the prospect of Morris leaving the Sharks early in the 2020 season.

"I don't know yet. The interest is obviously there," Robinson said.

"We're really positive wanting him at the club and then it's up to Cronulla and the Roosters to work it out."

A report in 'The Sydney Morning Herald' on Saturday said there had been renewed interest between the two clubs to try and make the switch happen.

But the Sharks are reluctant to release Morris given back-line star Matt Moylan is not out of the woods yet with hamstring and calf problems, which have dogged his pre-season.

Morris feels put out that the Sharks signed Newcastle's Jesse Ramien, which put his own centre position in jeopardy since Cronulla also has Bronson Xerri on their books.

Robinson wouldn't be drawn into saying Morris would be a starter for the Roosters round one game against Penrith on March 14.

"That's a bit far ahead," he said.

"Let's wait. There's a lot of water to be passed under the bridge before we talk about him playing (for Roosters)."

There's likely to be some time too before many of the young Roosters players who took on a full-strength Newcastle side in Gosford get an NRL start.

But Robinson needed to rest his top-shelf players after their long-haul flight back from the UK after winning the World Club Challenge over St Helens last weekend.

He still saw merits in giving his lower grade players some first grade experience.

"Sometimes the occasion can get to you before you even get out there," Robinson said.

"But they played the footy we wanted them to play from the start.

"Then the footy lessons in the details areas came – kick-pressure, not giving a penalty away, catches on high ball, reading play those kinds of things.

"So all the details between a first grader and a lower grader, they just missed the mark on a few of those.

"But the attitude for the 80 minutes was exactly how they should have played."

The young Roosters gave it a real hard go for the opening 20 minutes but then dropped away quite quickly. Three first-half tries led to seven in the second.

Some Roosters fans started leaving at 36-0 with still a quarter of the game remaining.

Robinson didn't feel the need to apologise to fans for having to travel the 90km up the M1 Motorway to Gosford to see their side trampled on.

"I'm sure if they saw the team (beforehand) … but you've got to play a long-game with that," Robinson said.

"You see the future of some of the players out there. Are you worried about trial results or the development of the players?

"It's also recovering the (NRL) players to get them ready for round one. So there's positives in all that we did tonight."