Aidan Guerra believes sun's finally rising on Roosters

By Michael Carayannis
Updated August 30 2014 - 4:18am, first published 3:14am
Piling on the points ... Aidan Guerra scores against St George Illawarra.
Piling on the points ... Aidan Guerra scores against St George Illawarra.

Sydney Roosters back-rower Aidan Guerra says the defending premiers have shown just how damaging they can be after piling on a total of almost 100 points in consecutive games.

The Roosters are yet to rediscover the form that took them to last year's premierships but Guerra believes the tide is turning.

After beating Wests Tigers and New Zealand, the Roosters have an opportunity to push for the minor premiership when they host Melbourne on Saturday.

"We've been working towards consistency all season and the last couple of weeks have proved that wasn't in vain," Guerra said. "It will be good building further into the finals series but we're focused this week on the Storm and a good performance there will be one step towards it.

"[Against the Tigers] it was more the way how we played as a team. It reminded us of the Roosters football that we mastered last year but we haven't quite mastered it this season. It was good for it to come together and we just need to try and build on that every week.

"There's been glimpses of it this year but it's just a matter of doing it consistently."

The Roosters are in the midst of a four-game winning streak for the second time this year.

"It's tough but if it does click week to week, it obviously is a positive feeling around the place," Guerra said. "At the start of the season we didn't quite know what [being defending premiers] meant. We've soon learnt that all the teams we came up against were playing their best football week to week.

"It sort of caught us by surprise at the start but I think over the year we've grown to accept that challenge and know that's what we need to bring to the table.

"It was tough. Things weren't just as easy as you'd hoped but we just had to focus in on what we were doing and I think week to week we just worked on little things and eventually it turned into our performances."

The Roosters are largely injury-free, having welcomed back Sonny Bill Williams and Jake Friend in their last start win against the Warriors. They play a Melbourne side that they beat in round 13 minus Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater.

Guerra spent time within the Storm system as a junior before making his top grade debut for the Roosters in 2010 and had a first-hand look at Cronk, Slater and Cameron Smith.

"They're very talented players but the way they work off the field and the culture they have down there has stood the test of time," Guerra said. "It just goes to show that it's not a fluke."

Guerra is on the cusp of Test selection, having stood out in his Origin debut series. Australian coach Tim Sheens has already signalled him out as a potential Test bolter for this year's Four Nations.

"Going into [Origin] there is doubt whether you're good enough," Guerra said. "You can't really measure yourself on one series or one game. The weeks after Origin were pretty hard physically but if you want to be regarded as an Origin player it's something you have to do.

"To read [that I was in contention] was a bit of a shock but I'm not going to change what I do."

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