Nick Cotric returns to Raiders on three year deal

[Northern Raider]

Yeah unless you've been watching pre-season and he's not training well then to say that Rapa looks like he's hit a wall is some straight up rubbish. If that's the case then I hope he hits another wall in 2022 because he was our best player by a mile this year and deservedly won the Meninga medal. He was low on juice in 2020 but that's after coming back from Japan overweight and with no preseason and then spending the whole year out of position.

Also, to say that if Rapa is in the team by the end of the season we're automatically having a poor year - ridiculous. I'll back him to remain a quality winger in 2022.

Take out 2020 where he joined part way through the season without proper conditioning and Rapana has not had one bad year for us. Yes he's getting older and may not have the speed he once did. He's still showing there's plenty of life in his NRL career. One of our best in 2021 and thoroughly earned his contract extenion.

[greeneyed]

Nick Cotric to return to the Raiders

The Raiders have received some good news ahead of the 2022 season, with local junior Nick Cotric to return to the club effective immediately.

Cotric has been granted an early release from his contract with the Bulldogs and has signed a three-year deal with the Raiders until the end of the 2024 season.

Raiders CEO Don Furner said Cotric’s return is a timely boost for the Raiders, with the representative winger returning to the club where he began his NRL career and to his hometown of Canberra.

“We’re looking forward to having Nick re-join the club for the next three seasons,” Furner said. “Nick is a local boy who made his way through the local rugby league pathway program to the NRL, NSW and Australia while playing for us and we know the skills and capability he has as a player.”

“Nick has indicated to us that he’s really excited about returning to Canberra and the Raiders, and we’re confident he can play his best football for us.”

“The Raiders are a proud development club who invest heavily in our pathway program and to have a top-level player like Nick Cotric who has been through our system return to the club is a show of faith in this.”

Cotric will look to resume training with the Raiders this week.

Canberra Raiders media

VIDEO: Nick Cotric highlights: https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2021/12 ... ighlights/

Bulldogs release Nic Cotric from final two years of his contract

The Canterbury Bulldogs would like to wish Nic Cotric all the best with the next stage of his career, after agreeing to release the winger immediately from the final two years of his contract.

Bulldogs Chief Executive, Aaron Warburton, thanked Cotric for the great effort he had put in while representing the club:

"I'd like to thank Nic on behalf of the club, for the great effort and level of professionalism he has shown while here at the Bulldogs.

He has been a fantastic ambassador for the club, on and off the field, and we greatly appreciate the way that he has carried himself through this process.

We now wish Nic all the best with the next stage of his career, in the knowledge that he will always be a part of the Bulldogs family."

Canterbury Bulldogs media

Nick Cotric returns to Canberra Raiders on three-year deal: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/ ... /?cs=14239

https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-pr ... 4387e336b7

https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/12/15/mor ... o-raiders/

[Matt]

Nice to finally be official

[Roger Kenworthy]

Nice to finally be official

Let's just hope Nick Cotric is Nic Cotric and not his untalented 40 year-old brother.

[Dylan’s Raiders]

Watching those Cotric highlights also show how solid Croker has been for us. Not quite as good as BJ but Croker was good at drawing in two defenders to free up his winger. Some excellent passes and offloads.

Great to have Nick back!

Hoping come round 1 we look something like:

1. CNK
2. Nick Cotric
3. Harley Smith-Shields
4. Matt Timoko
5. Xavier Savage (Rapana suspended)
6. Jack Wighton
7. Jamal Fogarty
8. Josh Papali
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Joseph Tapine
11. CHN
12. Elliot whitehead
13. Hudson Young

14. Tom starling
15. Peta hola
16. Ryan Sutton
17. Adam Elliott

[PerthRaider86]

Watching those Cotric highlights also show how solid Croker has been for us. Not quite as good as BJ but Croker was good at drawing in two defenders to free up his winger. Some excellent passes and offloads.

Great to have Nick back!

Hoping come round 1 we look something like:

1. CNK
2. Nick Cotric
3. Harley Smith-Shields
4. Matt Timoko
5. Xavier Savage (Rapana suspended)
6. Jack Wighton
7. Jamal Fogarty
8. Josh Papali
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Joseph Tapine
11. CHN
12. Elliot whitehead
13. Hudson Young

14. Tom starling
15. Peta hola
16. Ryan Sutton
17. Adam Elliott

Croker never passed the ball....

[sprintman]

Mini home for ex Bulldogs…

[-PJ-]

I’m very rapt he’s back in green.

He improves our squad straight up.

[Makaveli]

Great news. Cotric in for Simmo is only a positive.

Welcome home Nic

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[RichmondRaider]

Watching those Cotric highlights also show how solid Croker has been for us. Not quite as good as BJ but Croker was good at drawing in two defenders to free up his winger. Some excellent passes and offloads.

Great to have Nick back!

Hoping come round 1 we look something like:

1. CNK
2. Nick Cotric
3. Harley Smith-Shields
4. Matt Timoko
5. Xavier Savage (Rapana suspended)
6. Jack Wighton
7. Jamal Fogarty
8. Josh Papali
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Joseph Tapine
11. CHN
12. Elliot whitehead
13. Hudson Young

14. Tom starling
15. Peta hola
16. Ryan Sutton
17. Adam Elliott

I like it

[Billy Walker]

Good news! Some good discussion about this signing through this and other threads. It shows at the end of the day all we can do is a like for like comparison and agree Nick is an upgrade on the position which is a good thing. To pick up Botman’s point, without transparency around contract values it’s impossible to say whether this player upgrade is a phenomenally good signing or an horrendous signing. So purely on a like for like winger upgrade- good signing!

[Matt]

Watching those Cotric highlights also show how solid Croker has been for us. Not quite as good as BJ but Croker was good at drawing in two defenders to free up his winger. Some excellent passes and offloads.

Great to have Nick back!

Hoping come round 1 we look something like:

1. CNK
2. Nick Cotric
3. Harley Smith-Shields
4. Matt Timoko
5. Xavier Savage (Rapana suspended)
6. Jack Wighton
7. Jamal Fogarty
8. Josh Papali
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Joseph Tapine
11. CHN
12. Elliot whitehead
13. Hudson Young

14. Tom starling
15. Peta hola
16. Ryan Sutton
17. Adam Elliott

Im still tempted to split Tapine and Papa, to "maintain the rage" for 80mins, but I like it.

[FROG]

Awesome news! Never made peace with his departure. He is a raider! Welcome home!

[afgtnk]

Welcome home, Nicko.

Oh and don't try to leave again next time. ****.

[afgtnk]

Issue is that we still don't have much speed on the wings. Rapana, Cotric, HSS, Valemei - none are quick. CNK at centre would give us another slow coach occupying a position. If we get CNK and Croker together, forget it.

Savage in the mix somewhere gives us that long range strike and boosts our overall speed significantly. Rapa no longer as quick. Cotric was quick enough, but agree, not especially quick for a winger. CNK accelerates ok. He'd be quicker than plenty of other centres.

If Croker is in there- I'll almost write the season off, simply for what it says about opportunity and selections. Chew up 6 games until he's dropped that could be developing HSS/Timoko who are starved of footy. If HSS is in there, he's quite zippy and raises our speed a bit. Timoko more a power player from what I see.

Either way if our wings are Rapa and Cotric, each busting tackles for fun, I want Savage sniffing around in support to take advantage.

I'd say Timoko's now the second fastest over 40-50, now that Simo is gone. He's got decent speed.

[Rickmando]

If you can’t get excited about us bringing home a local junior and Australian rep, who ALSO still has his footballing prime in front of him - then you’re never going to bleed green to the required standard I’m afraid.

Welcome back Nic

[bonehead]

Issue is that we still don't have much speed on the wings. Rapana, Cotric, HSS, Valemei - none are quick. CNK at centre would give us another slow coach occupying a position. If we get CNK and Croker together, forget it.

Savage in the mix somewhere gives us that long range strike and boosts our overall speed significantly. Rapa no longer as quick. Cotric was quick enough, but agree, not especially quick for a winger. CNK accelerates ok. He'd be quicker than plenty of other centres.

If Croker is in there- I'll almost write the season off, simply for what it says about opportunity and selections. Chew up 6 games until he's dropped that could be developing HSS/Timoko who are starved of footy. If HSS is in there, he's quite zippy and raises our speed a bit. Timoko more a power player from what I see.

Either way if our wings are Rapa and Cotric, each busting tackles for fun, I want Savage sniffing around in support to take advantage.

I'd say Timoko's now the second fastest over 40-50, now that Simo is gone. He's got decent speed.

Timoko is fast, just needs to learn how to beat his man effectively as opposed to pushing off 3 and going nowhere

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[Matt]

Issue is that we still don't have much speed on the wings. Rapana, Cotric, HSS, Valemei - none are quick. CNK at centre would give us another slow coach occupying a position. If we get CNK and Croker together, forget it.

Savage in the mix somewhere gives us that long range strike and boosts our overall speed significantly. Rapa no longer as quick. Cotric was quick enough, but agree, not especially quick for a winger. CNK accelerates ok. He'd be quicker than plenty of other centres.

If Croker is in there- I'll almost write the season off, simply for what it says about opportunity and selections. Chew up 6 games until he's dropped that could be developing HSS/Timoko who are starved of footy. If HSS is in there, he's quite zippy and raises our speed a bit. Timoko more a power player from what I see.

Either way if our wings are Rapa and Cotric, each busting tackles for fun, I want Savage sniffing around in support to take advantage.

I'd say Timoko's now the second fastest over 40-50, now that Simo is gone. He's got decent speed.

I'd agree. Pity Simmo was working on his speed this yr, and we won't see the benefit. That said, I'd still swap it for Cotric.

I'd say HSS is up there though. The couple of breaks he made, incl the 1 that was called back, he showed good toe.

[papabear]

For straight line speed , I am not sure I would have timoko over kris or even rapana potentially…

Stepping and agility sure. But he doesn’t have the longest most powerful stride…

[InFernos_Raiders]

Watching those Cotric highlights also show how solid Croker has been for us. Not quite as good as BJ but Croker was good at drawing in two defenders to free up his winger. Some excellent passes and offloads.

Great to have Nick back!

Hoping come round 1 we look something like:

1. CNK
2. Nick Cotric
3. Harley Smith-Shields
4. Matt Timoko
5. Xavier Savage (Rapana suspended)
6. Jack Wighton
7. Jamal Fogarty
8. Josh Papali
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Joseph Tapine
11. CHN
12. Elliot whitehead
13. Hudson Young

14. Tom starling
15. Peta hola
16. Ryan Sutton
17. Adam Elliott

Croker never passed the ball....

Count on it Stuart will play Croker over HSS or XS.
You know this what Stuart does.

[sprintman]

Watching those Cotric highlights also show how solid Croker has been for us. Not quite as good as BJ but Croker was good at drawing in two defenders to free up his winger. Some excellent passes and offloads.

Great to have Nick back!

Hoping come round 1 we look something like:

1. CNK
2. Nick Cotric
3. Harley Smith-Shields
4. Matt Timoko
5. Xavier Savage (Rapana suspended)
6. Jack Wighton
7. Jamal Fogarty
8. Josh Papali
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Joseph Tapine
11. CHN
12. Elliot whitehead
13. Hudson Young

14. Tom starling
15. Peta hola
16. Ryan Sutton
17. Adam Elliott

Croker never passed the ball....

Count on it Stuart will play Croker over HSS or XS.
You know this what Stuart does.

And that’s why we can’t have nice things…

[bonehead]

For straight line speed , I am not sure I would have timoko over kris or even rapana potentially…

Stepping and agility sure. But he doesn’t have the longest most powerful stride…

over 50m Timoko would easily be quicker, we haven't seen him in the open at nrl level but in the 9s he scored a 30m try purely on speed, trial game at port Macquarie a few half breaks created by speed and plenty of u20s tries in 2019 that showed how fast he is. There was a moment against the chooks he turned and caught tedesco easily in defence also.

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[daley6]

Hopefully no croker kris centre pairing as it would be the slowest in the nrl,

[chris83]

Timoko is easily the second fastest next to savage. He has explosive speed that can burn past an opponent. He just needs some quality ball

[papabear]

Happy to wait and see, and happy to be impressed.

Often times though people mistake agility for pure speed.... El Masri had an excellent step and excellent agility but his actual speed wasnt really there. Then you have players like purtell who had niether.

Then you have players like phil graham, JAC or brett mullins, who probably wouldnt have set the world alight on agility tests but their top line speed is just beautiful.

Thats the beautiful thing about savage he appears to have both.

[papabear]

Hopefully no croker kris centre pairing as it would be the slowest in the nrl,

Kris has not appeared to be slow to me at all.

Croker, well he was playing on one leg to be fair. If he has made a miraculous recovery he wont be slow, if he is still on one leg lets hope he can get that medical retirement.

[yurithe1]

Saw Furner's statement and had to check Cotric's rep status. I'd forgotten he had played two games for Australia.

Getting that experience back in place of someone who is almost a rookie like Simonsson is a bonus for us.

[Billy Walker]

I saw Mr Cotric getting about town and without wanting to fat shame the lad let’s just say it won’t hurt him to do a few extras at the end of training!

[Raiders_Pat]

I saw Mr Cotric getting about town and without wanting to fat shame the lad let’s just say it won’t hurt him to do a few extras at the end of training!

A move to the forwards on the cards, perhaps?

[BadnMean]

I saw Mr Cotric getting about town and without wanting to fat shame the lad let’s just say it won’t hurt him to do a few extras at the end of training!

Yeah Cotric is known for hating the gym, not caring how he looks and letting himself go in the off season... Not sure I buy it.

Find it pretty hard to believe he won't be exactly where he needs to be round 1. Maybe Gus was mean and didn't let him do pre-season yet?

[Lamenting Actions]

I saw Mr Cotric getting about town and without wanting to fat shame the lad let’s just say it won’t hurt him to do a few extras at the end of training!

Yeah Cotric is known for hating the gym, not caring how he looks and letting himself go in the off season... Not sure I buy it.

Find it pretty hard to believe he won't be exactly where he needs to be round 1. Maybe Gus was mean and didn't let him do pre-season yet?

I worked with a school mate of his. He said Nick is 100 percent infatuated with smashing weights. Was benching twice his weight when he was 14 apparently. When there were free exercise days when he was with the Raiders in his last stint he always chose weights. No doubt he kept doing that at the dogs.

He will never let himself go in that area that is for certain.

[Billy Walker]

I saw Mr Cotric getting about town and without wanting to fat shame the lad let’s just say it won’t hurt him to do a few extras at the end of training!

Yeah Cotric is known for hating the gym, not caring how he looks and letting himself go in the off season... Not sure I buy it.

Find it pretty hard to believe he won't be exactly where he needs to be round 1. Maybe Gus was mean and didn't let him do pre-season yet?

I worked with a school mate of his. He said Nick is 100 percent infatuated with smashing weights. Was benching twice his weight when he was 14 apparently. When there were free exercise days when he was with the Raiders in his last stint he always chose weights. No doubt he kept doing that at the dogs.

He will never let himself go in that area that is for certain.

Is bigger always better?

[BadnMean]

I saw Mr Cotric getting about town and without wanting to fat shame the lad let’s just say it won’t hurt him to do a few extras at the end of training!

Yeah Cotric is known for hating the gym, not caring how he looks and letting himself go in the off season... Not sure I buy it.

Find it pretty hard to believe he won't be exactly where he needs to be round 1. Maybe Gus was mean and didn't let him do pre-season yet?

I worked with a school mate of his. He said Nick is 100 percent infatuated with smashing weights. Was benching twice his weight when he was 14 apparently. When there were free exercise days when he was with the Raiders in his last stint he always chose weights. No doubt he kept doing that at the dogs.

He will never let himself go in that area that is for certain.

That tallies absolutely with my experiences with him. I taught him PE when he was in Yr 10. He was already 95/100kg looked like he could play Fg already even then. I like to lift weights as well so he was always chatty about that. And haircuts- loved a "fresh" haircut. He was a good egg.

[Elcaptcroker]

I saw Mr Cotric getting about town and without wanting to fat shame the lad let’s just say it won’t hurt him to do a few extras at the end of training!

Yeah Cotric is known for hating the gym, not caring how he looks and letting himself go in the off season... Not sure I buy it.

Find it pretty hard to believe he won't be exactly where he needs to be round 1. Maybe Gus was mean and didn't let him do pre-season yet?

I worked with a school mate of his. He said Nick is 100 percent infatuated with smashing weights. Was benching twice his weight when he was 14 apparently. When there were free exercise days when he was with the Raiders in his last stint he always chose weights. No doubt he kept doing that at the dogs.

He will never let himself go in that area that is for certain.

Is bigger always better?

Even though i keep getting told no, but my ex had a habit of lying


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[BJ123]

Cotric definitely needs to work on his football skills, particularly passing and positioning. Doesn’t need to work as much on his size.