Rare Roosters win with Refs after story

Still on referees, there was one certainty going into last weekend's round of matches - that the Roosters would achieve a rare win in the penalty count department. The club planted a story in the News Corp media last week how they had only won 29 per cent of penalty counts under coach Trent Robinson. Roosters supremo Nick Politis - one of the most powerful men in the game - even spoke to NRL bosses Peter V'landys and Andrew Abdo about the issue. Sure enough, the Roosters had a rare win in the penalties two days later, 7-6, but it proved crucial as they limped to a one-point win over the luckless Broncos. It was the sort of trick powerful CEOs like Canterbury's Peter Moore and Parramatta's Denis Fitzgerald used before big games in the tabloid press back in the 1980s - and it is still effective. How small clubs like the Tigers, Warriors and Titans wish they had an influential figure like Politis in their corner!