"Prove your worth".
It's the simple message Trent Robinson will pass onto his Sydney Roosters before Saturday night's NRL blockbuster with Cronulla.
The Roosters have a chance to go second on the NRL ladder with a week to play, but of more importance to Robinson will be whether his charges can show their true colours with the finals looming.
The Roosters have dropped games to Manly and Melbourne in the past month, before they only scraped home against the lowly Wests Tigers last weekend.
"If we want to get to where we want to get to, we want to play well tomorrow night," Robinson said on Friday.
"We've worked ourselves into this competition and are in a good position but I think we've got to prove that tomorrow night against a really quality opponent.
"People are waiting to see something spectacular, but we continue to sit in a good position."
The Roosters failed to back up fast starts against Manly and the Tigers, and have won both halves of a match just once since round 15 to leave even Robinson questioning their true form.
And while he has identified Saturday's clash as a key marker of where their finals hopes are, he is confident they can find the consistency to again put in an 80-minutes performance.
"When we talk about those periods there is often a power style that we play," he said.
"And in between those moments there has been some really strong periods.
"But if we're going to beat Cronulla tomorrow night we're going to have to sustain a long periods under pressure and then come out with some good footy."
The Roosters have dropped their last six matches to Cronulla dating back to 2014, and Robinson admitted he'd revisited their most 44-12 loss to the Sharks last month.
"Traits are traits, people repeat things," he said.
"If you ignore it, it may keep happening. So you've got to make sure you address it. But you also do attack this as a brand new game.
"It's a different year, it's a different month ... We've taken our lessons but this is a new game, so we've got to go and attack it like it is."
Share
