Sydney Roosters team-mates believe damaging forward Amber Hall is still getting back to her best in a scary warning for rivals as they chase a second NRLW premiership.
Hall has played three matches since returning from a 12-month lay-off with a Lisfranc injury and is having a greater impact each week as she works towards playing the full 70 minutes.
The Kiwi Ferns second-rower showed what she is capable of in Sunday’s 28-8 win against the Dragons, scoring two tries and producing 11 tackle breaks to earn one Dally M vote and high praise for her captain and coach.
“We really missed ‘Halley’ last year. I think just her character as a person too. She's so great to have around the group,” said Isabelle Kelly.
Amber Hall can't be stopped close to the line
"She's a beast out there, I'm actually really glad she's on my team because I've had to play against her a lot.
“But it's good to see her building confidence every week, and I think building on her game, I think it's perfect timing with all that happening as well.”
Coach John Strange was also in high praise for Hall’s work-rate and is increasing her minutes in each match she has played this season.
After playing 27 minutes against the Broncos, with whom Hall won two premierships, she played 39 minutes against Wests Tigers and 50 against the Dragons.
“Coming back from that Lisfranc injury and out for 12 months, so we knew that there was going to be some conditioning that we would have to do and progressively build her minutes up through the season,” Strange said.
“She got more minutes, an extra like 10 minutes this week and I think close to 50 minutes today.
“I was trying to push her out for the whole game, but I thought we'd just bring her off towards the end.”
The Roosters have been hit by injuries this season but have shown great resilience to win three of their four matches and sit second behind the unbeaten Sharks.
With NSW five-eighth Corbin Baxter suffering a season ending knee injury and star centre Jess Sergis missing the match against St George Illawarra with a knee complaint, the Roosters have fielded a different spine each week.
After playing fullback and five-eighth in the opening three rounds, Kelly returned to her more accustomed centre position against the Dragons and scored two tries.
Kelly a stat monster
While the injuries have caused Strange headaches, he said it was an exciting prospect that these challenges weren’t affecting results as players have stepped up when needed.
“We've played four games now and we've had different combinations for every game,” he said. “Obviously losing Jess, we had to shuffle the decks a fair bit.
“So, any changes from week to week, or even during a game if we get injuries, I don't expect that to weaken at all. That's how we built our season off that.
“It is very exciting for me as a coach to know that we've just made three crucial changes this week and it's flowing really well.”
