Through green eyes 2021

All the news on the Canberra Raiders NRL team, all in one place

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Raider47
Jason Croker
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Raider47 »

We written GE. Agree with it all, bar the ratings. Most players would be getting 1 or 2 in my eyes. Some purely dreadful performances, the worst in years. Papa the only one who deserves more than a 5.
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T_R
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by T_R »

Croker must have been on the edge of a 3. Worst performance I've seen for years.
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Son, we live in a world that has forums, and those forums have to be guarded by Mods. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Nickman? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Lucy, and you curse GE. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know -- that GE’s moderation, while tragic, probably saved lives; and my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, keeps threads on track and under the appropriately sized, highlighted green headings.
You want moderation because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that forum -- you need me on that forum. We use words like "stay on topic," "use the appropriate forum," "please delete." We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very moderation that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather that you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you get a green handle and edit a post. Either way, I don't give a DAMN what you think about moderation.
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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Both Croker and Valemei were on the verge of a 3. There were a few others on the verge of lower rankings as well. I do try to also give credit for the positive things the players do too and take the emotion out of it as much as I can. But I agree that there's a case for different ratings for a number of players
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Billy Walker
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Billy Walker »

greeneyed wrote: July 4, 2021, 11:58 am Both Croker and Valemei were on the verge of a 3. There were a few others on the verge of lower rankings as well. I do try to also give credit for the positive things the players do too and take the emotion out of it as much as I can. But I agree that there's a case for different ratings for a number of players
Tough gig pulling the positives out of that one GE but I think you did well.
mick63
David Grant
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by mick63 »

Hard to disagree with the summation GE.
When a machine is misfiring it goes to the mechanic.Unfortunately it keeps coming back as fixed only to be worse.

I think the one point margin is more unfair to Papalii.His performance was an 8 in my book.
He played like he did on our finals runs of the past two years
Dominant through the middle in the first 30-40 and almost always ready to offload.
That there was no one around for him mostly lead to wasted opportunity.
But I guess they were just getting into position to get the systems right for the next play
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afgtnk
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by afgtnk »

No way Williams should be given the same rating as Wighton.

Notwithstanding the shocking effort on Fogarty, I thought Williams was the best in the spine and the only one who even remotely looked like creating anything out there, and scored the type of try that should make the team feel embarassed.

Rapana at 6 is way too high.

Sutton rating the same as CHN and Whitehead is an insult to him.
Hong Kong Raider
Jason Croker
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Hong Kong Raider »

Semi Valemei 4
Jarrod Croker 4
Sebastian Kris 4
Jordan Rapana 6
Jack Wighton 5
Sam Williams 5

Very overgenerous in your ratings of these players
RedRaider
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by RedRaider »

GE's player rating below: (Sia the only 3?) I can't see Tapine as a 5 on his performance. There are others but the Game Day thread has named those. The selection of the side for Manly will go a long way to showing how gutted Sticky is. If both centers remain in those positions then Sticky is not hurting as much as fans.

Bailey Simonsson 5
Semi Valemei 4
Jarrod Croker 4
Sebastian Kris 4
Jordan Rapana 6
Jack Wighton 5
Sam Williams 5
Josh Papalii 7
Josh Hodgson 4
Dunamis Lui 5
Corey Harawira-Naera 6
Elliott Whitehead 6
Ryan Sutton 6

Tom Starling 4
Emre Guler 6
Sia Soliola 3
Joseph Tapine 5
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Roger Kenworthy
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Roger Kenworthy »

I'd hate to see Croker and Kris have a '2'.
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BJ
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by BJ »

Roger Kenworthy wrote:I'd hate to see Croker and Kris have a '2'.
That would involve actively carrying the opposition in for a try and tackling any Raiders players who are trying to stop the opposition.
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Roger Kenworthy
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Roger Kenworthy »

BJ wrote: July 5, 2021, 10:04 am
Roger Kenworthy wrote:I'd hate to see Croker and Kris have a '2'.
That would involve actively carrying the opposition in for a try and tackling any Raiders players who are trying to stop the opposition.
:lol:

Didn't Brett Kelly throw an opponent over the line once? It's plausible.
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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Through green eyes: Gobsmacked

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gobsmacked
/ˈɡɒbsmakt/
adjective
INFORMAL • BRITISH
utterly astonished; astounded.
"the locals were gobsmacked when us lot trooped in"


Gobsmacked. That is how Ricky Stuart has described the reaction of the players and the staff to the performance against the Gold Coast Titans last Saturday.

It's a fair description of the reaction of the Raiders fans, too. They started streaming out of Canberra Stadium with 20 minutes remaining in the match. Some of those who remained to the bitter end "booed" the team as they left the field.

It's hard to believe how far and how quickly the Raiders have fallen in 2021 - after a Grand Final appearance in 2019 and a Preliminary Final appearance in 2020.

Prior to the game against the Titans, Ricky Stuart told his team that it was their opportunity to re-start their season. But at the end of the game, the 13th placed Titans had notched up their biggest ever win and equalled their highest ever points tally. The Raiders had produced their biggest loss since the 54-12 drubbing at the hands of the Warriors in Auckland back in 2014.

I wrote last week about the Raiders "home straight" - and about how tough it is. How essential wins against teams below them on the ladder, like the Titans, are if they're to made the top eight. Now the Raiders have to get back on the horse very quickly. They have a very short turnaround to Thursday night's clash with the Sea Eagles.

"It's been quite rushed, trying to get over a game that we were certainly disappointed with," coach Ricky Stuart said today.

"We sit down and have a look at the game. Not that I've really gone through it with the players this week. It's been a very short preparation going into the next match. So we've had to jump into Manly pretty quickly."

"We had a chat about the performance last week. The players, the staff, were all gobsmacked by it. We didn't see that coming. That's probably the easiest way to describe it."



I'm surprised they didn't see it coming. The team has been performing poorly all season - for at least part of their matches. I guess last Saturday was different because there were two halves of football where the performance was poor. Not just one.

The task ahead of the Raiders tomorrow night is imposing. The Raiders have found it very tough going at "Fortress Brookvale" - or "The Swamp" as I prefer to call it. They have a win rate of just 35 per cent at the ground. They are without Origin players Josh Papalii and Jack Wighton, while Bailey Simonsson and Elliott Whitehead have been sidelined by injury. The team was already without their first choice fullback and halfback from the start of the season. The team has to fly in and fly out for the game. They leave by a charter flight at 2pm - and wait four hours at the ground before the game kicks off.

On the plus side, the Sea Eagles will also be without their two main play makers due to Origin - Daley Cherry-Evans and Tom Trbojevic. Manly were losers early in the season without an injured Trbojevic. Since his return to the field, he's been in a such a purple patch of form, he's transformed them into winners, riding high in fifth place on the ladder. Trbojevic's absence should give the Raiders some chance. Hopefully, the Raiders will be able to grasp it.

****

It is great to see Xavier Savage get his proper first grade debut tomorrow night. He was injected into his first NRL game against the Dragons in Round 15, when he was the 18th man. However, he was illegally used by the Raiders, and he had to come off after just 11 minutes. The NRL has now ruled it was not an official appearance.

I first saw him play out at Kippax, when he starred for the Queensland Schoolboys when they won the Australian Schoolboys National Championship in the middle of 2019. He scored six tries in four games, two in the Grand Final. This year, he's starred in the Raiders premiership winning SG Ball team - and he was quickly drafted into the NSW Cup team.

Savage has speed, and that's something that the Raiders desperately need in the era of Vlandysball. I think his best position is on the wing - but now he has his chance in the No. 1 jersey tomorrow night.

After the loss to the Titans, coach Ricky Stuart said he'd be bringing in some new faces, because he needed more energy in the team. Today, he was downplaying that. He emphasised he wouldn't be relying on the young players to lift the spirits and enthusiasm.



But he is as excited as the fans are about Savage's debut, if not more so. Stuart says Savage was "a little bit shocked" when he told him he'd be playing against the Sea Eagles.

"It all happened quite quickly, because I announced the team on Monday to the players," Stuart said today.

"It was important for him to actually know what his role was going to be and to know that he was going to be playing first grade. So I let him know first thing Monday."

"I've had some communication with his mother over the last month. She's a very proud Mum. Just talking to his mother this week I could sense the excitement in her voice."

"And I can actually see it in Xavier's training. He's excited."

"It's not up to him to win us the game or come out and get man of the match."

"It's up to him to just come out and get the experience and learn what it's like to play first grade football."

"We're not leaning on him to pull us out of this situation we're in. I've got enough senior players and enough good players there to do that. We've got to create the enthusiasm around him for him to enjoy his game."

I suspect Stuart agrees that wing is Savage's best position.

"He's a player that can play wing, a little bit of centre and fullback and it'll be just great to see him get his opportunity now in what will be his real first grade debut."

"He's had the correct pathway. He's played junior rep football. I've watched him play with the Queensland Schoolboys team. He had a good season this year with our Under 19s premiership winning team. He's followed the correct pathway through."

"We've got a number of juniors that will get this opportunity, whether is this year or next year."

And that is the other exciting thing. There are quite a few young players in this year's SG Ball team who are future NRL stars in the making. Keep your eyes out for the likes of Trey Mooney, Caleb Esera, Clay Webb and Michael Asomua.

****

Elliott Whitehead joined the Canberra Raiders back in 2016. Since then he's barely missed a game. He's averaged 25 appearances in his first five years at the club - and has played 138 games in his six seasons in green.

He won't be playing tomorrow night. He has a shoulder injury and serious facial cut above his eye. He's probably carrying some other minor injuries. Ricky Stuart says he made the call to give him a rest this week.

"Elliott Whitehead. He doesn't miss much football, Elliott," Stuart said today.

"His body needs a rest. He's got a bad shoulder and he's got a very bad cut to the eye and the eyelid. He needs a rest."

"It's a credit to Elliott in regards what he puts his body through week in and week out."

"It's why we say we love playing with Elliott. He puts his body on the line every week. He didn't pull out. I made the decision because I know he would have played."

No doubt, he's a captain courageous.

****

I've been writing often about the impact of rule changes over the past two years. Sadly, my predictions about blowouts in scorelines have come to pass. Last Saturday we saw three games decided by a margin of 148-6. Last Thursday night, the Storm beat the Roosters 46-0. The blowouts are as bad as we've ever seen in the history of the game in Australia.



On the weekend, Wayne Bennett pointed the finger at mismanagement and underperforming clubs for the blowouts.

This is a complex issue. The blowouts we're seeing are probably due to a range of factors. Club mismanagement is probably one. I'd add that the gap between strong and weaker clubs is accentuated NRL policies which favour some over others. An ineffective salary cap, third party deals, and uneven broadcast exposure for starters.

However, I believe that the rule changes are clearly most significant factor.

NRL football boss Graham Annesley admitted this week that the average margins have increased significantly in the past couple of years. He also revealed that the increase in blowouts this year have been most pronounced in clashes between teams inside the top eight. The blowouts can't be just the result of strong teams beating up on weak or mismanaged clubs.

In case you missed it, Pythago NRL produced an excellent article explaining the problem. It's a problem that the NRL has to address seriously at the end of the year. In my view, unwinding the 2021 rule changes would be a good start.

****

Every week I rate the Raiders players on a scale of 0-10... and here is the points tally after the clash with the Titans. Tell us what you think of the ratings!

Total points

Elliott Whitehead 93
Ryan Sutton 93
Jack Wighton 86
Jordan Rapana 85
Bailey Simonsson 81
Josh Papalii 80
Sebastian Kris 73
Josh Hodgson 69
Tom Starling 66
George Williams 65
Hudson Young 63
Curtis Scott 58
Emre Guler 58
Joe Tapine 58
Ryan James 54
Corey Harrawira-Naera 53
Sia Soliola 53
Dunamis Lui 47
Siliva Havili 44
Caleb Aekins 42
Corey Horsburgh 35
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 31
Jarrod Croker 30
Sam Williams 29
Semi Valemei 28
Matt Timoko 13
Brad Schneider 2
Xavier Savage 2

Average points per match

Josh Papalii 6.7
Ryan Sutton 6.6
Jordan Rapana 6.5
George Williams 6.5
Matt Timoko 6.5
Hudson Young 6.3
Josh Hodgson 6.3
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 6.2
Elliott Whitehead 6.2
Jack Wighton 6.1
Caleb Aekins 6.0
Corey Harrawira-Naera 5.9
Corey Horsburgh 5.8
Curtis Scott 5.8
Emre Guler 5.8
Joe Tapine 5.8
Sam Williams 5.8
Bailey Simonsson 5.8
Semi Valemei 5.6
Ryan James 5.4
Dunamis Lui 5.2
Sebastian Kris 5.2
Tom Starling 5.1
Jarrod Croker 5.0
Siliva Havili 4.9
Sia Soliola 4.8
Brad Schneider 2.0
Xavier Savage 2.0

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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Through green eyes: As I saw it

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"I'm just really happy for the 19 boys that we brought up here today. The scenario, the situation we're in, it's hard. And it's been even harder because we've been used to winning games of football and playing better than what we have. The way we won tonight was a credit to the mentality of the players, the attitude of the players. It's the exact opposite to what I said last week. I'll repeat what I said. We just haven't had enough individuals all play a good game, a great game, one of their better games of football, together. Tonight, out of the 17 who took the field there wasn't a player that I could say didn't get a tick of approval in regards to their defence or attack. That's what it takes to win at this level.

I think our kicking game put an immense amount of pressure on Des's boys. We got a number of repeat sets of six. I don't think we've in been in a position like that all season in regards to possession and that control of the football. I think we were at 90 per cent completions at half time. And it all counts. They're the little portions of game statistics in your favour to be in the fight to win. And especially with the way the game is played at the moment you need to be able to control that area of the game. I go back to it. Each individual had a contribution to the result tonight. It wasn't where we've been over the last couple of months where we've only had bits and pieces... or a few players play well one week, and then the next week, we've got another few players. We had a team effort tonight. I'm just really happy that they've got a good feeling as an individual and group tonight.

Sam Williams is a great leader of a football team from an attacking point of view. We all know Sam gets targeted from opposition attack. We get that and Sam does everything he can possibly do to get in front of them. I thought he did a good job tonight in that area, but also from an attacking point of view with Matt Frawley, we kept putting pressure on them with our kicking game. We played to a plan tonight and they executed it. And that's what you want from your halves. Sam's an experienced player. I think it's his 101st NRL game now. He's a competitor. I thought Tom Starling and Josh Hodgson were terrific in the middle third of the footy field as well.

Joe Tapine's last month, three to four weeks, has been his best of the season. You hear a lot of comment about our situation at the moment. That we're fractured as a group. That we've got issues in the camp. We haven't. But we're all very competitive individuals. We're a club that strives to be a competitive football team that wants to be playing finals football. When you're in a very volatile, competitive industry, there's always going to be head-butts. I've never coached a football team, or be coached as a player, where there haven't been a few head-butts throughout the year. But we're all men and we get on with it. It's a lot different inside our club, than what the comment is outside.

I know we've been accused of players not putting in, lack of effort. That couldn't be any further from the truth. You look at last week's game and we were really embarrassed. But there was effort there, but we were just poor. We played poor football. We defended very poorly and we didn't have any attack. But it wasn't through lack of effort, it was through not enough players playing their best game of football all on the one day. It's less than one per cent of your week. You've just got to play well for 80 minutes of football. And it's my job to get them up to try to do that. And my job is, like the players, to try and be my best every week.

There have been some head-butts with a couple of players this year with myself. But that's me trying to create an edge, that's me trying to get that player to play his best football. That's not me personally attacking a player. The one thing I try so hard to do is build a relationship with my player. That's what I think I'm good at and I won't change that. Some days you might have a head-butt with your best mate. But you've got to be big enough to move on. It's not all the player's fault, I'm wrong too. You sit down and discuss and you move forward. It's a tough sport. It's a tough job playing in the NRL and coaching it. You've got to be able to handle self analysis. You've got to be able to handle criticism as a coach and as a player. And you move forward as a group. And that's what they did tonight. We're certainly not out of the woods. We need to back that game up and we'll start preparing on Monday for that.

I'm [only] worrying about next game. We're not in a position to be concerned about what's happening with the table or what's happening over the next two to three weeks. I'll give these boys a little bit of down time, because we've got a longer turnaround now after a very short turnaround. It's been a tough situation over the last three months, only winning a game or so. We're certainly not out of it. It doesn't mean we're anywhere near out of it. We need to back up today's performance. We don't win that game tonight if we're broken inside our club. I can promise you, we're not."

Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart


2021 Round 17. Canberra Raiders 30 - Manly Sea Eagles 16. The Canberra Raiders came with a plan and it worked. Both the Raiders and Sea Eagles were without some of their best players, due to State of Origin. The Raiders were missing Josh Papalii and Jack Wighton. The Sea Eagles were without their two main play makers - Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans. Trbojevic is the form player of the competition right now. He's almost turned Manly into a winning team, single-handed. And the Sea Eagles looked like a team missing their talisman. But the Raiders did their job.



Sam Williams and Matt Frawley have been the Raiders' NSW Cup halves combination for much of the year. But they were terrific in steering the team around. They came with the aim of getting some repeat sets through their kicking game, and they did that almost perfectly. Typically, the Raiders don't even attempt to do that. Last night, they inflicted eight forced line drop outs on the Sea Eagles. Williams delivered three and Frawley delivered three. It was one key to victory. It helped deliver a mountain of possession and territory to the Raiders.



Another key was injecting hooker Tom Starling into the game after 25 minutes. In the back half of the 2020 season, the diminutive Starling made his biggest impact when coming into the game after Siliva Havili had absorbed the big hits of the opening stages. This year, he's either started matches or been brought in when it was all too late. He's not been at his best in 2021, as he's not been used effectively. Last night, he added spark just at the right time. He scored almost as soon as he entered the fray.

Joe Tapine was the other main difference. A huge difference. He came on early, replacing Dunamis Lui in the 12th minute. In 2021, Tapine has been nowhere near the form that he showed in the back half of last year. Last night he really stepped up in the absence of Josh Papalii. He produced the sort of performance that we all know he can deliver - but doesn't always do so. He led the Raiders pack in an outstanding 44 minutes.

The result was a massive relief for the Raiders - and the fans. It has been a tough three months. Coming into last night's game, the Raiders had produced just two wins from the past 11 matches - against the two teams at the bottom of the competition ladder. The performance last night was by no means perfect. The attack is simple and conservative. They have been aiming for more second phase play in recent weeks, with offloads in the forwards - and they did that effectively last night. In the red zone, they're not asking a lot of questions with the ball in hand. Other teams probably would have put on more points with the amount of possession that the Raiders had last night. But the team deserves credit for putting on the pressure through repeat sets. And the Sea Eagles buckled. It was good to see.

The official debut of Xavier Savage was a good one. He's not really a fullback, not at this stage anyway. And he didn't really get much opportunity to show us his speed. But he was prepared to put his body on the line in defence and attack. He saved at least one try - coming across in cover to tackle Brad Parker. He did just enough to force Parker into error - and the ball was not grounded. Xavier Savage is going to be a very good NRL player. Perhaps more than that.

Stats that mattered?

The Raiders had a 57 per cent share of possession and just under 60 per cent of the territory. That translated into almost eight minutes more with the ball than the Sea Eagles had. The Raiders were tackled 49 times in the opposition red zone, while the Sea Eagles had just 18 opportunities at the other end. Canberra completed at 90 per cent (Sea Eagles 71 per cent) and made just seven errors (Sea Eagles 14). The Raiders conceded six penalties (Sea Eagles one) - and some of them were completely mystifying. Alleged high or illegal contact that just wasn't there. It didn't put the Raiders off their stride. Canberra conceded four set restarts, compared with six from the Sea Eagles.

The Raiders produced more runs (215-165), running metres (1862-1414), post contact metres (598-452), metres per set (39-37), kick return metres (208-86), tackle breaks (34-29) and offloads (11-8). The Raiders made almost twice as many kicks (27-15) and kicking metres (615-364) as Manly. Eleven grubbers and six bombs resulted in eight forced line drop outs conceded by the Sea Eagles. Manly did not force one. The Sea Eagles defused just 56 per cent of kicks, the Raiders 70 per cent. The Sea Eagles made five line breaks to the Raiders' four - and late in the game, it got a little bit worrying in that department for Green Machine fans. It helped the Sea Eagles score two late tries, in the space of six minutes.

Manly had to make around 100 more tackles than the Raiders (382-288). They also missed more tackles (34-29) and posted more ineffective tackles (19-12). Still, Manly had the slightly better effective tackle rate (both teams roughly at 88 per cent). Five tries conceded to three is probably not too bad for the Sea Eagles, considering the weight of possession and territory.

Memorable moments?

I loved seeing Sam Williams get a double, just his second in his NRL career. They were both simple tries, but reward for his organisation and kicking. Given his missed tackle on Dylan Walker was the cause of the first Manly try, it was good to see him getting a couple back. It was fun seeing Sebastian Kris score... after a Williams bomb came down right on top of Moses Suli. It hit his head and bounced into the in goal for a simple try. A falcon is always fun. Tom Starling's try was possibly the best of them, the result of good stepping and evasion and he went right through the middle to score under the posts. But it was also a good effort from Emre Guler to score the match sealer. It almost seemed to come out of nothing, and he went through about five Manly defenders to get to the line.

I've mentioned the try saving effort from Xavier Savage in the 14th minute. It was an important point in the game, as the Sea Eagles possibly could have taken a 10 point early lead. The other tackle to mention is the try saver from Sebastian Kris on Sipley in the 70th minute - forcing an error to boot. Unfortunately, the Raiders quickly turned over the ball again, allowing Suli to score less than a minute later.

Finally, after a tough season so far, Jarrod Croker notched up another big milestone last night. 2200 career points. He's only the fourth person to do it, and he's the player who has done it most quickly.

Best performers?

Joe Tapine. 21 runs for 234 metres, 86 post contact metres, one tackle break, one offload, 18 tackles, 95 per cent tackle efficiency.

Sam Williams. Two tries, nine runs for 81 metres, two line breaks, one try assist, 13 tackles, 11 kicks for 240 metres, three forced line drop outs. The blot on the copybook was five missed tackles, including a try cause.

Matt Frawley. Three runs for 16 metres, 19 tackles, nine kicks for 204 metres, three forced line drop outs. A match not really reflected in his statistics.

Ryan Sutton. 24 runs for 192 metres, 55 post contact metres, two tackle breaks, 30 tackles, 91 per cent tackle efficiency.

Top tacklers: Josh Hodgson 42, Ryan Sutton 30, Tom Starling 30, Corey Harawira-Naera 29, Emre Guler 29
Most metres gained: Joe Tapine 234, Ryan Sutton 192, Jordan Rapana 192, Semi Valemei 175

My player ratings:

Xavier Savage 6
Semi Valemei 6
Jarrod Croker 6
Sebastian Kris 6
Jordan Rapana 7
Matt Frawley 7
Sam Williams 7
Emre Guler 7
Josh Hodgson 6
Dunamis Lui 2*
Corey Harawira-Naera 6
Hudson Young 7
Ryan Sutton 7

Tom Starling 7
Ryan James 4
Sia Soliola 4
Joseph Tapine 8

* Limited minutes.

Do you agree with the ratings? Let us know what you think!

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RedRaider
Laurie Daley
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by RedRaider »

The Kris try off Suli's head when Suli wasn't watching the football was hilarious. What are the odds for a player not watching the bomb ball to be hit flush on the head and it leads to an opposition try?

The inconsistency within the Raiders is frustrating. Against the Titans we were poor and then against Manly we seemed to find our groove due to the glut of possession. Hopefully the confidence gained will also show up against the Sharks in our next match.
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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Through green eyes: Stop it, it's starting to hurt

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The Canberra Raiders meet the Cronulla Sharks on Saturday afternoon - for the first time ever on the Gold Coast.

The Green Machine has relocated temporarily to Queensland along with 11 other NRL clubs, due to the COVID outbreak in Sydney. It no doubt creates some hardships and challenges for the players and their families. The players are being required to effectively be in isolation for two weeks. Some of their partners and families are shifting to the Gold Coast. But some of the players' partners can't relocate, due to work commitments and family circumstances.

There will be some positives too, hopefully. For a start, winter on the Gold Coast looks pretty attractive, when the forecast in Canberra for Saturday is wind and rain and a maximum of eight degrees. The NRL has not skimped on facilities for the players and their families, with the Gold Coast hub located at the Carrara resort. And, hopefully, it is an opportunity for the team to bond after a fractious year.

The Raiders don't have the best success rate against the Sharks. At times, they've been a real bogey team for Canberra. Even during the golden days of the late 1980s and 1990s, wins at what is now known as Shark Park were hard to come by. The win rate against the Sharks now stands at 47 per cent - which is not the best, but it is not as bad as the record against others, like the Storm.

A rivalry between the Raiders and the Sharks has been reinvigorated in recent years - sparked by the 2016 finals loss at Canberra Stadium and Michael Ennis mocking the crowd with his own Viking Clap. It wasn't a great night. But there have been some great wins. When I think back, I think I have two favourites.

The first victory is way back in 1989. The Canberra Raiders finished that season equal with the Brisbane Broncos and the Cronulla Sharks on 22 competition points. However, the Raiders were placed in fourth position on points differential - and the Broncos and Sharks were forced into a Tuesday night play off at Parramatta Stadium. The Sharks were in white hot form in the play off, scoring seven tries to the Broncos' two. Many critics were expecting a repeat in the minor preliminary semi final against the Raiders. Cronulla had beaten Canberra twice during the regular season.

But instead, it was the Raiders that produced an attacking blitz, piling on six tries. The Raiders' forward pack back then was oft maligned by the critics. But the likes of Glenn Lazarus, Brent Todd and Dean Lance provided the foundation in the middle - and then the Raiders employed the familiar pattern of stretching the ball wide to the back line maestros. They again showed why they were the top point-scoring team in the competition.

The Sharks led 2-0 courtesy of an Alan Wilson penalty goal, before the Raiders scored their first try in the 31st minute through Gary Belcher. A further Canberra try to Chris O'Sullivan just five minutes later saw the Raiders go to the break with a 10-2 lead. Canberra went further ahead just after half time, when a Laurie Daley break out wide, set up a Matthew Wood try. The Sharks came back to trail 16-10, but a Chris O'Sullivan field goal gave the Raiders a seven point advantage - and the Raiders then powered away, scoring three tries in the final 10 minutes.

There had been uncertainty that half Ricky Stuart would take his place in the side, after suffering what he thought was a hamstring injury at Thursday night's training. It turned out to be a pinched sciatic nerve, and he proved instrumental in the victory, setting up a couple of tries. Steve Walters was forced out of the match with a virus, but his replacement Wayne Collins played strongly at dummy half. Brent Todd had been struck by the same illness, but it did not seem to affect his performance. Five eighth Chris O'Sullivan was the man of the match, scoring a try, a goal and a field goal.

"I don't suppose I have ever played much better than that in a big game," O'Sullivan said after the game. "It was a bit of a struggle early, but we had been starting badly in the last few weeks and wanted to make sure that didn't happen again."

"We had a winning aura around us this week and I was always confident we would win. The secret to stopping them is to stop [Gavin] Miller, and we did a pretty good job of that today."

Coach Tim Sheens was still focused on the challenges ahead.

"We can't get too carried away with that, we just can't stop and say that is enough," Sheens said. "We have now had five or six sudden-death games in a row and we just can't afford to falter for the next three weeks."

Captain Mal Meninga ominously warned: "We can play better than that".

We all now know what happened after that.

My second favourite win over the Sharks happened on a perfect, blue sky afternoon in 2012.

It was Week 1 of the finals. Canberra Stadium was sold out, a sea of green. And the Raiders put on a spectacle for the crowd of 24,450 - playing breath taking, attacking football. The Sharks were the first to score, after six minutes. But then Canberra turned it on.



In the 19th minute, Josh McCrone set up a try for Sandor Earl in the corner. Then just minutes later, Canberra scored a try for the ages. Sam Williams made a break down the left side, before passing to a flying Jarrod Croker. The Sharks circled him, but he was able to put in a kick to the corner for Sandor Earl. It was perfection, falling into the hands of the winger, to score his second try. "Stop it, it's starting to hurt!" came the classic commentary from Ray Warren. "Rugby league! Rugby league!" It was simply scintilating.



Another highlight was how Josh Papalii took on Paul Gallen. A memorable hit just before half time rocked the Sharks captain - and led to a war of words after the match. Gallen claimed: "I don't really care about Papalii. He hit me with a dog shot with a swinging arm and once in the back without the ball. Other than that, I don't think there was too much to it."

But Papalii had his measure and had got under Gallen's skin as well.



"'Papa' was matched up on 'Gal' and Furner gave him a few words of encouragement to get it over him early in the game," David Shillington explained. "'Papa' really stood up. He got under him a few times and Gal didn't handle it very well."

Canberra led 16-6 at half time, but the Sharks fought back. A Sharks try from a blatant forward pass in the 60th minute saw Canberra's lead cut to two points, 18-16. But then Canberra opened up again - scoring four magic tries in the final 15 minutes. The only down-side was that Jarrod Croker suffered a cheek bone fracture, after Jason Bukuya led with his knee in a tackle. The Raiders only scored three goals from eight attempts - with Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson missing four after Croker left the field. The Raiders could have put on 44 points.

The only surviving team members from that match for the Raiders are Josh Papalii, Jarrod Croker and Sam Williams.

May they step up with a little bit of 2012 brilliance this Saturday.

What's your favourite game against the Sharks? Let us know.

1989 Minor Semi Final - Canberra Raiders 31 (Gary Belcher, Matthew Wood, Laurie Daley, Chris O'Sullivan, Gary Coyne, Paul Martin tries, Matthew Wood 2, Chris O'Sullivan goals, Chris O'Sullivan field goal) defeated Cronulla Sharks 10 (Andrew Ettingshausen try, Alan Wilson 3 goals) at Sydney Football Stadium

Canberra Raiders: 1. Gary Belcher 2. Matthew Wood 3. Laurie Daley 4. Mal Meninga 5. John Ferguson 6. Chris O'Sullivan 7. Ricky Stuart 8. Brent Todd 22. Wayne Collins 10. Glenn Lazarus 11. Dean Lance 12. Gary Coyne 13. Bradley Clyde 14. Paul Martin 15. Ivan Henjak 16. Mark Lowry 17. Kevin Walters Coach: Tim Sheens Crowd: 18,186

2012 Finals Week 1 - Canberra Raiders 34 (Sandor Earl 2, Blake Ferguson 2, Glen Buttriss, Josh Papalii, Sam Williams tries, Jarrod Croker 3 goals) defeated Cronulla Sharks 16

Canberra Raiders: 1. Josh Dugan 2. Sandor Earl 3. Jarrod Croker 4. Blake Ferguson 5. Reece Robinson 6. Josh McCrone 7. Sam Williams 8. David Shillington 9. Glen Buttriss 10. Dane Tilse 11. Josh Papalii 12. Joel Thompson 13. Shaun Fensom 14. Shaun Berrigan 15. Joe Picker 16. Mark Nicholls 17. Tom Learoyd Lahrs Coach: David Furner Crowd: 24,450


****

Every week I rate the Raiders players on a scale of 0-10... and here is the points tally after the clash with the Sea Eagles. Because Josh Papalii and Jack Wighton missed Round 17 on State of Origin duty, I have included my ratings for the two players in Origin III. I've awarded Josh Papalii an eight and Jack Wighton a six. Tell us what you think of the ratings!

Total points

Ryan Sutton 100
Elliott Whitehead 93
Jack Wighton 92
Jordan Rapana 92
Josh Papalii 88
Bailey Simonsson 81
Sebastian Kris 79
Josh Hodgson 75
Tom Starling 73
Hudson Young 70
Joe Tapine 66
Emre Guler 65
George Williams 65
Corey Harrawira-Naera 59
Curtis Scott 58
Ryan James 58
Sia Soliola 57
Dunamis Lui 49
Siliva Havili 44
Caleb Aekins 42
Jarrod Croker 36
Sam Williams 36
Corey Horsburgh 35
Semi Valemei 34
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 31
Matt Timoko 13
Xavier Savage 8
Matt Frawley 7
Brad Schneider 2

Average points per match

Matt Frawley 7.0
Josh Papalii 6.8
Ryan Sutton 6.7
Jordan Rapana 6.6
George Williams 6.5
Matt Timoko 6.5
Hudson Young 6.4
Josh Hodgson 6.3
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 6.2
Elliott Whitehead 6.2
Jack Wighton 6.1
Caleb Aekins 6.0
Joe Tapine 6.0
Sam Williams 6.0
Emre Guler 5.9
Corey Harrawira-Naera 5.9
Corey Horsburgh 5.8
Curtis Scott 5.8
Bailey Simonsson 5.8
Semi Valemei 5.7
Ryan James 5.3
Sebastian Kris 5.3
Tom Starling 5.2
Jarrod Croker 5.1
Dunamis Lui 4.9
Siliva Havili 4.9
Sia Soliola 4.8
Xavier Savage 4.0
Brad Schneider 2.0

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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Through green eyes: As I saw it

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"We started nice and fast, had some good patches of play. It was probably a bit disappointing going in at 12 all at half time. I thought we probably could have been a little bit healthier on the scoreboard, but it's the Sharks' style. They fight and they're a competitive footy team and they never go away. They bounced back and evened up the score at half time. It made it a tough 40 in the second half.

Effort is never something that I have to debate with our footy team. They're always full of effort. We got a couple of bounces of the ball there tonight that we haven't got over games, where we could have been in a different position on the table or the scoreboard. But that's football. It's not through effort, it's through a bounce of the ball. We got a few bounces there tonight. I think Tom Starling went up underneath one bloke and the ball spills out and we catch it and we score a try. We've had so many tries like that against the run of play on us this year and all of a sudden winnable games become losses. That's the nature of the NRL, especially this year. You get a bit of momentum and it's very hard to pull back. We got a little bit of momentum in the last 20 and we got to score a few tries, so it went for us tonight. We had some great individual performances.

Xavier Savage... you can't coach speed. He's still got a lot to learn about the game. He's a very coachable young man. He's a credit to his mum and family up north. He's got a beautiful family that support him. He won't get ahead of himself and we won't let him. He did a good job tonight and he just showed if he keeps his head down, he keeps committed to the hard work, he's got a future ahead of him. There's a long way to go, but he's certainly on the right track. That was his biggest credit on the night, that he played on with injury. So for me that was where he got a great tick of approval because a lot of players can't play under duress like that. For a young boy who is just out of school, he did a really good job in handling that pain. And I thought Jordan Rapana did an outstanding job in protecting him... pushing himself back to fullback, then putting himself back out on the wing when Xavier felt a little bit more comfortable with the pain.

Corey Harawira-Naera has been really good over the last four to six weeks. It was a slow start to the season for a few of our players because they missed the off season and Corey was one of them. It takes six or seven games to get your wind and get your feet. No matter how much conditioning you do when you miss an off season, once the boys are playing it's very hard to pick up on. You can only get it through playing games of footy. A number of the players in the middle this year who missed the off season through injury, they're really finding their feet at the moment, such as Hudson Young. Our defence deserves credit, because I thought we turned them away a few times where there were critical moments.

We've got a few busted up so we'll just wait and see. We've got a very short turnaround against a good football team this week so we might see a few new faces because I'm not going to risk anybody at the moment. It's too much of a balance at this part of the season, so I'll wait and see how Jack Wighton pulls up and a couple of the other guys."

Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart


2021 Round 18. Canberra Raiders 34 - Cronulla Sharks 18. It was a match that the Raiders needed to win, and they did. The 2021 team is still a work in progress, but the signs are positive. The star of the show was 19 year old, Xavier Savage. He scored his first NRL try in just his second official appearance - and created the opportunities for one or two more through his pure speed and his passing. He's an excitement machine and has added some much needed X factor to the backs. In the forwards, the likes of Corey Harawira-Naera generated good second phase play through offloads - and the attack looked much more dangerous as a result. The defence was generally strong.



There's still work to do. The strategy of starting the match with Josh Hodgson, before bringing on nippy hooker Tom Starling at the 25 minute mark, works. Starling is nippy around the rucks, and gives good, quick service. Hodgson adds an extra option in attack in the back row. The halves were disrupted by the loss of Jack Wighton - after he copped a stray boot to the chest. He was struggling to breathe due to rib or sternum damage, and succumbed to the injury after 60 minutes. But Sam Williams steered the team around fairly well. It remains to be seen if Savage is a fullback long term, but he certainly added threat from the back.



At times, the attack in the red zone is still frustrating to watch. In the first half, the Raiders had a better then even share of possession and territory - and 17 opportunities in the opposition 20 metres - but that did not translate into points. They scored a try early, in the eighth minute, after a great offload from Harawira-Naera. Savage chimed in, with the ball getting wide to Rapana. But the Raiders did not cross again in the first 40 - and some defensive lapses saw the Sharks produce two tries during the back end of the half. Penalty goals for the Raiders kept the scores close. One - when the Raiders were awarded the chance of an eight point try - was probably unjustified.

But as the game wore on, the Raiders control of the game started to tell. The Sharks missed a mountain of tackles - a whopping 61 of them - and produced five times the number of ineffective tackles than the Raiders posted. It was then all the Raiders in the final 20 minutes. By the way, I'm still not buying "the bounce of the ball effect". Chances come to teams that have worked for them and control proceedings.

The win was critical to the Raiders' top eight chances - and this morning, they sit in ninth place on the ladder, on the same competition points as the eighth placed Sharks. There are still some really tough games ahead - against teams like the Storm, Sea Eagles and Roosters. One of the toughest comes in five days time, against the Eels. That will be a much bigger test of how far the team has come in the past month or so. If the Raiders are to make the top eight - and be a serious contender in the finals - they need to knock off the teams above them. It all starts again on Thursday night.

Stats that mattered?

The Raiders had a 53 per cent share of possession and almost 60 per cent of the territory. That dominance was even more marked in the second half. Canberra completed at 84 per cent (Sharks 73 per cent) and made just six errors (Sharks 10). The Raiders conceded a couple of more penalties than the Sharks (6-4), while set restarts were even (3-3).

The Raiders made more runs (191-145), running metres (1921-1353), post contact metres (553-468), metres per set (52-37), kick return metres (228-151), tackle breaks (61-22), offloads (22-3) and line breaks (4-3). The Sharks made slightly more kicking metres (441-402), but that wasn't even close to offsetting the Raiders' dominance with the ball in hand. The Raiders forced one line drop out (Sharks none), while the Sharks did comparatively well in defusing Canberra's kicks (75 per cent kick defusal, compared to 57 per cent for the Raiders).

The Raiders made more tackles (316-302) but posted a much better effective tackle rate (92 per cent, 77 per cent for the Sharks). The Raiders missed 22 tackles (Sharks 61) and produced just six ineffective tackles (Sharks 32).

When you put all of those numbers together, the Sharks did well to score three tries and concede only five. On the other side of the coin, the Raiders probably had the opportunity to be even more dominant on the scoreboard.

Memorable moments?

The Xavier Savage show produced some of the most memorable moments. His first NRL try, scored despite the discomfort of a shoulder problem was just reward for an outstanding game. Sebastian Kris could have scored himself, but unselfishly offloaded to the youngster. Then what about Savage's stepping and running to set up Jack Wighton's try early in the second half? The offloading of Corey Harawira-Naera was also a feature. He produced seven of them - and as mentioned one set up the first try of the match for Rapana. It was probably his best match in green. He has had his troubles in the past 18 months off field, but this was the sort of form he showed at his peak at the Panthers.

Best performers?

Xavier Savage. One try, 16 runs for 246 metres, 88 kick return metres, 63 post contact metres, two line breaks, nine tackle breaks, two offloads, four tackles, no errors.

Corey Harawira-Naera. 14 runs for 146 metres, 28 post contact metres, 13 tackle breaks, seven offloads, 29 tackles, 94 per cent tackle efficiency.

Hudson Young. One try, 13 runs for 129 metres, 31 post contact metres, one line break, nine tackle breaks, two offloads, 34 tackles, 92 per cent tackle efficiency.

Jordan Rapana. One try, 19 runs for 180 metres, 51 kick return metres, 48 post contact metres, one line break, eight tackle breaks, one offload, two kicks defused.

Top tacklers: Josh Hodgson 45, Ryan Sutton 41, Hudson Young 34
Most metres gained: Xavier Savage 246, Jordan Rapana 180, Semi Valemei 170

In the forwards, five players broke 100 metres gained: Emre Guler 151, Corey Harawira-Naera 146, Hudson Young 129, Ryan Sutton 120 and Joseph Tapine 105.

My player ratings:

Xavier Savage 8
Semi Valemei 6
Jarrod Croker 6
Sebastian Kris 6
Jordan Rapana 8
Jack Wighton 6
Sam Williams 6
Emre Guler 7
Josh Hodgson 6
Sia Soliola 5
Corey Harawira-Naera 8
Hudson Young 8
Ryan Sutton 7

Josh Papalii 6
Tom Starling 7
Joseph Tapine 7
Ryan James 4

Do you agree with the ratings? Let us know what you think!

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BadnMean
Steve Walters
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

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Ricky still trying to tell us it's just the bounce of the ball/rub of the green dictating our performances. Does he believe that or just not want to really discuss things?
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gangrenous
Laurie Daley
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Joined: May 12, 2007, 10:42 pm

Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by gangrenous »

I really hope he doesn’t actually believe it. But all the evidence seems to be to the contrary.

Last night Raiders were incredibly lucky that the Sharks handed momentum back on most occasions that Raiders blundered. If they want to beat top teams they can’t afford to go handing off momentum through poor decision making. The worst of which last night included the shot at goal and Valemei making a catch attempt on the sideline bomb.
RedRaider
Laurie Daley
Posts: 11265
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by RedRaider »

I didn't realise we had 60% of the ball in the second half. No wonder we didn't fade away. It was a very good match for the Raiders and the players were constantly looking to offload the ball when they had opportunity. I will be interested to see how we go next week against the Eels. They have a very tough run home and will look at the 9th placed Raiders as a must win match to keep their Top 4 hopes going, so will come out firing. They have been fairly consistent all year and will be a good Test for the Raiders.
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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Through green eyes: It's a tough old world

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It's a tough old world, the world of rugby league.

Last Saturday night, Canberra Raiders fullback Xavier Savage, 19, announced himself to the rugby league world, in just his second game of NRL. Today, the speedster is on a plane, on his way to have surgery to repair his injured shoulder.

Against the Sharks, Savage scored his first NRL try and helped create the opportunities for a couple more. The excitement machine made two line breaks, nine tackle breaks and ran for 246 metres. Unfortunately Savage damaged his AC joint during the game, and it was limp even as he planted the ball over the line for that first try.

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Savage has had to deal with a lot over the past month or so.

He got an unexpected NRL debut against the Dragons, when he was injected into the game as 18th man. Unfortunately, he was used illegally by the Raiders - and it didn't count as an official appearance. He was taken off the field after 11 minutes, once the Raiders realised their mistake.

Savage made his official debut two weeks ago against the Sea Eagles - in the critical position of fullback. He's played a few games in the No. 1 jersey in NSW Cup this year, but his regular position is on the wing. A tough initiation, but he got through it well.

To experience the highs of Saturday night and then the lows of the aftermath, being ruled out for the season... well, it must be very disappointing for the young player.

The Raiders fans are possibly just as disappointed as he would be. It's been a difficult season for the club and the supporters. The emergence of Savage, and back to back wins, offered the fans some hope. On Tuesday, it felt like those hopes were crushed. Savage out for the season. Jack Wighton out with a rib injury.

Today Ricky Stuart spoke about how challenging it has been for the club to cope with injury in the past couple of years.

"It hasn't just been just this year, the spate of injuries, it's been back to back and that really knocks you around," Stuart said.

"It tests your resilience as a squad. The one thing you can't control is injuries. But you can control effort. We've certainly seen that, plenty of effort and we'll be ready to play."

The injury to Xavier Savage has hit the club hard. Regular custodian Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad played just five games this year, before he was ruled out for the season with a neck injury. Caleb Aekins was tried at the back, but he didn't quite make the jumper his own. With Savage, it seemed like the had Raiders found their replacement fullback - and been given a much needed injection of speed and X factor in the backs.

"It was very disappointing," Ricky Stuart said today.

"Xavier's back on a plane today and being operated on tomorrow afternoon, back home. It was important for this age to get the surgery done in the first week. That's the medical advice, so that's what we've done."

"I didn't want to risk him for the future, him being such a young man. It was important to get it done and get him into recovery and rehab as soon as we possibly can."

Stuart is hoping Jack Wighton might only miss a week.

"It'll be up to Jack. I think, fingers crossed it'll be a week," he said.

"We'll do what we have to do. Matt Frawley filled in very well against Manly and he's fitted in very well again this week. We're very fortunate to have experienced cover there."

"Probably a week, but as I say, we'll give Jack the right to say there in regards to when he's going to be fit."

Given the pain that Wighton was in last Saturday night, it seems like an optimistic prognosis. If he does make it back in Round 20, I'm guessing he'll have to play with pain killing injections. Time will tell.

Stuart was upbeat about the halves combination he's selected for the clash with the Parramatta Eels tomorrow night, with Matt Frawley to replace Wighton and partner Sam Williams.

"I thought Sammy had one of his best games last week, with Jack," Stuart said.

"He does combine very well with Matt Frawley, because over the last year and a half, they've had a lot of scrimmage work together. When we had scrimmages at training last year when the boys couldn't play, when the NSW Cup boys didn't get football, there was a lot of scrimmage work where they were preparing our NRL team."

"In saying that, Sammy played extremely well last week, he guided the team around very wisely. But he and Matt Frawley do have a good combination because of that work they've done on the training field."

The Eels have their own injury problems - and will be without half Mitchell Moses tomorrow night. Moses fractured a bone in his back during Origin III - and has been sidelined indefinitely. Moses was "rested" last week, and now we know why. Eels coach Brad Arthur has selected his son, Jake, to again fill in at half.

Ricky Stuart knows the fourth placed Eels will still be hard to beat. He is also still optimistic they can.

"They're in good form. They've got a number of good players," Stuart said today.

"They've now got a young halfback who is now going to fill the role of Mitchell Moses. But he's got a lot of experience and power around him. If you're a young halfback coming into a game, that's what you'd like to have. That bit of X factor certainly helps your game."

"I'm looking for us to be dangerous. We've got to control us. We work very well when we know what we need to do - our role, as a team, as an individual. We work very well when we're just looking after our ship."

"The last couple of weeks we've seen a team with a lot of energy, some combinations are working and I think you've seen a team over the last few weeks where every individual has bought in and contributed personally. It's a huge difference to a team result."

****

The Canberra Raiders are in their second week of life in the NRL's Gold Coast hub. Thirteen teams have now relocated to Queensland, because of the COVID outbreaks in New South Wales and Victoria.

Five of them are based at the Mercure Gold Coast resort at Carrara, including tomorrow night's opponents, the Eels.

It is unusual for teams to be in such close quarters in the lead up to a game. But it doesn't look like a bad place to be, if you have to be in two weeks isolation. Raiders coach Ricky Stuart spoke today about how impressed he was with the facilities.

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"We've got five teams here and you see each team every day," Stuart said.

"Whether you're going into the recovery in the pool, or whether you're going to the gymnasium, or whether your're getting on or off the bus, you bump into each other. But it's been very professional to be honest."

"It's a very good environment in regards to what the NRL has set up. They've done an extremely good job in housing us and accommodating our programs to get the best preparation in for a game of football."

"I couldn't be more complimentary towards the NRL in a short process, having to get a solution to house all teams. As uncomfortable as it may be every now and then with players bumping into each other, it is what it is."

The Raiders have a five day turnaround between games this week, but the fact that the team has not had to travel is probably a positive.

"We've had a very short turnaround. Parramatta aren't much more, I think they were the day before, so both teams have had short preps," Stuart said today.

"We made sure that the boys had good rehabilitation and recovery after the last game. We had a brief run yesterday, a brief run today. We had our normal two days of rehab and recovery."

"I tend to, on our shorter turnarounds, when you're well and deep into the season, have a look at them physically. I prefer to get the normal routine of our first two days of the program in place, and then go from there in regards to the coaching on field."

The ninth placed Green Machine has a very tough road home - and face top eight teams in five of seven of the remaining games. Hopefully, they can get an against the odds victory - because an unexpected win will significantly boost the Raiders' finals chances.

****

Every week I rate the Raiders players on a scale of 0-10... and here is the points tally after the clash with the Sharks. Tell us what you think of the ratings!

Total points

Ryan Sutton 107
Jordan Rapana 100
Jack Wighton 98
Josh Papalii 94
Elliott Whitehead 93
Sebastian Kris 85
Bailey Simonsson 81
Josh Hodgson 81
Tom Starling 80
Hudson Young 78
Joe Tapine 73
Emre Guler 72
Corey Harrawira-Naera 67
George Williams 65
Ryan James 62
Sia Soliola 62
Curtis Scott 58
Dunamis Lui 49
Siliva Havili 44
Caleb Aekins 42
Jarrod Croker 42
Sam Williams 42
Semi Valemei 40
Corey Horsburgh 35
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 31
Xavier Savage 16
Matt Timoko 13
Matt Frawley 7
Brad Schneider 2

Average points per match

Matt Frawley 7.0
Josh Papalii 6.7
Ryan Sutton 6.7
Jordan Rapana 6.7
George Williams 6.5
Hudson Young 6.5
Matt Timoko 6.5
Josh Hodgson 6.2
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 6.2
Elliott Whitehead 6.2
Jack Wighton 6.1
Corey Harrawira-Naera 6.1
Joe Tapine 6.1
Caleb Aekins 6.0
Emre Guler 6.0
Sam Williams 6.0
Corey Horsburgh 5.8
Curtis Scott 5.8
Bailey Simonsson 5.8
Semi Valemei 5.7
Tom Starling 5.3
Xavier Savage 5.3
Sebastian Kris 5.3
Jarrod Croker 5.3
Ryan James 5.2
Dunamis Lui 4.9
Siliva Havili 4.9
Sia Soliola 4.8
Brad Schneider 2.0

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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Through green eyes: As I saw it

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"I'm very proud of the effort. Short turnaround and the amount of injuries that we've got, even injuries we received during that game. Josh Papalii only played eight minutes and Ryan Sutton - I don't know what it is, a rib cartilage or something - but he didn't get a lot either. If any young kid is looking to be a Raider - forever, as I've known as a young boy supporting the Raiders - that's always been in the jumper. That type of grit, that type of want to win. Some games it is missing and you've got to work hard as a coach to get it. That's why I get upset when we lose, because I know what these blokes have got underneath the jumper. That's why I love coaching them. You see wins like that tonight, that's just pure grit and want.

It did [have me on the edge of my seat] when they kept looking at [the final try saving tackle]. There was no way it was a foul. He hit him with his hip, upper thigh. Just for Rapa - he ran over 250 metres - and just for Rapa to be there was an extraordinary play with young Harley Smith-Shields. I think it was his third game. It was a tough game of football. Real tough.

I think Rapana was our fifth fullback for the year. The last two seasons, they just never cease to amaze me these blokes, or surprise me. Over the last two years now, we've just been hit by injuries and some luck that we just can't control. But they keep getting back up and we just keep punching. That's why I love coaching them. There were some outstanding examples there right across the park tonight, on individual effort.

Luck in life is everything, business, sport, you need some luck. And we haven't had much this year. And then all of a sudden we get frustrated with losing, because we know we've got that in us. It's easy to be frustrated when you've got that. I've coached teams before where you're not good enough. I never get upset or disappointed with the boys when I don't think we're good enough to beat the opposition. It's why you get frustrated when you're losing games of football when you don't play to your potential or coach to your potential. You get upset with yourself, you get upset with the boys, the boys get upset with themselves. We've turned a corner, but it's not through a fluke, it's through hard work. They're a very persistent bunch.

This time of the year we need to up the intensity in regards to the play offs. We believe we'll be in the play offs. We believe we're good enough to be in the play offs. And we want to be the team that's here the longest, in regards to this hub. When you see that out there tonight, you could probably believe me. If we had of got beaten tonight I would have said the same thing, because I know what's underneath the jumper. As I say, any young boy who wants to be a Raider, you need to have that grit and determination.

I didn't want to single anybody out, but I did single Rapa out in the change rooms there tonight. He's loved by all the boys and that's why. Outside being a good person, a good bloke, he just rips in on the field and they love playing with him."

Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart


2021 Round 19. Canberra Raiders 12 - Parramatta Eels 10. It was committed. It was determined. It was courageous. That was rugby league. The Raiders came to tackle - and produced one of their greatest defensive performances. The intent, the aggression and the line speed was like it was in 2019. The Eels had a mountain of possession and territory in the first half, but the Raiders withstood every challenge - with the teams going to the break at nil all. The possession didn't swing in the second half like it often does. But the Raiders simply had more desire to win. Once they took the lead in the second half they never surrendered it. The game was summed up by the last gasp try saver from Jordan Rapana and Harley Smith-Shields on Eels winger Maika Sivo. They simply did whatever it took to win.



The Eels were missing their main play maker Mitchell Moses, and you certainly could tell. But the Raiders had an injury list as long as your arm - and were missing five eighth Jack Wighton and a few fullbacks. Jordan Rapana took over at No. 1, the fifth Raiders player to fill the spot this year. He was simply outstanding. Sure there were some errors. But some of the things he did were breath taking. The Raiders lost both Josh Papalii and Ryan Sutton during the game to injury. The other forwards impressively filled the breach. Joe Tapine, Corey Harawira-Naera and Hudson Young stood tall. Tapine was back to the career best form he showed in the back half of last year. The young backs were strong. Harley Smith-Shields showed why he deserved an opportunity on the wing. He wasn't flashy, but he worked so hard.

It is impossible not to comment on the officiating. Don't get me started on the six again calls... I won't go there. But the second Eels' try should have been disallowed in my view. Eels five eighth Dylan Brown was clearly in front of the kicker Jake Arthur - and got involved - before Sivo scored in the corner. He wasn't metres offside, as some seem to be suggesting. Brown had to have both feet behind the point where Arthur kicked the ball. Clearly, he didn't. He wasn't metres in front, but is difficult to imagine how the video referee, Henry Perenara, missed it. He called all the players, including Brown, on the left edge as "on side" during the review. I've seen suggestions that Brown was ruled to be "passive" in the ensuing play. I don't think that's the case, but if so, that'd also be the wrong call.

That was a crucial incorrect call, as it narrowed the gap to just two points - and gave the Eels a chance to draw level. Thankfully, the conversion attempt from Clint Gutherson was unsuccessful - as that would have compounded the error from the bunker. Thankfully, the bunker got the last call of the night correct. A combination of Harley Smith-Shields and Jordan Rapana produced an astounding try saver on Sivo with seconds left on the clock - pushing him out in the corner. Rapana threw himself at Sivo in what's been described as a "hip charge". It was perfectly legal. I've seen suggestions that it was somehow an illegal tackle because Rapana didn't "wrap the arms". That only applies in the case of a shoulder charge. You can't make a shoulder charge when there's no shoulder contact. There was no contact from Rapana at all with his upper body. It was a relief, because you never know what the bunker officials might come up with these days.

One other thing before I move on. In a season where the NRL decided we'd be playing Vlandysball, last night we saw a game of rugby league. I loved it. Great defence, intense, exciting football. Hopefully, the NRL takes notice. You don't need scorelines of 52-48 to make a game exciting. Indeed, 52-48 - or the blow outs we have seen far too often this year - isn't entertaining. At the end of the season, the NRL should at least be unwinding the rules of Vlandysball that were introduced for season 2021.

Stats that mattered?

The Eels had a 59 per cent share of possession and 55 per cent of the territory. It was pretty much exactly the same in both halves. The Eels had almost 11 minutes more with the ball in hand - and had 40 tackles in the Raiders' red zone. The Raiders had just 15 tackles inside the Eels' 20 metres zone. The completion rate for both teams was around 85 per cent (Raiders 85, Eels 83). The Raiders put themselves under pressure in the first half though their errors - but in the end, the Eels made more errors in total (12-8). The Raiders conceded more penalties (4-3) and set restarts (6-4).

The Eels made more runs (241-170), running metres (2052-1633), post contact metres (678-576), metres per set (45-40), kick return metres (275-197), offloads (17-9) and dummies (14-1). The Raiders made more tackle breaks (37-24) and line breaks (4-2). The Eels also made more kicking metres (854-755) from a couple of more kicks (25-23). That's a little unusual for a team that is so dominant when running the ball. The Eels also forced three line drop outs, the Raiders two. The Raiders still kicked pretty well, often finding the corners or landing close to the goal line. Canberra's kick defusal rate was quite low, however (23 per cent, Eels 60 per cent).

The Raiders had to make more tackles (439-377) - but missed just 24 (Eels 37). The Raiders did less well in shutting down offloads (25 ineffective tackles, Eels 15). But Canberra still ended with a tackle efficiency rate of 90 per cent (Eels 89 per cent).

That's an extraordinary set of numbers for the Raiders. The Eels had more than enough opportunity to win, and win handsomely. Canberra's defence won them the match - and they were able to find scoring opportunities on the back of it.

Memorable moments?

The Raiders' two tries were well worked. The better of them was probably the first, with a perfect pass from Sam Williams putting Corey Harawira-Naera into a gap. The second was the result of a good run from Sebastian Kris, with Jordan Rapana then charging over from dummy half. There were some quirky moments - like the forced line drop out created by Hudson Young. Josh Hodgson threw the pass at his feet, but Young kicked ahead instead. How about Jordan Rapana saving a potential 40/20 kick from the Eels. It almost crossed the line, but Rapana somehow nudged it back in field with his foot and regathered. Great skill.

In defence, there were quite a few good hits, with Sia Soliola's crunching tackle on Clint Gutherson in the 36th minute being one. But there's no doubt that the most memorable moment of the match was the try saver from Rapana and Smith-Shields in the final minute. Fantastic stuff.

Best performers?

Jordan Rapana. One try, 25 runs for 261 metres, 84 kick return metres, 71 post contact metres, two line breaks, 15 tackle breaks, one offload, two kicks defused, six tackles, 100 per cent tackle efficiency, two errors. An almost perfect game.

Joseph Tapine. 17 runs for 157 metres, 59 post contact metres, three tackle breaks, two offloads 45 tackles, 100 per cent tackle efficiency.

Corey Harawira-Naera. One try, 11 runs for 106 metres, 39 post contact metres, one line break, four tackle breaks, four offloads, 37 tackles, 84 per cent tackle efficiency.

Hudson Young just outside the top three players.

Top tacklers: Hudson Young 55, Josh Hodgson 52, Joseph Tapine 45, Tom Starling 42
Most metres gained: Jordan Rapana 261, Semi Valemei 226, Joseph Tapine 157, Harley Smith-Shields 151

In the forwards, five players broke 100 metres gained: Emre Guler 151, Corey Harawira-Naera 146, Hudson Young 129, Ryan Sutton 120 and Joseph Tapine 105.

My player ratings:

Jordan Rapana 9
Harley Smith-Shields 7
Jarrod Croker 6
Sebastian Kris 7
Semi Valemei 7
Matt Frawley 6
Sam Williams 7
Emre Guler 7
Josh Hodgson 7
Jospeph Tapine 8
Corey Harawira-Naera 8
Hudson Young 8
Ryan Sutton 7

Josh Papalii 3*
Tom Starling 7
Matthew Timoko 3*
Sia Soliola 6

*Limited minutes

Do you agree with the ratings? Let us know what you think!

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RedRaider
Laurie Daley
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by RedRaider »

I know you mentioned it in the game day thread GE, but it's worth saying again that Jarrod Croker is now equal third highest point scorer ever with Jonathon Thurston. Next week will see him at 3 behind Johns and Smith. Given the Olympics perhaps there could be a bronze medal presentation for him after the match.
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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

RedRaider wrote: July 23, 2021, 7:17 pm I know you mentioned it in the game day thread GE, but it's worth saying again that Jarrod Croker is now equal third highest point scorer ever with Jonathon Thurston. Next week will see him at 3 behind Johns and Smith. Given the Olympics perhaps there could be a bronze medal presentation for him after the match.
You're right RedRaider, I should have mentioned it. I will in my column this week.
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-PJ-
Mal Meninga
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by -PJ- »

RedRaider wrote: July 23, 2021, 7:17 pm I know you mentioned it in the game day thread GE, but it's worth saying again that Jarrod Croker is now equal third highest point scorer ever with Jonathon Thurston. Next week will see him at 3 behind Johns and Smith. Given the Olympics perhaps there could be a bronze medal presentation for him after the match.
Make that ElMagic and Smith.
3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment..Old Faithful
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RedRaider
Laurie Daley
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by RedRaider »

You're right PJ, my bad on El Masri, but JC is in equal 3rd spot and that is a record no one can question. I reckon it deserves from formal recognition next week.
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Begbie »

If Raps didn't fumble those couples of kicks he surely could have been in line for a rare 10.
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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Begbie wrote: July 23, 2021, 9:16 pm If Raps didn't fumble those couples of kicks he surely could have been in line for a rare 10.
It was the only thing holding me back from a 10.
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greeneyed
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Through green eyes: Seen better days

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The Canberra Raiders face the Newcastle Knights - for the very first time at Lang Park in Brisbane on Saturday evening.

There have been ups and downs for the Green Machine since the first time the two teams met at Seiffert Oval, Queanbeyan, back in 1988. In that winning match, it was the likes of Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley and Craig Bellamy scoring tries.

The downs? There's been no worse than the March day in 2006, when the Raiders conceded 70 points to a Newcastle team steered around by Andrew Johns. The Raiders have never conceded more points than on that day - a total of 12 tries. The fact that the Raiders scored 32, with doubles for William Zillman and Phil Graham, was not much consolation. Incredibly, that is not the worst margin against the Knights. In 2002, at what is now Hunter Stadium, the Raiders lost 52-6, a margin of 46 points. Terry Martin scored the only try for Canberra. It is still the fourth biggest defeat in Raiders' history.

The defeat at the hands of the Knights that was most difficult to believe? That happened in Round 8 of 2001 at Canberra Stadium. The Newcastle Knights and the Raiders were set for a certain 20-20 draw, with time virtually expired. Brett Finch then attempted a touch finder from a 20 metre restart, so as to force a scrum with a Canberra feed - and a last ditch scoring opportunity. Instead, the ball went out on the full, delivering a penalty in front of the posts to Andrew Johns. Newcastle were handed their first win in Canberra on a platter: a 22-20 loss after the hooter. Johns exchanged shorts with former Knights ball boy, Finch, after the game.

I've seen better days. So what about them?

In 1992, the Raiders were in re-build mode, with the team almost torn apart by the salary cap dramas of the previous season. But in Round 7, the Raiders produced one of their best comebacks - against the Knights at what was then Bruce Stadium. The Raiders trailed 14-0 after 37 minutes, but in the space of 10 minutes piled on 18 points. Gary Coyne grabbed a try just before half time. And then after the break, Steve Stone scored from a Phil Blake chip, while Gary Coyne capitalised on a break from Sean Hoppe from the kick off. A Brett Mullins try was enough to secure a thrilling, 26-20, win - with the Knights bombing a four pointer three minutes from the end... which would have leveled the scores.

Caoch Tim Sheens later said: "I told them [at half time that] the crowd were calling for the reserve grade side to be sent on. They seemed to respond to that." In fact, the crowd was also calling for the Raiderettes to be sent on, something Sheens omitted.

2007 was another rebuilding year. But in Round 3, the Raiders thrashed the Knights in Canberra - in Andrew Johns' final ever match. Johns had inflicted plenty of pain on the Raiders over the years, but this was the Green Machine's day. Early in the second half, the score was 18-18, but Canberra went on a try scoring spree to win 48-18. William Zillman scored a hat trick, while Michael Dobson ended with a haul of 16 points from eight goals. Todd Carney was the man of the match. It was coach Henry's first win in the NRL. "It feels good, I'm very happy for the boys. We have a young team and they'll gain from that performance," Henry said after the impressive outing.

How about when the Raiders were on a roll into the finals in 2010? The Raiders smashed the Knights 52-18 in Canberra, a match which featured a try from a David Shillington bomb! There were seven tries in the first half, and the Raiders led 40-0 at half time.

Then in 2012, the Raiders were in a mid season crisis - after being defeated at home by the Wests Tigers, 40-0. At the time it was the club's worst defeat at Canberra Stadium and the second biggest defeat at home. Canberra fell to 15th on the ladder. Speculation mounted that Ricky Stuart would take over as coach, once his State of Origin commitments had concluded. Reports floated around that coach David Furner would call a press conference to stand down on the Monday following the Tigers defeat. Instead, Furner called a press conference to announce he was taking the team into a camp for the week on the Central Coast - prior to the match against the Knights in Newcastle. Remarkably, Canberra defeated Newcastle 32-16 - and they went on another late season surge, to win nine of the last 12 matches of the regular season.

But for me, the best two games against the Knights happened over 20 years apart.

In 1994, the Raiders went to Newcastle and Brett Mullins scored four breathtaking tries. By the end of the match, he'd scored 11 tries in 14 days, with three against the Sharks and four against the Rabbitohs in the previous two rounds. He went the length of the field in his first two tries against the Knights. It was no dud Newcastle team, that night. They were in finals contention and featured the young Johns brothers in the halves, and likes of Paul Harragon and Mark Sargent in the forwards. The Raiders ended up winning 52-16.

The most thrilling, the most memorable win over the Knights, however, came in 2016 at Canberra Stadium.



The Knights led 22-0 after just 25 minutes. Then came the comeback. Somehow, with just over five minutes remaining, the Raiders leveled the scores, 24 all, after Jarrod Croker crossed. And when Blake Austin kicked a field goal, with just over a minute remaining, almost everyone thought the Raiders had won it. Knights half Trent Hodkinson had other ideas. The Knights recovered a short kick off... and Hodkinson promptly sent the game into golden point, with his own one pointer. In the 85th minute, Austin again attempted to win it with a field goal. It missed - but a never say die Jordan Rapana chased. The ball bounced as rugby league balls do - right into Rapana's hands, for the most golden of tries.

The match stands alongside the victory over the Wests Tigers at Leichhardt Oval as one of the biggest ever comebacks in Raiders' history.

Fortunately, Jordan Rapana is still delivering match winning performances for the Green Machine. Here's hoping for another at Lang Park on Saturday.

1994 Round 18 - Canberra Raiders 52 (Brett Mullins 4, Ruben Wiki 2, Noa Nadruku, Ricky Stuart, Steve Walters tries; David Furner 8 goals) defeated Newcastle 16 (Andrew Johns 2, Jamie Ainscough tries; Andrew Johns 2 goals) at Newcastle

Canberra Raiders: 1. Brett Mullins 2. Albert Fulivai 3. Mal Meninga 4. Ruben Wiki 5. Noa Nadruku 6. Jason Croker 7. Ricky Stuart 8. Quentin Pongia 9. Steve Walters 10. John Lomax 11. Brett Hetherington 12. David Furner 13. Brad Clyde 14. David Westley 15. Jason Death 16. David Boyle Coach: Tim Sheens Crowd: 22, 945

2016 Round 17 - Canberra Raiders 29 (Jarrod Croker 2, Blake Austin, Jordan Rapana, Jack Wighton tries, Jarrod Croker 3, Aidan Sezer 1 goals, Blake Austin 1 field goal) defeated Newcastle Knights (Jake Mamo, Peter Mata'utia, Sione Mata'utia, Korbin Sims, Trent Hodkinson 4 goals, Trent Hodkinson 1 field goal)

Canberra Raiders: 1. Jack Wighton 2. Brenko Lee 3. Jarrod Croker 4. Joseph Leilua 5. Jordan Rapana 6. Blake Austin 7. Aidan Sezer 16. Paul Vaughan 9. Josh Hodgson 10. Shannon Boyd 11. Josh Papalii 12. Elliott Whitehead 18. Shaun Fensom 8. Junior Paulo 13. Luke Bateman 14. Kurt Baptiste 17. Joseph Tapine Coach: Ricky Stuart Crowd: 9,731


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It's been a gold rush the last couple of days in Tokyo for Australia. I have to admit I've shed a tear or two seeing some of our athletes produce their best, even if they miss out on a podium finish or the medal they had hoped for.

One of the best stories this week was told by the new Oarsome Foursome - the gold medal winning men’s four rowing team - Spencer Turrin, Jack Hargreaves, Alex Hill and Alex Purnell. They have spent the last three years training in Canberra on Lake Burley Griffin.

Alex Purnell was calling the strokes for the coxless team - but in the final stages started calling out the name of Spencer Turin's father, Vic. He got the emotional response he was looking for from Turrin.



“I yelled out his dad’s name, I know it gets him going. Then Spencer was like, ‘come on Raiders’. The last 100 it was ‘Raiders, Raiders, Raiders’,” Purnell said.

Congratulations to them!

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Last weekend, against the Eels, Canberra's Jarrod Croker equaled the point scoring record of the great half, Johnathan Thurston - and became the equal third highest point scorer in NRL history. 2,222 points. This week, a try or a goal will see Croker surpass that mark. It is an incredible achievement for Croker, another milestone in a career littered with milestones.



He's 196 points shy of the point scoring record of Hazem El Masri and 564 behind the mark hit by Cameron Smith. I'd love to see Croker surpass both. But whatever happens, it's already been a wonderful footballing career for the Raiders' captain.

****

Every week I rate the Raiders players on a scale of 0-10... and here is the points tally after the clash with the Eels. Tell us what you think of the ratings!

Total points

Ryan Sutton 114
Jordan Rapana 109
Jack Wighton 98
Josh Papalii 97
Elliott Whitehead 93
Sebastian Kris 92
Josh Hodgson 88
Tom Starling 87
Hudson Young 86
Bailey Simonsson 81
Joe Tapine 81
Emre Guler 79
Corey Harrawira-Naera 75
Sia Soliola 68
George Williams 65
Ryan James 62
Curtis Scott 58
Dunamis Lui 49
Sam Williams 49
Jarrod Croker 48
Semi Valemei 47
Siliva Havili 44
Caleb Aekins 42
Corey Horsburgh 35
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 31
Matt Timoko 16
Xavier Savage 16
Matt Frawley 13
Harley Smith-Shields 7
Brad Schneider 2

Average points per match

Harley Smith-Shields 7.0
Jordan Rapana 6.8
Ryan Sutton 6.7
Hudson Young 6.6
George Williams 6.5
Matt Frawley 6.5
Josh Papalii 6.5
Josh Hodgson 6.3
Corey Harrawira-Naera 6.3
Joe Tapine 6.2
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 6.2
Elliott Whitehead 6.2
Jack Wighton 6.1
Sam Williams 6.1
Emre Guler 6.1
Caleb Aekins 6.0
Semi Valemei 5.9
Corey Horsburgh 5.8
Curtis Scott 5.8
Bailey Simonsson 5.8
Tom Starling 5.4
Sebastian Kris 5.4
Jarrod Croker 5.3
Matt Timoko 5.3
Xavier Savage 5.3
Ryan James 5.2
Dunamis Lui 4.9
Siliva Havili 4.9
Sia Soliola 4.9
Brad Schneider 2.0

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greeneyed
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by greeneyed »

Through green eyes: As I saw it

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"We didn't start anywhere near where we had to. We lost all our momentum in the first part of the game and it sucked a lot of juice out of us. We just looked very flat then. We weren't a shade on the team that we have been over the last two or three performances. That's the disappointing part of it because that wasn't us today.

The disruption, what went on yesterday, had no bearing on how we performed today at all. The disruption had nothing to do with that poor performance. We weren't good enough today. I'm not going to look at certain parts of the game or interpretations, rulings. We just weren't good enough. We didn't start the game well. We've got to work ourselves out, before worrying about anything else that affected the performance. We've got to look at ourselves and why we didn't start that game well. We had a number of individuals who weren't as good as they have been and they've got to look at the reasons why. We've got to look at us first.

I think we've become accustomed to understanding that anything on the day can happen, for example, yesterday. It's a good test of character. We handled it fine. It didn't affect our preparation, it didn't have any disruptions towards the way we played. We got to the sideline ready to play. I'm just disappointed with the start of our game because we couldn't get into it.

It's very hard to get momentum back when you haven't got it. That was a game today when you're losing momentum, you get a six again against you, you roll down the field and you get a try scored against you. We scored off a six again coming out of our end of the field. You get momentum, we scored off it. We just couldn't regain momentum. And then when we started flat like we did, not being able to get momentum back sucked the life out of us."

Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart


2021 Round 20. Newcastle Knights 34 - Canberra Raiders 24. It was a must win match for the Raiders, but they could not get the job done. The Knights came ready to play, and the Raiders did not. They were as flat as a tack, and before they knew it, they were trailing 18-0. The Raiders completely lacked the determination and intensity in defence that they showed in last weekend's win over the Eels. The Knights targeted the Raiders' right side defence and the Knights came up trumps, time after time. Knights' centre Bradman Best was outstanding and the Raiders had no answers. The Knights conceded a couple of late tries, but there is no doubt about it. The 10 point margin of defeat flattered the Raiders.



The start was the result of a combination of factors - things we've seen before. The forward pack didn't establish any dominance and the Raiders lost the rucks. It allowed the Knights to get quick play the balls. The Canberra forwards didn't bend the line like the Knights. The Raiders' kicking strategy was to bomb, but the bombs didn't put any pressure on Newcastle. They needed to find corners, grass, depth - with the aim of keeping the ball out of the hands of Kalyn Ponga. The Knights' kicking was better and it gave them some territorial wins. Then when the Knights shifted it left, the Raiders' right edge defence didn't work as a unit. Some of the attempted tackles were feeble.

When the Raiders did get some repeat sets in the Knights' red zone in the first half, the Raiders attack again looked blunt, slow and disorganised. The Knights handled it - and then promptly went down the other end of the field to score.

These aren't new problems. More often than not, this has been the story of 2021 for the Raiders. And once the Knights got to an 18 point lead at the 20 minute mark, it was always going to be very difficult for the Raiders to make a comeback. The game was in the Knights' keeping after that.

Ricky Stuart rejected the suggestion that the one day postponement of the match was a reason for Canberra's performance. It was certainly not an excuse. The uncertainty of that situation, caused by the COVID lock down in south east Queensland, affected both teams. Unfortunately, the Raiders didn't look like they had their heads in the game right from the opening whistle.

The Raiders are in eighth place, just, on percentages - after the Dragons' big loss today to the Rabbitohs. But the defeat this afternoon was very costly. Coming into this game, the Knights were trailing the Raiders on the competition ladder - and the result sees them join the Raiders, Sharks and Dragons on 18 competition points. The Raiders do not have an easy run home, and can ill afford to lose to teams below them. Now, they can probably only afford to lose one more game in the final five matches if they want to make certain they're playing finals football. Maybe a couple. That's a tough ask, given they are yet to face three teams in the top six - the Storm, Roosters and Sea Eagles. If they lose to the Dragons on Friday, they're in a lot of trouble.

Stats that mattered?

The Knights had a 52 per cent share of possession and 52 per cent of the territory. Many of the attacking statistics were surprisingly close. The running metres for both teams were almost level (Knights 1555, Raiders 1553). The Raiders made more post contact metres (518-486), metres per set (41-38) and kick return metres (149-139). Line breaks were even at five apiece, while the Knights made slightly more tackle breaks (30-27).

Offloads have been a feature of Canberra's game plan in recent weeks, but not so much this week (Raiders 9, Knights 8). The Raiders prioritised ball security - but in the end, the Knights completed more sets (35-31) and had a slightly better completion rate (85-82 per cent). The Knights made one more error than the Raiders (8-7).

The Knights made more kicking metres (672-539) from a couple of more kicks. The Raiders put up seven bombs, compared with three for the Knights. But the Raiders were the team that struggled to handle the opposition's kicks. Newcastle posted an 89 per cent kick defusal rate, the Raiders just 62 per cent. At least one of the Knight's tries were scored due to poor kick defusal - when Jarrod Croker was out-jumped by Kurt Mann.

The Raiders made more tackles (352-339), missed more (30-27) and posted more ineffective tackles (14-10). That meant the Knights had a slightly better tackle efficiency rate (both at around 90 per cent). The more telling statistic was the six tries conceded by the Raiders - all inside the first 65 minutes. Newcastle had conceded only two tries up until the 70th minute - and two in the final 10 minutes.

Watching the match, it felt like the Knights were being awarded a lot of penalties and set restarts. One or two of the penalties to the Knights were very dubious. But at the end of the match, there was actually not much between the teams in either department. The Raiders conceded a couple of more penalties (5-3) and one more set restart (6-5). The Knights made better use of the opportunities offered by those rulings - scoring plenty of their points off that back of one or the other.

The Knights almost certainly should have had Tyson Frizell sent to the sin bin for tackling Elliott Whitehead without the ball in the 14th minute. Whitehead was backing up a dangerous run from Hudson Young and was potentially in a try scoring situation.

However, I think Ricky Stuart was correct in saying that the officiating did not cost the Raiders the game. The statistics suggest that the Raiders had plenty of opportunity to score more points. Their own poor play in both defence and attack - and their poor start - cost them that game.

Memorable moments?

There were quite a few memorable moments from the Raiders in this game, but most of them I'd prefer to forget.

It was great to see Harley Smith-Shields score his second NRL try - in his fourth first grade appearance. It was just reward for the youngster. Josh Papalii's try early in the second half showed what happens when you have a player prepared to run hard onto the ball. It gave the team a ray of hope.



The Green Machine's best try came in the 72nd minute, when Jack Wighton put in a short grubber and Elliott Whitehead regathered. Whitehead's pass back inside to Wighton put the five eighth in the clear - with the wide running Hudson Young putting on the finishing touches. It was a reminder of how potent Wighton can be - in an otherwise very quiet match.

Jarrod Croker became the third highest point scorer in NRL history, when he converted Harley Smith-Shields try from the sideline in the 29th minute. He surpassed the great Johnathan Thurston, and only Cameron Smith and Hazem El Masri have now scored more career points. Huge achievement.

Best performers?

Jordan Rapana. 27 runs for 212 metres, 58 kick return metres, 54 post contact metres, one line break, one line break assist, one try assist, seven tackle breaks, three offloads, four kicks defused. Three missed tackles, two errors, one handling error and one penalty conceded on the debit column.

Josh Papalii. One try, 12 runs for 114 metres, 44 post contact metres, one line break, three tackle breaks, one offload, 28 tackles, 97 per cent tackle efficiency.

Hudson Young. One try, 11 runs for 102 metres, 23 post contact metres, one line break, five tackle breaks, two offloads, 24 tackles, 100 per cent tackle efficiency. Clean sheet for negative play.

Top tacklers: Josh Hodgson 50, Tom Starling 39, Elliott Whitehead 36
Most metres gained: Jordan Rapana 212, Semi Valemei 160, Harley Smith-Shields 135, Joseph Tapine 134

In the Raiders forwards, only Tapine (134), Papalii (114) and Young (102) broke the 100 metres running metres gained. Five Knights forwards did: David Klemmer (168), Jacob Saifiti (166), Daniel Saifiti (137), Tyson Frizell (134), Mitchell Barnett (130).

My player ratings:

Jordan Rapana 7
Harley Smith-Shields 6
Jarrod Croker 6
Sebastian Kris 2
Semi Valemei 6
Jack Wighton 5
Sam Williams 4
Emre Guler 6
Josh Hodgson 5
Jospeph Tapine 6
Corey Harawira-Naera 5
Elliott Whitehead 6
Hudson Young 7

Josh Papalii 7
Tom Starling 7
Matthew Timoko 4
Sia Soliola 4

Do you agree with the ratings? Let us know what you think.

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gangrenous
Laurie Daley
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Through green eyes 2021

Post by gangrenous »

IMO:
Wighton was not a 5
Croker was not a 6
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T_R
Don Furner
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by T_R »

6 seems very generous for Croker, definitely.

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Billy Walker
Laurie Daley
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Billy Walker »

T_R wrote: August 2, 2021, 8:36 am 6 seems very generous for Croker, definitely.

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At least 2 sentimental points in Crokers rating. I’d be taxing Jack a point or two as well.
Mr Squiggle
Ken Nagas
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Mr Squiggle »

None of our forwards deserve more than a five. Our pack was dominated in every area of the game.

As for the backs. Hard to look good when your pack is soft and lazy but Croker and Wighton deserve the most criticism. Croker and Wighton are on considerably more money than the rest of the backs and playing like out of form reserve graders.
Hong Kong Raider
Jason Croker
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Hong Kong Raider »

Good morning. Over generous on Croker (like most weeks), Wighton, and Sammy. In a big loss and game, deserved to be marked 1-2 pts for poor performance. The three didn't do much, if anything at all.
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Roger Kenworthy
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Re: Through green eyes 2021

Post by Roger Kenworthy »

Anyone else foresee Croker scoring a hattrick in round 25 with the Roosters resting players and receiving 137/10 to win GEMVP?
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