Sydney Roosters prop Martin Kennedy believes his team can bridge the four-point gap to the NRL top eight, even if recent history suggests otherwise.
The upset 42-28 win over Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval on Sunday snapped a four-match losing streak and kept the Roosters faint finals hopes alive.
However, at the corresponding stage last year, no clubs outside the eight were able to claw back a comparable deficit.
“I think we’ve been unlucky in a lot of the games this year, there’s been a few things out of our control that have impeded us from progressing up the ladder,” Kennedy said.
“We definitely haven’t lost any faith and having such a young side, we are always really enthusiastic at training.”
The Roosters face Manly at Allianz Stadium on Sunday and Kennedy felt it would take more than successive wins over two premiership heavyweights to stamp themselves as finals contenders.
“We’ve been disappointing in patches this year, so we’re going to have to put a lot more than one or two wins together to send any message to any other team,” Kennedy said.
“We just need to try and get ourself in a position where we can have a red-hot go at the finals.”
Emerging Roosters prop Lama Tasi said his former club Manly had one of the tougher packs in the competition but backed his team to dominate any opposition forwards.
“When we all put our heads to it and if we believe in each other, we could steamroll any forward pack,” Tasi said.
“That’s what I believe and I’m pretty sure all the boys believe that too.”