Friend: Condensed draw makes three-peat mission much tougher

No wins from two rounds and now a shortened 18-game season left for the Roosters to try to bring about a little piece of history – the first threepeat in the NRL era.

For co-captain Jake Friend it would be his fourth premiership ring, but he concedes this one will be the toughest to earn.

No team has won three successive titles since the NRL was established to 1998 and you have to go back to the 1983 Parramatta Eels to find the last time it was done.

Roosters chairman Nick Politis had advocated that due to the disrupted season this year, every NRL team should start from scratch – zero competition points.

The Eels, Knights, Raiders, Storm, Panthers and Broncos won both opening games and, along with the four other teams who split the first two rounds, will retain their four competition points after a ruling from the ARL Commission.

"Obviously it makes it tougher than the teams that have won two. Nick [Politis] has said his piece about that so I can't go too far into it," Friend said on Wednesday as the Roosters resumed training under COVID-19 pandemic protocols.

"But it's common sense that we're aware it's a tougher road for us. I'm sure Robbo [coach Trent Robinson] is going to have a plan and I'm sure our boys will go after it."

The job of adding 2020 to their Telstra Premiership wins over the past two seasons loomed as being doubly hard if they had lost Robinson for a fortnight's isolation.

The triple-premiership winning coach went home on Monday with a runny nose and underwent a COVID-19 test to ensure his health.

"It would have been tough but luckily Trent is all negative. It's a change of season, coming into winter," Friend said.

"I'd imagine throughout this period there will be lots of blokes who have little symptoms that make them have to stay at home.

"And they have to as we've got to be as stringent as we can with all of it."

Veteran utility Mitch Aubusson also has three premiership rings and doesn't think four fewer rounds will be a hindrance to the Roosters' quest.

"I still think there's plenty of life left in this competition – there's a long way to go," Aubusson said.

"From my point of view it's gone from a marathon to a half-marathon or three-quarter marathon. Obviously plenty to go and we'll make sure we put our best foot forward and go hard.

"The football side will look after itself. We need to get these next few weeks right. There's no chance I'm thinking about more than next week and the first game coming up.

"That's what I'll be telling the younger guys."

The Roosters have received a boost for the restart with English winger Ryan Hall officially being cleared to return to full contact training this week after successfully completing rehab on his injured knee. 

Under the old draw the first game back in round three was to be arch rivals South Sydney but that now may no longer be the case - the NRL is set to release a revamped draw next week.

"To be honest, we don't really care," Aubusson said.

"We're going to play everyone once, and like we've touched on, we're going to hit the ground running. I don't care who it is. We just need to be ready."

Rabbitohs winger Campbell Graham cares. He would love to face the Roosters.

"Roosters is always one you get up for. So getting them to come back to would be one to look forward to," Graham said.

"But the boys don't really need any motivation for the first game back."