Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson has revealed how he and Cooper Cronk came up with the plan to beat Melbourne in Sunday’s NRL Grand Final.

The 21 – 6 victory came with just 12 fit men on the field as Cronk struggled with a fractured shoulder.

The half was effectively playing as a coach, guiding his teammates in attack and defence.

Robinson tells Alan Jones “years of training” laid the foundations for success, but says the Grand Final game plan was originally devised with Cronk not playing a part.

“We thought Mitchell Aubusson was going to play a decoy role… then when we watched training, Cooper and I were watching us put this into place with our centres doing a lot more work, Latrell Mitchell and Joseph Manu playing a five-eighth role at different times.

“We watched it and we were quite surprised on Tuesday how well it worked, and we knew Cooper would need to get out of the way.

“So when it came to Saturday, or Friday afternoon, we said, ‘Okay we’re going to play the same way, you’re going to play on the opposite side to where the ball’s going to go’.”

Click PLAY below for the full interview