OFFICIAL: Tom Starling signs two year deal with Raiders

[kona_dream]

Gee I am not sure I would be able to back myself by not having a deal signed for next year. At least Blake Green got his signed early.

[Seiffert82]

It was really interesting to hear that Mulholland was pointed in Starling's direction by Hudson Young. A bit like Whitehead did with Williams.

[Danaman137]

It was really interesting to hear that Mulholland was pointed in Starling's direction by Hudson Young. A bit like Whitehead did with Williams.

Just shows the trust that the front office has with the playing group and vice versa. It’s great to see that the club is working so cohesively among the different departments.


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[Seiffert82]

It was really interesting to hear that Mulholland was pointed in Starling's direction by Hudson Young. A bit like Whitehead did with Williams.

Just shows the trust that the front office has with the playing group and vice versa. It’s great to see that the club is working so cohesively among the different departments.


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Yeah, it seems like a pretty healthy relationship.

I look at what is happening at the Broncos and it makes me realise how good our club can be.

[Neeeegz]

Need to get this done asap...

[benda]

This guy reminds me of Damien Cook. I think he deserves a spot in the 18 even with Hodgo. I would like to see him get a spot on the bench and come on at the half way mark next year. He offers something totally different in attack.

[BJ]

Starling looking good but he still needs to work on his passing and reading which way to go.

Another season developing at the Raiders will be good for him long term.

[GreenMachine]

Tigers will come sniffing for him when they lose Grant.

[FROG]

If he leaves he will regret it. He has talent and could go on to have a decent firsr grade career but if he goes to the wrong club i wouldnt be surprised to see him become another baptist type situation. He has some of the best hookers to learn off at the raiders in ennis and hodgo. Our club also has a tremendous record of transitioning juniors into first graders. Hope he stays and kicks on as he is one of my favourites at the moment

[bonehead]

Normally after 20mins I'm thinking cmon sticky get starling on as Havili's work is a bit limited but last night starling's service was a bit off starting the game, hopefully just nerves and he showed he has big minutes in him.

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[The Nickman]

If he leaves he will regret it. He has talent and could go on to have a decent firsr grade career but if he goes to the wrong club i wouldnt be surprised to see him become another baptist type situation. He has some of the best hookers to learn off at the raiders in ennis and hodgo. Our club also has a tremendous record of transitioning juniors into first graders. Hope he stays and kicks on as he is one of my favourites at the moment

[Coastalraider]

Normally after 20mins I'm thinking cmon sticky get starling on as Havili's work is a bit limited but last night starling's service was a bit off starting the game, hopefully just nerves and he showed he has big minutes in him.

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I think it’s all game plan boney.

We have a plan of 1 out runs attacking the ruck for the first 20-30 minutes of a match to wear out the opposition middles. Means we don’t make many meters, play the majority of the half at our own end, and we look slow and ineffective. But once the middles start to tire and we open up our game we run over teams. It’s been happening way to regularly for it just to be us starting slow. And interestingly the exact same thing happened last night even though our more ‘dynamic’ hooker started the match.

[The Nickman]

I really like Starling, but a lot of his passes look forward from the ruck, just needs to give that ball a fraction earlier.

But otherwise I'm really liking what I see from a kid playing the most important position on the field... give him a ten year deal, Sticky!

[simo]

I really like Starling, but a lot of his passes look forward from the ruck, just needs to give that ball a fraction earlier.

But otherwise I'm really liking what I see from a kid playing the most important position on the field... give him a ten year deal, Sticky!

10 years? I thinks its more likely we get him on a *clears throat* short deal

[The Nickman]

I really like Starling, but a lot of his passes look forward from the ruck, just needs to give that ball a fraction earlier.

But otherwise I'm really liking what I see from a kid playing the most important position on the field... give him a ten year deal, Sticky!

10 years? I thinks its more likely we get him on a *clears throat* short deal

Oh yeah? Six months?

[Northern Raider]

I really like Starling, but a lot of his passes look forward from the ruck,

Puts him on par with all the top hookers in the NRL hookers then.

[Seiffert82]

Normally after 20mins I'm thinking cmon sticky get starling on as Havili's work is a bit limited but last night starling's service was a bit off starting the game, hopefully just nerves and he showed he has big minutes in him.

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I think it’s all game plan boney.

We have a plan of 1 out runs attacking the ruck for the first 20-30 minutes of a match to wear out the opposition middles. Means we don’t make many meters, play the majority of the half at our own end, and we look slow and ineffective. But once the middles start to tire and we open up our game we run over teams. It’s been happening way to regularly for it just to be us starting slow. And interestingly the exact same thing happened last night even though our more ‘dynamic’ hooker started the match.

Yeah, that's exactly why I'm a fan of Havili starting.

Ultimately you're only going to get 50-60 minutes of top quality footy out of Starling. He punches above his weight, but he's still a small bloke. As a team we are best served using Havili early when the intensity is at it's highest and the game plan is a relatively simple one of completing sets, getting to our kicks and attaining field position.

I've never felt there was a compelling reason to start games with Starling on the field. I'd much rather we finish games with some fuel left in his tank.

[simo]

Normally after 20mins I'm thinking cmon sticky get starling on as Havili's work is a bit limited but last night starling's service was a bit off starting the game, hopefully just nerves and he showed he has big minutes in him.

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I think it’s all game plan boney.

We have a plan of 1 out runs attacking the ruck for the first 20-30 minutes of a match to wear out the opposition middles. Means we don’t make many meters, play the majority of the half at our own end, and we look slow and ineffective. But once the middles start to tire and we open up our game we run over teams. It’s been happening way to regularly for it just to be us starting slow. And interestingly the exact same thing happened last night even though our more ‘dynamic’ hooker started the match.

Yeah, that's exactly why I'm a fan of Havili starting.

Ultimately you're only going to get 50-60 minutes of top quality footy out of Starling. He punches above his weight, but he's still a small bloke. As a team we are best served using Havili early when the intensity is at it's highest and the game plan is a relatively simple one of completing sets, getting to our kicks and attaining field position.

I've never felt there was a compelling reason to start games with Starling on the field. I'd much rather we finish games with some fuel left in his tank.

starling starting against the dogs was all about getting 80 minutes of experience into him

[The Nickman]

Normally after 20mins I'm thinking cmon sticky get starling on as Havili's work is a bit limited but last night starling's service was a bit off starting the game, hopefully just nerves and he showed he has big minutes in him.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

I think it’s all game plan boney.

We have a plan of 1 out runs attacking the ruck for the first 20-30 minutes of a match to wear out the opposition middles. Means we don’t make many meters, play the majority of the half at our own end, and we look slow and ineffective. But once the middles start to tire and we open up our game we run over teams. It’s been happening way to regularly for it just to be us starting slow. And interestingly the exact same thing happened last night even though our more ‘dynamic’ hooker started the match.

Yeah, that's exactly why I'm a fan of Havili starting.

Ultimately you're only going to get 50-60 minutes of top quality footy out of Starling. He punches above his weight, but he's still a small bloke. As a team we are best served using Havili early when the intensity is at it's highest and the game plan is a relatively simple one of completing sets, getting to our kicks and attaining field position.

I've never felt there was a compelling reason to start games with Starling on the field. I'd much rather we finish games with some fuel left in his tank.

starling starting against the dogs was all about getting 80 minutes of experience into him

Pity he only got 70.

[Riaan]

I really like Starling, but a lot of his passes look forward from the ruck, just needs to give that ball a fraction earlier.

But otherwise I'm really liking what I see from a kid playing the most important position on the field... give him a ten year deal, Sticky!

Glad I'm not the only one, his passing is pretty average. If its not borderline forward its too high or behind the player receiving the ball, the guy is still a work in progress IMO.

[Seiffert82]

Yeah, it's was a good opportunity to give him experience. What it told me was that he's a fantastic impact dummy half but is not going to be able to play 80 quality minutes against a top 4 team.

[Azza]

Easy to pick apart and find faults in Starling's game but realistically he's far better than our options at 9 since forever at this club (other than Hodgson). We are lucky to have him and Siva in the wings.

[Botman]

Yep. Starling is playing excellent footy and we're lucky to have him. I've have give my right arm for a player of his calibre during the stretch of

*Checks notes*
119 games... oh my **** god, one hundred and nineteen **** games of Glenn Buttriss

So im pumped to have him, i dont think he's nearly as good as Josh Hodgson and we're not a better team with him in the side over Hodgson, but he's a good NRL hooker, which is a nice back up to have and hopefully as he continues to develop (i agree with posts above that his passing isnt where you'd want it to be, so that's an area for development he can really focus on) we'll have the Hodgson successor and never return to those dark times

[bonehead]

I've absolutely enjoyed his season so far, thought his game last night early was a bit of an anomaly, passing wasn't as good as usual, I'll put it down to workload and nerves.

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[Seiffert82]

Normally after 20mins I'm thinking cmon sticky get starling on as Havili's work is a bit limited but last night starling's service was a bit off starting the game, hopefully just nerves and he showed he has big minutes in him.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

I think it’s all game plan boney.

We have a plan of 1 out runs attacking the ruck for the first 20-30 minutes of a match to wear out the opposition middles. Means we don’t make many meters, play the majority of the half at our own end, and we look slow and ineffective. But once the middles start to tire and we open up our game we run over teams. It’s been happening way to regularly for it just to be us starting slow. And interestingly the exact same thing happened last night even though our more ‘dynamic’ hooker started the match.

Yeah, that's exactly why I'm a fan of Havili starting.

Ultimately you're only going to get 50-60 minutes of top quality footy out of Starling. He punches above his weight, but he's still a small bloke. As a team we are best served using Havili early when the intensity is at it's highest and the game plan is a relatively simple one of completing sets, getting to our kicks and attaining field position.

I've never felt there was a compelling reason to start games with Starling on the field. I'd much rather we finish games with some fuel left in his tank.

starling starting against the dogs was all about getting 80 minutes of experience into him

Pity he only got 70.

Funnily enough, that ridiculous sin-binning was the turning point in the game. It meant the entire team were challenged to lift (similarly to what happened on occasions last year).

We then proceeded to tear them a new one, scoring 12 points to take the lead and the Starling comes back with a fresh set of legs and profits.

To be honest I reckon Stuart should play with 12 men for 5-10 mins every game to wake the bastards up if they're a bit flat!

[Botman]

I dont think the sin binning was ridiculous in a vacuum
We were taking the **** piss, we had blatantly given away 3 set restarts in a row, this on the back of a ton in the first half which some of which were frankly intentional

The problem with it is this is the first, and probably going to the last time we see it used for this. What happened to us should be the norm, teams who deliberately stack restarts back to back to back like that should see a sin bin occur.

[The Nickman]

Yep. Starling is playing excellent footy and we're lucky to have him. I've have give my right arm for a player of his calibre during the stretch of

*Checks notes*
119 games... oh my **** god, one hundred and nineteen **** games of Glenn Buttriss

So im pumped to have him, i dont think he's nearly as good as Josh Hodgson and we're not a better team with him in the side over Hodgson, but he's a good NRL hooker, which is a nice back up to have and hopefully as he continues to develop (i agree with posts above that his passing isnt where you'd want it to be, so that's an area for development he can really focus on) we'll have the Hodgson successor and never return to those dark times

To be fair though, in a pinch if all of our hooking stocks went down you just know that ol’ Glenny B would be able to pull on a jersey and he wouldn’t have regressed one bit!

[Belcher#1]

I think it’s all game plan boney.

We have a plan of 1 out runs attacking the ruck for the first 20-30 minutes of a match to wear out the opposition middles. Means we don’t make many meters, play the majority of the half at our own end, and we look slow and ineffective. But once the middles start to tire and we open up our game we run over teams. It’s been happening way to regularly for it just to be us starting slow. And interestingly the exact same thing happened last night even though our more ‘dynamic’ hooker started the match.

Yeah, that's exactly why I'm a fan of Havili starting.

Ultimately you're only going to get 50-60 minutes of top quality footy out of Starling. He punches above his weight, but he's still a small bloke. As a team we are best served using Havili early when the intensity is at it's highest and the game plan is a relatively simple one of completing sets, getting to our kicks and attaining field position.

I've never felt there was a compelling reason to start games with Starling on the field. I'd much rather we finish games with some fuel left in his tank.

starling starting against the dogs was all about getting 80 minutes of experience into him

Pity he only got 70.

Funnily enough, that ridiculous sin-binning was the turning point in the game. It meant the entire team were challenged to lift (similarly to what happened on occasions last year).

We then proceeded to tear them a new one, scoring 12 points to take the lead and the Starling comes back with a fresh set of legs and profits.

To be honest I reckon Stuart should play with 12 men for 5-10 mins every game to wake the bastards up if they're a bit flat!

what was ridiculous about the sin-binning? Repeated infringements deserves 10 in the bin.
The bulldogs looked to see it as a 10min break for them. They even seemed to be wasting time while they had an extra player.

[greeneyed]

I dont think the sin binning was ridiculous in a vacuum
We were taking the **** piss, we had blatantly given away 3 set restarts in a row, this on the back of a ton in the first half which some of which were frankly intentional

The problem with it is this is the first, and probably going to the last time we see it used for this. What happened to us should be the norm, teams who deliberately stack restarts back to back to back like that should see a sin bin occur.

The issue is that the NRL started by saying they’d use the sin bin. But I can’t remember the last time it was done, if ever. And restarts were being awarded to the Dogs... but their own similar infringements were being let go.


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[-TW-]

Not really, they dominated us in tackles cause we kept going one out.

The ones we gave away were either blatant hold downs or the ball runner isolated the defender one on one.

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[Botman]

I dont think the sin binning was ridiculous in a vacuum
We were taking the **** piss, we had blatantly given away 3 set restarts in a row, this on the back of a ton in the first half which some of which were frankly intentional

The problem with it is this is the first, and probably going to the last time we see it used for this. What happened to us should be the norm, teams who deliberately stack restarts back to back to back like that should see a sin bin occur.

The issue is that the NRL started by saying they’d use the sin bin. But I can’t remember the last time it was done, if ever. And restarts were being awarded to the Dogs... but their own similar infringements were being let go.


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Yeah i remember the NRL saying that and i also cant remember the time time someone got binned for that... i dont know that i've seen it this year. And i wont be stunned at all if we dont see it again.

I'd like to see them do it. I think if there is 3 in a row, the referee should award an actual penalty, and that would serve only as a means to stop the game to issue a formal warning to the captain that if there is another one in this attacking raid, they're in the bin.

As for part two,that's not how i saw the ruck in that game, so agree to disagree on that.

[BJ]

Tolman certainly got away with some old fashioned ruck wrestling.

I also wouldn’t have said that Bulldogs dominated us in tackles.

[Rickmando]

Yep. Starling is playing excellent footy and we're lucky to have him. I've have give my right arm for a player of his calibre during the stretch of

*Checks notes*
119 games... oh my **** god, one hundred and nineteen **** games of Glenn Buttriss

So im pumped to have him, i dont think he's nearly as good as Josh Hodgson and we're not a better team with him in the side over Hodgson, but he's a good NRL hooker, which is a nice back up to have and hopefully as he continues to develop (i agree with posts above that his passing isnt where you'd want it to be, so that's an area for development he can really focus on) we'll have the Hodgson successor and never return to those dark times

My word Botman, of all the things scribbled down in that oft-consulted notebook of yours, I didn’t think you’d have the exact number of Glenny B's FG appearances to hand! That thing is like Mary Poppins’s handbag...

[Seiffert82]

Yeah, that's exactly why I'm a fan of Havili starting.

Ultimately you're only going to get 50-60 minutes of top quality footy out of Starling. He punches above his weight, but he's still a small bloke. As a team we are best served using Havili early when the intensity is at it's highest and the game plan is a relatively simple one of completing sets, getting to our kicks and attaining field position.

I've never felt there was a compelling reason to start games with Starling on the field. I'd much rather we finish games with some fuel left in his tank.

starling starting against the dogs was all about getting 80 minutes of experience into him

Pity he only got 70.

Funnily enough, that ridiculous sin-binning was the turning point in the game. It meant the entire team were challenged to lift (similarly to what happened on occasions last year).

We then proceeded to tear them a new one, scoring 12 points to take the lead and the Starling comes back with a fresh set of legs and profits.

To be honest I reckon Stuart should play with 12 men for 5-10 mins every game to wake the bastards up if they're a bit flat!

what was ridiculous about the sin-binning? Repeated infringements deserves 10 in the bin.
The bulldogs looked to see it as a 10min break for them. They even seemed to be wasting time while they had an extra player.

As has been noted by others, it was ridiculous that we were the team that had a player binned, unlike other teams who have conceded a string of resets.

It was also ridiculous that the Dogs apparently only infringed twice in the ruck. They were wrestling and leg lifting with the best of them.

[reptar]

Lacks speed. But otherwise great!