It's funny to think that at one point in the 2018 NRL season, the Roosters were the biggest disappointments.
After the 2017 NRL season when the Tricolours finished second on the ladder but were eventually knocked out in the preliminary finals by North Queensland, the Chooks went ahead and added legendary playmaker Cooper Cronk and star fullback James Tedesco.
Most pundits expected the Roosters to run away with the minor premiership, but after eight rounds, things weren't clicking for Trent Robinson's men and they sat in eighth position on the ladder due to winning just half of their matches.
They only lost four more matches in their remaining fixtures for 2018 and ended up pipping the Storm, Bunnies and Sharks for the minor premiership due to for and against.
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Boyd Cordner, the Roosters skipper, revealed that the Bondi-based club were never worried about their slow start to the season.
"We were always confident in our playing group and our structures," Cordner told reporters on Monday.
"Obviously, at the start of the year we had some new faces in some key positions, it took us a while to click and get going, but, things have come good and we've started to flow and play well as a group.
"The last few weeks hasn't been our best brand of footy, but we've come up against some sides that have played their best and it's been good preparation leading into finals because we're going to come up against some teams that are doing that."
Cooper Cronk was one of the many players that the rugby league community expected to fire for the Chooks from the get-go, but it certainly took him a few months to find his feet in a new team environment.
Since then, the former Melbourne Storm champion hasn't looked back.
"He never really has a bad game Cooper," Cordner said.
"You can't really say much about his form because he's always pretty much on top of his game.
"He's been massive for us this season, especially mid-late season where we've gone on a bit of a run, he's been one of our best players.
"I think he's played more finals games than any of us here at the Roosters, and probably more than anyone in the top-eight apart from Cameron Smith and Billy Slater.
"He'll help us out a lot in that sense."
