2024 Round 5 v Eels: Game Day

[Billy Walker]

Never thought I'd utter these words, but I'm loving Danny Levi.

Some still can’t get their narrow minds around it, but he is going to be very good for us.

[Billy Walker]

I know this is hyperbolic and stuff, but honestly. Despite a couple of errors, I just base my love of our squad on effort.

Cotric's first grade career - after SO many chances - and reaching the Blues - it just ended for me tonight at the Raiders.

James is a real go'er, he wants it more. Cotric could be something somewhere else on the wing, but if he wants to stay relevant he has to start thinking about bulking up and playing back row in 2025 or something. He's relatively slow, his skills are mediocre, his balance is extremely poor so he gets dominated on kick returns.

Dunno, I'm done.

Cotric who?

[nachopants]

Also, can we get confirmation Xavier is now Gutho's Daddy

[denissnowy]

Really liked seeing Strange expand his game tonight. His first 4 weeks have been "run first" dominant (which is fine for a rookie half). Was great to see him engaging the line and passing. Was also great to see him play slow at times - where he slowed down to then engage the line. It's a such a useful tool to have in the kit bag of a half (one Jack never had).

Super impressive game from the youngster.

[Seiffert82]

Asomua has a longer first grade career ahead of him than Cotric, Hopoate or Schiller.

Sent from my CPH2021 using Tapatalk

[Rickmando]

I wonder if Jack was watching.

Hello Jack.

How good was that tonight ?

Enjoy being last and 300k poorer for it

I think he ended up going for $700K, turning down our $1.2mill. So even poorer still! Ooft.

Well if he stayed then maybe we’d be last… him leaving did cause the rebuild penny drop…

But it’s another data point to add to show the coach is far from always right. That offer to Jack was horrific.

Just imagine how much of a black hole the coach would have sunk us into had he handed over $4.8M for Jack to block Strange’s path to first grade for another 4 years… a fair bit of dumb luck there.

[denissnowy]

I wonder if Jack was watching.

Hello Jack.

How good was that tonight ?

Enjoy being last and 300k poorer for it

I think he ended up going for $700K, turning down our $1.2mill. So even poorer still! Ooft.

Well if he stayed then maybe we’d be last… him leaving did cause the rebuild penny drop…

But it’s another data point to add to show the coach is far from always right. That offer to Jack was horrific.

Just imagine how much of a black hole the coach would have sunk us into had he handed over $4.8M for Jack to block Strange’s path to first grade for another 4 years… a fair bit of dumb luck there.

RS has been kissed on the backside by a rainbow there

[Colk]

Asomua has a longer first grade career ahead of him than Cotric, Hopoate or Schiller.

Sent from my CPH2021 using Tapatalk

I’d definitely agree. There are only two areas where Asomua might fall down if you will.

His height may mean he is a target for kicks. Secondly his pace isn’t great.

I think he is an absolute beast to be honest and I have high hopes for him but they are the two negatives

[Robert the Bruce]

Enjoy being last and 300k poorer for it

I think he ended up going for $700K, turning down our $1.2mill. So even poorer still! Ooft.

Well if he stayed then maybe we’d be last… him leaving did cause the rebuild penny drop…

But it’s another data point to add to show the coach is far from always right. That offer to Jack was horrific.

Just imagine how much of a black hole the coach would have sunk us into had he handed over $4.8M for Jack to block Strange’s path to first grade for another 4 years… a fair bit of dumb luck there.

RS has been kissed on the backside by a rainbow there

Thing is we all wanted Jack to stay

[denissnowy]

Not me

[reptar]

Not me

Me neither.

[Joshjacksonshead]

Never thought I'd utter these words, but I'm loving Danny Levi.

Some still can’t get their narrow minds around it, but he is going to be very good for us.

And it gets worse , it almost feels as if they enjoyed running him down , from the very first day he signed on , some truly sick stuff

[Andymachine]

I was very happy for Jack to leave. He'd been diabolical for too long.

[BJ]

Casey Badger is the best video ref. Not sure why she is always running the line while we have clowns like the idiot in NZ the other week stinking things up.

She missed a blatant ball on the line earlier

The old 4K OLED showed the ball touching blades of grass inside the line before the rest of the ball hitting the line. Casey got it right.

Say what now? Doesn’t matter if it hits a blade of grass inside first if it hits the line?

Ahh yes good point gang

[-TW-]

I think he ended up going for $700K, turning down our $1.2mill. So even poorer still! Ooft.

Well if he stayed then maybe we’d be last… him leaving did cause the rebuild penny drop…

But it’s another data point to add to show the coach is far from always right. That offer to Jack was horrific.

Just imagine how much of a black hole the coach would have sunk us into had he handed over $4.8M for Jack to block Strange’s path to first grade for another 4 years… a fair bit of dumb luck there.

RS has been kissed on the backside by a rainbow there

Thing is we all wanted Jack to stay

No we didn't.

Some of us had been saying how much of a handbrake Jack Wighton was on this side for a couple of years.



Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Billy Walker]

Never thought I'd utter these words, but I'm loving Danny Levi.

Some still can’t get their narrow minds around it, but he is going to be very good for us.

And it gets worse , it almost feels as if they enjoyed running him down , from the very first day he signed on , some truly sick stuff

There are definitely people cheering against him, but at the end of the day, the people that matter know his value and select him each week the pretenders can keep rating him 5/10 whinging on a “fan” forum

[Billy Walker]

Well if he stayed then maybe we’d be last… him leaving did cause the rebuild penny drop…

But it’s another data point to add to show the coach is far from always right. That offer to Jack was horrific.

Just imagine how much of a black hole the coach would have sunk us into had he handed over $4.8M for Jack to block Strange’s path to first grade for another 4 years… a fair bit of dumb luck there.

RS has been kissed on the backside by a rainbow there

Thing is we all wanted Jack to stay

No we didn't.

Some of us had been saying how much of a handbrake Jack Wighton was on this side for a couple of years.



Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Hmmmm go back and look at the Jack Wighton thread. When young Billy first questioned if we should explore our options the chorus of clowns were out in force against the idea. When it became clear he was moving on all that very swiftly shifted, and like jilted lover a bandwagon was assembled full of people bemoaning him.

[Robert the Bruce]

Well if he stayed then maybe we’d be last… him leaving did cause the rebuild penny drop…

But it’s another data point to add to show the coach is far from always right. That offer to Jack was horrific.

Just imagine how much of a black hole the coach would have sunk us into had he handed over $4.8M for Jack to block Strange’s path to first grade for another 4 years… a fair bit of dumb luck there.

RS has been kissed on the backside by a rainbow there

Thing is we all wanted Jack to stay

No we didn't.

Some of us had been saying how much of a handbrake Jack Wighton was on this side for a couple of years.



Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

Just wanna say congratulations to the very small minority of Raiders fans who wanted Jack to leave, you were right. But Ricky's "kneejerk" offer to our biggest star since the 90s was completely justified.

[Seiffert82]

Asomua has a longer first grade career ahead of him than Cotric, Hopoate or Schiller.

Sent from my CPH2021 using Tapatalk

I’d definitely agree. There are only two areas where Asomua might fall down if you will.

His height may mean he is a target for kicks. Secondly his pace isn’t great.

I think he is an absolute beast to be honest and I have high hopes for him but they are the two negatives

Yeah, he's definitely more of a power winger than and out and out speedster. I think he'd have Hopoate and Cotric for pace.

Schiller is skillful and is a well balanced runner, but unless he can fix his handling in contact and the piss poor efforts in defence, he shouldn't be in first grade.

Sent from my CPH2021 using Tapatalk

[Regs Revolution]

That was very enjoyable and a stark difference to last week. The eels weren’t great but we were pretty good. The defence is much improved this year.

Savage and Schiller brilliant, although Schiller needs to work on his defence. Timoko wow. Hudson played like he should. Sasagi was very good. Saulo is without a doubt the most improved player I’ve seen. He is great. Stays in 17 for sure.

[Andymachine]

Gee it's good having speed in the team again! That was so much more enjoyable than the majority of last year's wins. It was almost a throwback to the Campo glory days where Colin Best and Phil Graham we're scoring long range tries for fun.

I thought Fog's kicking game (excepting goal kicking) was the best of the season. He got plenty of praise for the Knights game but that was just a bombathon. Tonight he showed more variety with some repeat sets, kicks to space, a chip and chase and the field goal. Not to mention the 45m kick for touch.

I missed the last 20 mins but I thought Savage had a blinder and showed why so many fans were desperate to have him in the team last year. Schiller's defence was kind of pathetic but he's a great athlete and I love what he can do for us with the ball so I really hope he can improve his handling and defence. There's a great player there for us if he does so I hope he can stay in the team once Hoppa's arm heals. I thought Seb Kris was a bit quiet and hopefully he can increase his involvement next week.

[BJ]

Yes good work mentioning Fogs in game kicking. Not for goal though.

They couldn’t start a set well because of the high long kicks that gave our chasers time to stop any return momentum from Gutho or Sivo.

That little chip, chase and second kick showed game awareness and skill too.

[Regs Revolution]

His kicking has been brilliant this year and tonight he was fantastic. What concerns me though is no try assists. He needs to start creating opportunities for his outside/inside men.

[denissnowy]

Best thing out of the presser is that RS seems to have forgotten who Elliott Whitehead is

[NoMan]

How’s anyone critical of anything or anyone coming out of this performance?

If you're an opposition coach, what would you focus in on?

Not a winger.

Depends who I’m coaching but most weeks I’d focus on my own 1-17.

[cat]

That was fun!

Strange tonight with the kicking though.
NSW cup literally got 1 from 7 attempts from 3 kickers, the parra side missed their 1 attempt.

First grade was just as bad for both Fogs and the parra kicker.

Not sure what the issue was with the goal posts last night with the brumbies but considering today's success I think there maybe a problem......

There was no wind, no slipping just missed kicks

[Finchy]

Best thing out of the presser is that RS seems to have forgotten who Elliott Whitehead is

Haha I thought that too!

“Who?”

[InFernos_Raiders]

How’s anyone critical of anything or anyone coming out of this performance?

If you're an opposition coach, what would you focus in on?

I would say the only negatives are the injuries.
They played on but a few rolled their ankles, Rappa knee

[MrPosh]

This was the first Raiders game on in the UK this year - wasn't a bad introduction to the season.

So many strong performances across the park and it was great to watch the team with the handbrake off.

Having been concerned about some creeping doubt about Smithies, it was good to see him coming into first receiver and putting his hand up for some tough carries.

This being said, I think the team was lucky to have Sasagi on the bench. Without him, the reshuffle gets clumsy and he was only there because of injury. I'd like to see him on the bench from now on - along with Puru for Starling, who is very poor. It gives the most options to respond to game conditions.

Finally, if the club wanted to swap a middle for a top second row mid-season, it has to be Horse for the chop (let's face it, nobody is sending a decent player in exchange for Guler).

He's still got the name, but I think he's hit his limit (I've never been high on him). Always seems to be trying to impose himself, rather than play the game in front of him.

[Canberra Milk]

I feel like Horse needs to play a lot of minutes, and grind himself into the game. Not sure he can do short stints off the bench so well

[HoraceBigCigar]

Hoppa doesn’t score that.

He’s mowed down 10m out

Actually, the Timoko tap on goes over the sideline, as Hops hasn't kept up with the play

Haha, classic. It’s funny because it’s true. But we do know who is gonna get picked next week right?

[Sid]

Curious to find out what speed Xavier Savage logged on the Telecom Tracker when he scored the long range try or when he was zooming up for support before Young flicked it to Sasagi

[julian87]

That is the dumbest rule …. Total novelty… Fogarty comes up with entertaining footy and shows class, in earning a repeat set.

And the **** NRL decide to give the opposition team a line drop out on their own terms and if they stuff it up, they don’t even get penalised.

**** off.

Agree 100%

It’s rewarding the wrong team and giving teams a free short cut which goes against what’s great about rugby league.

[-PJ-]

The morning after.

Feeling good.

[julian87]

Schiller just isn't a good winger... He looked much better in the centres in the trials, I think I would prefer Hoppa out there...

Jesus Christ