2020 Rd 17 V Roosters: Game Day

[Seiffert82]

Firstly, way too many errors to be competitive in that game.

Secondly, the Roosters defended us quite well in our attacking 20.

I don't understand why Stuart started Starling and finished with Havili. Makes no sense. I also don't understand why Williams either kicks chip-bombs all day or grubbers all game. Mix it up a bit champ!

Our attack looks really fluent at times, but most of the time our backline is structured so we have the second rower, centre and wing all crammed in a 10 metre zone outside the half. Almost every time we had the ball in that game we ran out of space, or dropped it cold.

Not a great game from us, but we weren't disgraced.

[radicalraider]

Funny how some of you have just realised how crap our backline is.. We are too predictable.. Robinson is right. Truth hurt Ricky.

[Hong Kong Raider]

On the positive side - Sonny "William" Williams was crap tonight ! Hardly contributed after all the media hype

[Hong Kong Raider]

Funny how some of you have just realised how crap our backline is.. We are too predictable.. Robinson is right. Truth hurt Ricky.

I was wishing we even had Scott playing today by the middle of the first half!

[Coastalraider]

Positives I thought Tapine and Sutton were excellent

Tapine, Sutton, Starling, Rapa, and CNK were excellent

Jack and Croker tried hard

CHN - jury's out

Semi - should not be selected again this year

Cotric - F off

That’s a bit harsh on Cotric. He was solid tonight, not amazing but not poor

Cotric literally had TWO decent runs ALL GAME and refused to get involved for the entirety of the match. God it's hilarious that we have people on here bagging the absolute **** out of the best halfback we have had in 20(?) years but on the other hand we have people who think cotric was solid. He didn't do anything poor because he couldn't be **** bothered involving himself in our biggest game of the year. It was dead set a piss poor effort. And you can tell Ricky sent a rocket up him at halftime, because he made two good runs in the 2nd and then vanished again. All class cotric. He is one player I will happily bag and can't wait to see leave. Ever since the bulldogs talk started he has been utter trash. 600k a year On this year's form he is almost on par with his butt buddy, Curtis **** Scott... So, worth about 200k.

The bloke made 30 more meters than any of our other centres or wingers.

[Hong Kong Raider]

Ricky thinks Valemei is better than HSS by the way

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If Ricky thinks Semi is better than HSS, then either Ricky has poor judgment or we are in trouble for the next few years as there's no good juniors coming through

[Canberra Milk]

I actually think Valemei showed some his upside. Some great carries and pace. Just doesn't have the fundamentals, it's too early for him

[GreenMachine]

If Valemei is Ricky’s idea of an answer to our issues out wide, then he’s asking the wrong questions.

More to the point, it won’t matter who plays out wide if Ricky thinks our conservative style of ‘attack’ is worth persevering with anymore.

We couldn’t fire a single shot in 40 minutes on our home ground chasing a 4 point deficit against a team that beat us in last years grand final.The same team has won the competition twice in a row and looks hungry to achieve it a third straight time.

Let that sink in.

[yeh raiders]

Semi is very raw. Can put in a strong carry and had a couple of decent moments, but mixed it up with some shockers.

Would rather go with a safer option right now, if one is available.

The hesitation to put Cotric to centre is completely ridiculous. We are crying out for another dangerous attacking option and Cotric is the potential game-breaker who needs to playing closer to the action and getting some early ball.

[Rick]

Semi is very raw. Can put in a strong carry and had a couple of decent moments, but mixed it up with some shockers.

Would rather go with a safer option right now, if one is available.

The hesitation to put Cotric to centre is completely ridiculous. We are crying out for another dangerous attacking option and Cotric is the potential game-breaker who needs to playing closer to the action and getting some early ball.

Yet he had that opportunity and did bugger all.


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[Hong Kong Raider]

If Valemei is Ricky’s idea of an answer to our issues out wide, then he’s asking the wrong questions.

More to the point, it won’t matter who plays out wide if Ricky thinks our conservative style of ‘attack’ is worth persevering with anymore.

We couldn’t fire a single shot in 40 minutes on our home ground chasing a 4 point deficit against a team that beat us in last years grand final.The same team has won the competition twice in a row and looks hungry to achieve it a third straight time.

Let that sink in.

We had 59% possession in the first half yet still score only 6 points.

Our attack was !@#$ against West Tigers (we didn't even score in the first half), Cowboys, Penrith, Brisbane (1st half), Canterbury (1st half), Roosters all game. All game - and same with the Wests, Cowboys, Penrith, Canterbury first half and Brisbane first half, we give up field position and start our sets close to our line while the opposition gets it 30 m out

I don't understand why Tapine didn't come on earlier in the second half for second phase play and offloads.

We cannot attack on the right hand side. Cotric has hardly had any ball all year.

We don't have a Plan B or C when rolling down the field conservatively doesn't work.

We don't play like the Raiders

We need a new attack coach

Enough of the excuses. Stuart is not an elite coach. Even Souths got their attack into gear in the last few weeks and could have won yesterday without Latrell. Look how well Adam Reynolds with no pace and Cody Walker are going.

[Hong Kong Raider]

Semi is very raw. Can put in a strong carry and had a couple of decent moments, but mixed it up with some shockers.

Would rather go with a safer option right now, if one is available.

The hesitation to put Cotric to centre is completely ridiculous. We are crying out for another dangerous attacking option and Cotric is the potential game-breaker who needs to playing closer to the action and getting some early ball.

Yet he had that opportunity and did bugger all.


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Stuart was F!@#ing mad putting Semi in today and Rapana at centre, even though Rapa had a decent game by trying hard. Semi wasn't even chasing any kicks or attempting to catch bombs - it was totally shocking. And got pushed back after every hit up. I feel sorry for him but today's game was too early for him. And just back from injury. Dress it up all you like but he cost us 12 points

[Mickey_Raider]

We are a good team. Not a great team. We certainly have enough upside to dispose of rubbish and middling sides, but up against the elite sides our lack of attacking potency simply doesn’t cut it.

It didn’t quite cut it last year and there is no way it will cut it this year, especially as our attack has regressed from that modest benchmark.

Do I think we can knock off Penrith, Storm and Roosters on our day? Sure. But I cannot envision a scenario where we beat top 4 sides 3 weeks in a row.

[-TW-]

I would've rathered play Timoko than Valemei tbh

He showed a fair bit of grunt last week when he came on for Scott, which is what we need.

Sent from my ELE-L29 using Tapatalk

[afgtnk]

Cons:

CNK has regressed/been exposed more
Rapana has regressed
Croker has regressed
Hodgo poor before injury, now we don't have him to use to capitalise on any turn of form and leadership
No BJ, right centre has become a **** show
Bateman injured for half the season, not playing as well since coming back
Lack of Horsburgh offloads and forwards play
More injuries
Missing Sia leadership and presence
Playing at a lower intensity and level of physicality that was our 2019 hallmark, may be due to rule changes

Pros:

Williams at 7
Tapine has stepped it up
Papalii slightly better


Difference between this year and last makes sense to me. Also factor in the way Sticky hasn't evolved the attack by adding extra layers to it, and we're probably lucky to be in the position we're in.

It may well be that this is a 'down' year (with the floor well raised), and next year is our next proper tilt. I don't think the CNK situation will change much, but if you simply injected some speed into this side it'll make a world of difference, even without Sticky making substantial changes to the attacking structure.

[Mickey_Raider]

If we are going to be coached in a conservative fashion then at the bare minimum in order to compensate you need some individual Strike power in the backs. Power and/or raw speed. My kingdom for having the likes of JAC completely standing up and blitzing his opposite man and cutting back on the inside to a full flight papanhuyzen.

Croker, Scott and any of the rookies cannot provide that at the moment.

To be honest I am not even convinced the former 2 could even outrun some of the forwards.

[Thomas Raider]

Too many mistakes cost us that game. Roosters tries weren't that great. One was a bomb,one a fluke kick from Teddy and the other from our mistake and good ball movement. They just didn't make the mistakes we did.
And why does George nearly always get tackled on the 5th???? So he's out of the play on the 6th tackle...Dumb.

[Groundskeeer Willie]

Positives I thought Tapine and Sutton were excellent

Tapine, Sutton, Starling, Rapa, and CNK were excellent

Jack and Croker tried hard

CHN - jury's out

Semi - should not be selected again this year

Cotric - F off

That’s a bit harsh on Cotric. He was solid tonight, not amazing but not poor

You're right - some strong runs in the second half

All two of them were just brilliant weren't they!

[Groundskeeer Willie]

We are a good team. Not a great team. We certainly have enough upside to dispose of rubbish and middling sides, but up against the elite sides our lack of attacking potency simply doesn’t cut it.

It didn’t quite cut it last year and there is no way it will cut it this year, especially as our attack has regressed from that modest benchmark.

Do I think we can knock off Penrith, Storm and Roosters on our day? Sure. But I cannot envision a scenario where we beat top 4 sides 3 weeks in a row.

I'm pretty sure we can considering we did it last year and won 2/3 when we went up against storm, roosters and rabbits 3 weeks in a row this year.... The Melbourne loss in that one doesn't bother me, because we know we can beat them and we pushed them all the way.

[Hong Kong Raider]

We are a good team. Not a great team. We certainly have enough upside to dispose of rubbish and middling sides, but up against the elite sides our lack of attacking potency simply doesn’t cut it.

It didn’t quite cut it last year and there is no way it will cut it this year, especially as our attack has regressed from that modest benchmark.

Do I think we can knock off Penrith, Storm and Roosters on our day? Sure. But I cannot envision a scenario where we beat top 4 sides 3 weeks in a row.

I'm pretty sure we can considering we did it last year and won 2/3 when we went up against storm, roosters and rabbits 3 weeks in a row this year.... The Melbourne loss in that one doesn't bother me, because we know we can beat them and we pushed them all the way.

Groundskeeer Willie - since you are the only person up awake, and I cannot sleep after such a performance, how should we fix our attack?

[Groundskeeer Willie]

MATCH REPORT: Josh Papalii injury compounds Canberra Raiders loss to Sydney Roosters



The loss is one thing, but the more concerning thing is the immediate playing future of Josh Papalii. The Canberra Raiders talisman was unable to come back onto the field after his first stint due to a shoulder injury he suffered in the first half.

It compounds their 18-6 loss to the Sydney Roosters in the NRL grand final rematch at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night.

SYDNEY ROOSTERS 18 (James Tedesco 2, Daniel Tupou tries; Kyle Flanagan 3 goals) bt CANBERRA RAIDERS 6 (John Bateman try; Jarrod Croker goal) at Canberra Stadium. Referee: Gerard Sutton.

Read more: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/ ... /?cs=14280

James Tedesco too good as Sonny Bill drops in for 10 minutes



Roosters coach Trent Robinson made us wait until the 59th minute before unleashing the returning Sonny-Bill Williams on this match. And he lasted just 12 minutes. There wasn't much to report for the Sydney journalists who traveled down the Hume Highway to cover his much-hyped return.

Read more: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/ ... /?cs=14239

MATCH REPORT: Roosters defence too strong for the Raiders: https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2020/09 ... e-raiders/

SBW returns a winner as Roosters celebrate J-Moz's 300th in style: https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/09/05/sbw ... r-raiders/

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS: Raiders v Roosters: https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/09/05/mat ... -roosters/

PRESS CONFERENCES: Raiders coach Ricky Stuart: https://www.foxsports.com.au/video/leag ... nce!785067

Roosters coach Trent Robinson: https://www.foxsports.com.au/video/leag ... nce!785066

Teddy the MVP as returning stars fire Roosters to Raiders beatdown in SBW comeback: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-pr ... c12cf0c064

13 minutes, 4 runs and a lot of nervous energy: How SBW’s NRL return unfolded: https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl-pr ... 05942d1da4

Why are journalists following SBW across the border while the world is in a pandemic?

[Groundskeeer Willie]

We are a good team. Not a great team. We certainly have enough upside to dispose of rubbish and middling sides, but up against the elite sides our lack of attacking potency simply doesn’t cut it.

It didn’t quite cut it last year and there is no way it will cut it this year, especially as our attack has regressed from that modest benchmark.

Do I think we can knock off Penrith, Storm and Roosters on our day? Sure. But I cannot envision a scenario where we beat top 4 sides 3 weeks in a row.

I'm pretty sure we can considering we did it last year and won 2/3 when we went up against storm, roosters and rabbits 3 weeks in a row this year.... The Melbourne loss in that one doesn't bother me, because we know we can beat them and we pushed them all the way.

Groundskeeer Willie - since you are the only person up awake, and I cannot sleep after such a performance, how should we fix our attack?

We desperately need to sign a star winger and centre for 2021. But for 2020, I reckon we start by sacking Jack and George, give hodgo the flick too.. the only player to ever be mentioned in the same sentence as Cameron Smith is "hot trash" and isn't good enough for our team. Oh did I mention we need to sign Sezer mid season for our premiership tilt? If you want to dive deeper you can also drop rapana, he is "regressing" despite being in the best form in a long time. Did I miss anyone?? Oh yes look at that, I did! Charnze Nicol klokstad... worst fullback in the comp, sack him!!!!!!!

[Hong Kong Raider]

We are a good team. Not a great team. We certainly have enough upside to dispose of rubbish and middling sides, but up against the elite sides our lack of attacking potency simply doesn’t cut it.

It didn’t quite cut it last year and there is no way it will cut it this year, especially as our attack has regressed from that modest benchmark.

Do I think we can knock off Penrith, Storm and Roosters on our day? Sure. But I cannot envision a scenario where we beat top 4 sides 3 weeks in a row.

I'm pretty sure we can considering we did it last year and won 2/3 when we went up against storm, roosters and rabbits 3 weeks in a row this year.... The Melbourne loss in that one doesn't bother me, because we know we can beat them and we pushed them all the way.

Groundskeeer Willie - since you are the only person up awake, and I cannot sleep after such a performance, how should we fix our attack?

We desperately need to sign a star winger and centre for 2021. But for 2020, I reckon we start by sacking Jack and George, give hodgo the flick too.. the only player to ever be mentioned in the same sentence as Cameron Smith is "hot trash" and isn't good enough for our team. Oh did I mention we need to sign Sezer mid season for our premiership tilt? If you want to dive deeper you can also drop rapana, he is "regressing" despite being in the best form in a long time. Did I miss anyone?? Oh yes look at that, I did! Charnze Nicol klokstad... worst fullback in the comp, sack him!!!!!!!

Collating all the comments in the past two weeks and the views of all posters, we will need to sack CNK, Rapana, Semi, Scott, Cotric, Croker, Simonsson (2021), Jack, G Williams, Bateman, Havili, Hodgson (2021), Starling, CHN, and get a new captain ! That's 80% of our side yet we still made top 5!

We will need to borrow players off the Warriors, Brisbane and Canterbury at that rate.

oh and - also resign Joey Leilua and Sezer for two blasts from the past!

[-PJ-]

We are not about to fall for the perch here but that last night was an example of how not to play.

Errors..wow.

Shot ourselves in the foot multiple times with very poor ball handling. The Chooks weren't that great really. We gave them opportunity and they grabbed it. A very dissapointing 2nd half from us.

I'd like to see Oldy back in the starting side ahead of Scott and SV to be honest. Get Cotric back out on the wing and put Oldy at right centre.

Relax peeps, we will be ok. Top 4 now is tough and probably out of reach. We'll keep fighting..

[GreenMachine]

This year our forwards and halves have carried the team.
They mask a lot of the inadequacies in our backline.
If we had uncovered some gems in our backline (like we have with our forwards) we would have been closer to being among the elite teams ( Storm and Roosters).
If our style of play wasn’t as conservative ALL THE TIME, we could probably have gone even further and win the competition.
We’re not in a death spiral, don’t believe that.
But we clearly see what our issues are and should address these in the offseason to bounce back next season.

[Rickmando]

It’s once again clear that Ricky’s coaching will squander the most talented player roster we’ve had in 25 years.

Forget about a premiership while he’s at the reins.

[The Nickman]

I don’t think we’re as far off as people seem to be carrying on about.

It was critical errors that cruelled our chances. Stupid ones too:

- failing to find touch, seriously when does that ever happen? We should’ve been on the attack, instead they got the ball, finished up our end, Semi knocked it on, first try to the roosters

- we got back into the game after their critical error from kickoff and Bateman scores. Then 20 out from our own line Tapine offloads directly to a roosters player, second try to the roosters

That there is seriously the game. Not finding touch and handing the opposition the ball on the tryline are cardinal sins against Teddy and the roosters.

[Dr Zaius]

We are solidly the 5th best team.

In saying that, of those top 5 teams we are the ones who have the most potential improvement in attack.

[gangrenous]

Did their third try come after Bateman got penalised for knocking at the dummy half’s hand also?

That just wasn’t the right play late in the set.

[TongueFTW]

I strangely enjoyed the game, more so the first half. I thought we were fairly unlucky. Usual random thoughts:

* I think people are being way to harsh on Valemei, this was a Stuart error. As I mentioned before the game, we had other options, and I always think having a raw young player on the Wing is a huge gamble, as confidence can be shot with a single early error. I do think his running style needs to be adjusted, too upright with the ball being carried too high. He has the raw physical attributes, I actually think with Timoko and HSS coming through, things aren’t quite as dire for our backline as others suggest (though a Curtis Rona style pick up would be good for next season as these young guys improve).
* Stuart got the bench rotation wrong in this game. I was really surprised when CHN came on instead of Young. CHN isn’t fit enough to come on as part of the first rotation. We waited too long to bring Tapine back for his second stint. Papalii being injured didn’t help the situation.
* I can’t believe we didn’t run more plays at Keary. He was clearly very injured, and playing in a dinner suit. Bateman is a great player, but he needs to learn to run lines and provide more conventional options for his halves. I found it incredible we weren’t doing little trick shots with a middle (Tapine or Papa) running a line at Keary. The rare times he did kick, we needed to put him to the ground.
* I don’t think the balance is quite right between Williams and Wighton just yet. Individually, both are really good players - I love Williams’ running game, and his short kicking game is the best we have seen at the club in a long time. We go too long in games where one or the other doesn’t touch the ball - last night, Wighton was looking extremely dangerous on the left, and we didn’t go to him enough. They really need to share responsibility more between them within games. I am not sure if we will ever sort it - as Julian points out, they aren’t exactly complimentary and neither is a traditional halfback. I think that was OK with Hodgson controlling things (even though his form wasn’t great) - but without that, it doesn’t look great.

Overall, we will have to be very lucky to make it past the second week of the finals. Unlike last year, if other teams (Panthers, Roosters, Storm) play to their best, I don’t think we can match it. But there is always a chance they have an off day. I still think we are better than the Eels, but we are the next tier down from the top 3 in the competition. Still, an impressive feat with our best player missing.

[LastRaider]

If we are going to be coached in a conservative fashion then at the bare minimum in order to compensate you need some individual Strike power in the backs. Power and/or raw speed. My kingdom for having the likes of JAC completely standing up and blitzing his opposite man and cutting back on the inside to a full flight papanhuyzen.

Croker, Scott and any of the rookies cannot provide that at the moment.

To be honest I am not even convinced the former 2 could even outrun some of the forwards.

That’s so true. Papa would beat both of then

[Azza]

I sadly have to agree - it's blatantly apparent we just lack strike power in the outside backs to compete with the best sides. We kind of need the form our 2016 outside backs were in (BJ and Rapana were incredible) right now.

[LastRaider]

I sadly have to agree - it's blatantly apparent we just lack strike power in the outside backs to compete with the best sides.

I’ve said this for a while, our strike weapon is a front rower (Papa) 20m out from the line. That’s the state of our attack

[The Nickman]

To be fair on young Valemei, his mistake came directly as a result of the pressure of us failing to find touch.

We should’ve been on the attack up their end, instead he’s trucking it out of our redzone.

When you compare a young outside back coughing the ball up in a heavy tackle to a half not finding touch on a penalty it’s chalk and cheese. One of those things is inexcusable and should literally never happen.

[Azza]

I agree muttonhead - I thought Wighton really needed to lead more from the front last night and his errors meant he didn't do that. Sadly, that's the nature of his game though isn't it. His errors and the one Havili came up with just crucified us.