Robinson not about to take Keary to task over botched try

Trent Robinson doesn't need to remind his premiership-winning half Luke Keary of the need to never assume that once you are over the try line you're safe to score.

Keary, carrying the ball in one hand, nonchalantly went to place the ball in Manly's in-goal at Leichhardt Oval on Saturday night only to be robbed of a certain try.

His Test teammate from 2018, Tom Trbojevic came swiftly behind him to knock the ball free from his hand as he was attempting to ground it.

"Kez is a smart enough footballer. I don’t need to talk to him about that," Robinson said after the 9-8 loss to the Sea Eagles.

"He's played the game for long enough …. I mean how many tries has he put down?"

Keary doesn't score that often. He only managed two in 2019 but he topped the NRL – ahead of Damien Cook and Mitchell Pearce – with 20 try assists last season.

"He obviously didn't think Tom was coming, from what I saw. I haven't talked to him about it," Robinson said.

"And I won't need to. That's something that he'll fix up himself."

What is occupying Robinson's mind is how he fixes up his team's cohesion and their inability to build momentum.

After a scintillating display against St Helens for a 20-12 win the World Club Challenge last month, the Roosters are 0-2 to start their NRL premiership defence.

"I want us to play our footy more. I won't go into all the details there," he said.

One glaring detail can't be overlooked - the Roosters completed just 31 of 43 sets compared with the Sea Eagles' more disciplined 33 from 37.

They also made five line breaks to Manly's one but couldn't capitalise.

"I saw some better signs again – they are a high quality team and I thought we defended better and better as the game went on," Robinson said.

"I still think we're working on our flow in attack. We did create a lot – two in the first half we should have got and then we had one to two in the second half I thought we could have picked up as well.

"But still even if we picked up those tries I know our flow can be much better than what we are."

The inevitable 'no Cooper Cronk' cry might come out from some fans, but Robinson said it was not the crux of the matter.

"Definitely t wasn't completely about management tonight it was more about execution," he said.

"We created enough opportunities in attack and couldn't execute them.

"So really disappointing that we couldn’t make the most of those opportunities."