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Unaccustomed to being finals failures, Sydney Roosters say they are not motivated by the chance to spoil the playoff hopes of their NRL rivals as the Tricolours seek to salvage something from their wreckage of a season.After three successive minor premierships and the 2013 title, the Roosters will miss the finals for the first time under coach Trent Robinson.They face Brisbane at Allianz Stadium in the opening match of round 21 on Thursday night - the first of a number of finals contenders they meet over the final six games of the regular season.The Roosters face Penrith, North Queensland, St George Illawarra, Cronulla and the Broncos again over the final third of the regular season and have the opportunity to put a dent in the finals hopes of every side with a win.The Roosters wobbled on their way to the 2013 finals with a penultimate round loss to Gold Coast, who missed the playoffs that year and played the role of spoiler with the title hopes of the Tricolours.But Robinson said that wasnt the focus for his side.It is a poor motivation to get into if you are focused on being an annoyance to other teams, you are putting it in the wrong place, Robinson said on Wednesday.That might be the secondary result but you need to be the best team you can be.If that is your focus then you are going to play some good footy.If your primary focus is to be annoying then you wont progress very far and you wont be a good team in the future.Robinson did concede the 15th placed Roosters would love to finish above 13th placed arch-rivals South Sydney, who have won five games as opposed to the Tricolours three.That is always of benefit to a Roosters team but we are both fighting for our own form at the moment, he said.Broncos coach Wayne Bennett is surprised at the Roosters lowly ladder position ahead of the sides first meeting their year and their first clash since Brisbanes 31-12 win in last years preliminary final at Suncorp Stadium.It does defy their team. They have quality players and are playing fair football but the results havent been going their way. We have a big task on our hands tomorrow night, Bennett said.Brisbanes task was made more difficult by the withdrawal of star forward Matt Gillett on Wednesday.He failed a fitness test on the shoulder he injured in State of Origin II.Fellow Queensland forwards Sam Thaiday and Josh McGuire are missing for the visitors due to suspension. Jaydn SuA and Herman Eseese come into the Brisbane 17.The Roosters are without Jared Waerea-Hargreaves due to a knee injury. Dale Copley comes into the Roosters 17 for his first match against his former side.KEY STATS* The Roosters have now lost six straight matches for the first time this season and the first time since their wooden spoon season of 2009* The Roosters have the worst completion rate in the competition (71.7 per cent)* Despite their form slump, losing six of their last eight, the Broncos average a try for every 9.2 tackles they have inside their opponents 20m line, the NRLs best red zone ratioSource: Fox Sports Stats Mark Messier Jersey . -- Teemu Selanne scored the first goal of his 22nd NHL season, and the Anaheim Ducks extended the best start in franchise history with their fifth straight victory, 3-2 over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Ryan Smyth Jersey . Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, announced Wednesday that the team would assign Swedish forward Elias Lindholm to his nations team for the upcoming tournament. http://www.officialoilersfanstore.com/authentic-esa-tikkanen-oilers-jersey/ . "Thank you for the warm welcome," Beckham said on an 80-degree February morning. In this case, it was soccer weather. The sport moved a step closer to returning to South Florida on Wednesday, when Beckham confirmed he has exercised his option to purchase a Major League Soccer expansion franchise in Miami. Paul Coffey Jersey . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. Jujhar Khaira Oilers Jersey . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors. NEW YORK -- After Russias widespread violations at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, new World Anti-Doping Agency director general Olivier Niggli says an expanding investigations staff will be on the lookout for state-sponsored cheating in other nations.It has happened in one country. I think it would be naive to think its the only country, he said Thursday during an interview at The Associated Press. We have to have our eyes really open and also make sure we act on intelligence and information we might get.A report commissioned for WADA found state-directed manipulation of drug-testing results at the Moscow anti-doping lab from at least 2011 through the summer of 2013 and said Russias Ministry of Sport advised the laboratory which findings to cover up.More than 100 Russian athletes, including all but one member of the track and field team, were banned from this years Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Niggli, a 46-year-old Swiss lawyer who replaced David Howman on July 1, said WADA will have conversations with FIFA about testing at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.Its still sufficiently far away to hope that things will have changed and improved in Russia, Niggli said. Its very important that we be able to work with the Russians to try to set up a system that is called compliant and that will provide some safeguards so that everybody regains confidence in what is going on there.Since the manipulation of Russian drug tests became public, the sample bottle used to collect urine has been improved. The IOC also has proposed that WADA take responsibility for drug testing across sports or establish an affiliate agency to do so.Niggli rejected a suggestion by Russian Vladimir Putin that athletes with therapeutic use exemptions be excluded from major competitions.I dont think its meaningful. I think every human being has a right of being treated for medical conditions, he said.Niggli was hired as WADAs legal director in 2002, added the title of finance directtor two years later, then left for a law firm in 2011.dddddddddddd He returned to WADA two years ago as chief operating officer.He said WADA accepts the Court of Arbitration for Sports decision to cut the suspension of Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova from two years to 15 months. A winner of all four Grand Slam tournaments, Sharapova tested positive for the heart drug meldonium, added to the banned list this year.It was slightly surprising that at that level she wouldnt get warned properly by her entourage, he said.WADA was set up by the IOC in 1999 and has a $30 million budget for next year. It already has doubled the size of its unit that scrutinizes possible violations, hiring former Interpol agent Guenter Younger as its new director of intelligence and investigations. Four additional employees likely will be added to the unit by next year.Whistle-blower is another obviously important thing, Niggli said. Even if we have an investigation department, were not the police, were not law enforcement. We have no legal means of compelling people to talk to us. Its only if people want to bring us information that I will get it.WADA believes maintaining biological passports for all athletes subject to testing will increase obstacles to doping. The passports establish baseline levels for each athlete, used for comparing with testing results.Makes it a lot more complicated for a chemist to get an edge, Niggli said. You would see variations which would be totally abnormal there and would trigger some reaction.He praised Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NHL for their anti-doping programs, which are subject to labor laws and negotiated with their unions. Among the major U.S. professional leagues, there is one WADA is not working with.We dont have too much relationship at the moment with the NBA, he said. ' ' '