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Roosters ready to ruffle Storm's NRL lead

The Sydney Roosters will welcome the return of their two co-captains for their top of the table NRL clash with Melbourne.

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Source: AAP


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Every player will have to step up if the Sydney Roosters are to match Melbourne in their top-of-the-table NRL clash, forward Aidan Guerra says.

Roosters co-captains Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend have been named to make their long-awaited returns from injury.

But there'll be no soft return for Cordner and Friend when the tricolours head south for Saturday's match at AAMI Park.

It's a highly anticipated game and comes after the Roosters' 36-18 loss last weekend to Manly, a week after the Storm had clobbered the Sea Eagles 40-6.

"The thing about the Storm is that you can't really focus on one area of their game because, as they've shown throughout the season, they've got the whole field covered," Guerra told AAP on Tuesday.

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"They're really strong right across the paddock and it's going to take 17 players to beat them, 17 Roosters playing their best football.

"It's not going to come down to a one-on-one miss or anything like that."

The Roosters head into round 23 on 32 points, two wins behind first-placed Melbourne on 36.

State of Origin depleted the two sides when they met in June, with the Roosters winning in golden point, as the Storm were without Cameron Smith, Cooper Cronk and Billy Slater.

But versatile Mitch Aubusson is aware of how "completely different" this will be.

"We need to make sure we're doing everything we can to stop them as a team," Aubusson told AAP.

"They're future Immortals and some of the best players our game has seen so we've obviously been working hard on that and we're looking forward to seeing how that shapes up.

"We haven't played them at full strength so I think it'll be a really good test to see where we're at.

"They're good, but they're definitely not unbeatable."


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