“That training intensity won’t be any different this week. It’s a short turnaround, but we’ll rip in to each other again and hopefully rip in against the Storm on Friday.”

Crichton noted both the “mongrel and aggressive mindset” Waerea-Hargreaves and Radley added to their pack against Manly, though he admitted to a slight sense of apprehension initially when Robinson ramped up training during the week.

“The boys were sore, looking at each other and saying, ‘What are we doing?’ a little bit,” Crichton said. “But we trained how we want to play. We knew we missed our mark against Penrith and had no other option but to make sure we didn’t miss it this week.”

Radley’s return three weeks after suffering a fractured scapula – the same injury Cooper Cronk played through in the 2018 grand final – capped a remarkable recovery few considered possible, even among Roosters teammates and coaching staff.

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“It’s unbelievable. He’s a mad unit,” Leniu said. “The whole week he [said], ‘Just chuck an injection in, numb it up and I’ll be right’.

“That’s what he was saying all week and I was like, maybe just chill, we’ll win this week and you come in next week.

“But it’s a credit to him. He’s just a hard person, hard-nosed. He makes me feel 10 feet tall, like Jared and all the other boys ... No doubt [Waerea-Hargreaves] is definitely the guy that sets it. He starts the smoke and it just catches fire with everyone else. Our NSW Cup boys who are not playing, they were running over us and tackling hard as well.”

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