2024 Round 3 v Warriors: Teams and Previews *Teams p1*

[Finchy]

+ Tapine confirmed in the above article that Horsburgh will be playing NSW cup this week

Interesting that EW is straight back in after injury and Hosking gets benched and Mariota dropped, yet Hors has to fight his way back via NSW cup and can’t beat Guler or Saulo for a first grade spot

[Shiv]

I am somewhat less fussed then you lot about the team selections. The current Raiders captain was always coming straight back in. That was never in doubt. Not a great choice, but never in doubt.
However, all of the players who are interviewed keep commenting on how they are feeling the pressure of the youngbloods and need to scrap to hold their positions. Good.
Hoskins was great. He set a standard. That's what EW will be trying to hit or exceed. Also good. I would expect that if he fails to maintain the standard set by Zac then he will be benched or simply slip out of the top run on squad. Also good. Truly worst case scenario we know who is EW's replacement next year. (As an aside, I am not against an EW with less minutes on the field, I think without exhausting nagging at his heels he is a very good player)
Guler and Psaulo (sp?) would also feel the pressure here - the Cup guys are banging on that door, hard. If either one has a truly rubbish game, they're out. Also good.
I went into this year expecting a range of diabolical TLT's - as we experimented with new/young blood and balanced against old blood. (nobody wants to be like the Tigers where there is new/young/old blood everywhere and not a win in sight)

I have been pleasantly surprised at how well we played so far, and expect to continue to be pleasantly surprised. Still expecting manic TLTs though.

Oh, and for the life of me I have no idea what's happening with Horse. That is genuinely confusing...
I could have sworn he was out for 5 games, but I went back to the old articles and it was 4. Having said that, I think he could have played in the trials (but Kris couldn't) but didn't. Maybe he's injured?

[Hong Kong Raider]

I don’t really understand why Horse is not even on the bench this week. It’s not like he’s been injured so we assume he’s kept his fitness up when he’s served his suspension.

The Warriors have a good and big pack which is very skillful. I don’t like our interchange middles as we lose momentum after Tapine and Papa go off.

Whitehead and Guler are very slow in getting back in defence. They lack mobility. They also give away penalties. I noted Guler struggled on various occasions last week. He came out of the line but got no one. His impact in attack is limited as well and I just hope for the best that he doesn’t drop the ball.

[Wiki Special]

Surely naming Whitehead in 12 is a token gesture so he can wear that number and Hosking starts in 16. SURELY!!!!

How Guler and Saulo are both kept over Mariota is one of the more baffling selections I've seen also.

[BadnMean]

I am somewhat less fussed then you lot about the team selections. The current Raiders captain was always coming straight back in. That was never in doubt. Not a great choice, but never in doubt.

... I would expect that if he fails to maintain the standard set by Zac then he will be benched or simply slip out of the top run on squad. Also good.

I think part of the reaction is trauma from how long we carried Croker and he was jammed back in the side again and again which began to confuse other selections (Kris at anywhere except left centre all year). So some people aren't as convinced form will be considered.

If he's found vintage form, it won't be a concern.

[gangrenous]

Finding vintage form this week is probably the worst option.

It will muddy the waters and he’ll run out the rest of the year instead of transitioning.

[Ruben Daley]

Interestingly, neither Mariota nor Horsburgh are named in the NSW cup side...

Horse can’t play until next week.

Why not. He's served his 4 games.

https://www.nrl.com/casualty-ward/?comp ... eam=500013

It's wrong.
Not sure how it got there but it's wrong
https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2023/08 ... s-charged/

Hors was suspended after round 26, he was found guilty and suspended 4 games
Round 27, 2023
Week 1 Finals, 2023
Week 1, 2024
Week 2, 2024

He's done his time no idea why he's not playing this week but it's not because he's suspended unless the NRL **** up and he was actually suspended for 5 weeks

Yeah, I can’t explain that. Your maths looks right to me.

But he hasn’t been named in a team this week and the club hasn’t mentioned him in any promo I’ve seen. Weird.

[The Green Hornet]

Dropping Hosking and Mariota....not naming Horse.

So much inconsistency with the old "picking on forn" spiel.

[BadnMean]

Finding vintage form this week is probably the worst option.

It will muddy the waters and he’ll run out the rest of the year instead of transitioning.

I'm not gonna death ride the guy. Vintage Whitehead was a hell of a thing.

[BadnMean]

Dropping Hosking and Mariota....not naming Horse.

So much inconsistency with the old "picking on forn" spiel.

Hmmm that is a fair point.

You could throw in the "winning team" that was used quite a bit last year to justify selections.

[CrabLord]

Good to see Billy and BluesBrother trolling the forum saying; Ricky knows best, and he picked the best team because he knows.

If he knew best we would have been going for our 11th straight premiership this year right? All of these things need to be worked out.

An interesting point, I saw some during the week counting the second week of finals for Horses suspension. We lost week one. It seems ambiguous though, and perhaps he IS available this week? Could be an admin error faulted upon anyone; journo, NRL or Canberra.

To the actual point at hand - we have been subjected to we don’t change a winning team mentality the last DECADE. And now that we are top of the table for the first time in twenty years, we are going against that club tradition we have all come to know and love, and we are all left scratching our heads.

I will say, based on my understanding of the clubs operations, the selection of EW is a continuum of prioritised fan engagement.

Either way, I think it’s fair enough your captain walks back into the side. This week. From there let’s see how it all plays out.

[Coastalraider]

Dropping Hosking and Mariota....not naming Horse.

So much inconsistency with the old "picking on forn" spiel.

Hmmm that is a fair point.

You could throw in the "winning team" that was used quite a bit last year to justify selections.

This is a continual theme though. Depending on the week we ‘pick on form’ ‘reward effort’ ‘don’t change a winning team’ ‘give a loosing team the change to redeem themselves’ ‘stick with our leaders’ ‘jacks a dally m half’ ‘jacks always been a centre’

I simply don’t believe any of the rhetoric any more because we don’t ever stick with anything and change the tune consistently, at least publicly.

This year was the ‘transition to youth’, and this week we have demoted Hoskingson and Ata, while promoting Cotric over the most prolific back in nsw cup so far this year. Ata was best bench player last week even out of position, and Hosking was best on ground. Both demoted.

Mooney and Schiller were best in cup, and the biggest reward is Schiller gets to sit the week out in the 18 jersey. That will teach him.

[Raider47]

I can cop the Whitehead starting as it feels unimaginable that Hosking gets minimal game time.

But the dropping of Mariota is just cooked. And for those saying "it just shows the depth", "there are players knocking down the door if bad form exists" that's a load of BS. Last year proved that players like Guler and Saulo will not be dropped for younger players regardless of form. Mooney and Puru should be playing ahead of those let alone Mariota based on form.

One turn of bad form and the knives will be out for perennial automatic picks and ploders like Hoppa, Levi, Whitehead, Starling, Guler and Saulo.

That's a lot of unproven players who shouid in reality be feeling highly challenged by players who can do little more than what they are doing to state their case in reggies right now.

[gangrenous]

Finding vintage form this week is probably the worst option.

It will muddy the waters and he’ll run out the rest of the year instead of transitioning.

I'm not gonna death ride the guy. Vintage Whitehead was a hell of a thing.

I’m not going to either. I’ll cheer him on and enjoy all the nice play of the weekend.

But the reality is for long term success we appear better off transitioning to Huskisson, and Ricky will use any excuse not to do that.

[Hong Kong Raider]

The captain should be someone who's undroppable, that's why it should have been Tapine. That was the first mistake, making Whitehead captain in the first place. Many great players have stepped down as captain towards the end of their careers

All our captains seem to be droppable - Croker, Hodgson in 2021 when Ricky demoted him to the bench so he gave up the captaincy and now Whitehead.

I seem to recall Wade Graham, an NRL premiership winning player and Cronulla legend, former NSW SOO representative, playing off the bench in his final few seasons as there were better players before him - Nikora and Wilton

[Dylan’s Raiders]

EDIT some of these selections are truely not defendable.

Whitehead in for Hosking I can accept just not under the circumstances of Horse, who has had the same pre season as Whitehead except with no injury, had to return via NSW cup (still to be confirmed by the club?).

I can accept Cotric above Schiller because Hopa did a job there and Cotric is a specialist winger.

Dropping Mariota is the wrong decision. It’s clear our front row priorities are Guler, Saulo, Mariota, Mooney which is what I have a problem with. We are lucky Mariota is signed until 2026 and loves the club because rival teams would be swooping on him.

[Leebola]

the long game! When you don’t have a professional sports career to lean on I reckon that you’re looking at at least 10 years before you’ll get near an NRL coaching gig

Well geez Nick, that's a bit defeatist. Since your countless hours as a fan, and all the dollars you've spent over the years on merch, tickets, food and drink at the ground, and all else which counts for nothing, and your "membership" which grants you none of the benefits of a normal membership at a normal club, then perhaps you should be aiming for CEO. C'mon mate, light a fire under yourself. It's then just a short hop to Chair of the Board, once you've shoehorned the calcified carcass of the current occupier out of his cracked leather seat....

[Botman]

Here's the truth of the matter... Stuart talks a lot about hard decisions, and how he likes hard decisions, and how he is fine making hard decisions, its a show of strength for the club, helps build competition, everyone pushing... it sound great but when push comes to shove Stuart consistently makes the easy choice, not the hard one.

It's way easier to tell the young blokes "You're close! You're young, there is veterans ahead but stay the course, your time will come" than it is to tell the veteran who's being outplayed "sorry mate, i appreciate all you've done but i'm going with X."

This is why im fairly nonplussed about today's TLT. This is who he is as a coach. It's who he's been since his roosters days through the Sharks and now here. And it's why we'll probably never be a 4-5 win disaster team under him as a coach, but also why we'll probably never win a comp under him. He sets a high floor and that's admirable

Unfortunately it also narrows the path to a premiership to such an extent that EVERYTHING has to go right for us to even get a shot and even when it does, as it did in 2019, if you dont finish the job it's very hard to replicate that.

And tbh, i think we have a good shot to win this weekend too, think the Warriors are in a weird spot, desperate enough at 0-2 in tough spots to push and press in a way that plays into our hands. But this approach will not get us where we want to go. If Stuart is to fulfill his desire to bring another premiership to this club, he's going to need to take some risks. He cant settled for a job well done. And all he's ever done it settle.

[Ruben Daley]

The captain should be someone who's undroppable, that's why it should have been Tapine. That was the first mistake, making Whitehead captain in the first place. Many great players have stepped down as captain towards the end of their careers

All our captains seem to be droppable - Croker, Hodgson in 2021 when Ricky demoted him to the bench so he gave up the captaincy and now Whitehead.

I seem to recall Wade Graham, an NRL premiership winning player and Cronulla legend, former NSW SOO representative, playing off the bench in his final few seasons as there were better players before him - Nikora and Wilton

The Sharks kept picking him even though he was busted and half the player he used to be. He also failed to finish a few games if I remember correctly.

But at least he was picked on the bench. Hopefully, we see that transition soon.

[Seiffert82]

Just win baby!

Bit of pressure on EW to perform, particularly in defence. He's definitely a weak link lining up next to Fogarty if he starts dropping off tackles like last season.

Psychologically I don't mind having Whitehead start against the Wahs and bringing Hosking'son on later. The risk is playing EW too many minutes.

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[Botman]

the long game! When you don’t have a professional sports career to lean on I reckon that you’re looking at at least 10 years before you’ll get near an NRL coaching gig

Well geez Nick, that's a bit defeatist. Since your countless hours as a fan, and all the dollars you've spent over the years on merch, tickets, food and drink at the ground, and all else which counts for nothing, and your "membership" which grants you none of the benefits of a normal membership at a normal club, then perhaps you should be aiming for CEO. C'mon mate, light a fire under yourself. It's then just a short hop to Chair of the Board, once you've shoehorned the calcified carcass of the current occupier out of his cracked leather seat....

Frankly i think our manchurian candidate idea about getting someone into the inner boys club at the QBN mafia was a simplier and workable idea
The current Mayor might suffice!

[Regs Revolution]

Hosking minutes this week.
Overs or unders?

10 minutes.

I am genuinely afraid it’s unders. That’s my bet.

[Botman]

Hosking minutes this week.
Overs or unders?

10 minutes.

I am genuinely afraid it’s unders. That’s my bet.

Over. He'll either start or come on and play 50 minutes + and EW will be "eased" into it.
I hope.

[Leebola]

the long game! When you don’t have a professional sports career to lean on I reckon that you’re looking at at least 10 years before you’ll get near an NRL coaching gig

Well geez Nick, that's a bit defeatist. Since your countless hours as a fan, and all the dollars you've spent over the years on merch, tickets, food and drink at the ground, and all else which counts for nothing, and your "membership" which grants you none of the benefits of a normal membership at a normal club, then perhaps you should be aiming for CEO. C'mon mate, light a fire under yourself. It's then just a short hop to Chair of the Board, once you've shoehorned the calcified carcass of the current occupier out of his cracked leather seat....

Frankly i think our manchurian candidate idea about getting someone into the inner boys club at the QBN mafia was a simplier and workable idea
The current Mayor might suffice!

Haven't seen that bloke lurking around here for ages. Might have to take matters into our own hands. First we take the QPRC, then we take the QRLC!!!

[Seiffert82]

Last season I reckon Whitehead had about 50 minutes a game of serviceable football in him. That's my bet for this game if he starts. I can't see him being useful off the bench.

I also think Stuart sees value in Hosking covering an injury to the centres off the bench.

[Finchy]

All this team selection talk reminds me of a clip from the Simpsons, when the bowling team faced a similar dilemma:

[radicalraider]

Our next win will be in rd 6

[Dylan’s Raiders]

Whitehead still needs to be better than serviceable - Hoskinsings is a point of difference for us in attack, a top 2 tackler (only behind smiths chips), and averaged about 110 running metres.

Only a small sample size but Smell hasn’t averaged 100 meters since pre covid. He needs to be very good to warrant staying on the field in that position.

[Finchy]

Our next win will be in rd 6

Titans game? I don't see us winning any other games before our bye. Then again I didn't see us winning the last two games, so who knows?

[gerg]

Yeah I don't like a few of the selections but winning form is good form, just as for the Warriors it's tough to get out of that rut. Particularly without Charnz and I don't see AFB ripping in like he did last year. He's mentally moved on.

They started well against the Sharks and then it looked like they got complacent and Sharks just wanted it more. Then they were very unlucky to lose last week. If we can keep it tight then those psychological demons come into play. I think now is a decent time to get them.

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[Ruben Daley]

Ata played 32 minutes last week. This is Hosking’s spot but surely Elliott won’t play 80, so could also get 25 minutes when Elliott is on the bench.

So I’m hoping Hosking plays around 50-55 minutes and expect Elliott to play a similar amount.

[Ruben Daley]

I don't see AFB ripping in like he did last year. He's mentally moved on.

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Huh?

He ran for 155m last week, had a couple of offloads and made 21 tackles at 100%.

The week before he ran for 220m, scored a try, had two line-breaks, had another couple of offloads and made 24 tackles at 100%.

He’s averaging almost 190m per game and hasn’t missed a tackle yet. The guy is playing as well as ever.

Some wishful thinking there, Gerg, old mate.

[Hong Kong Raider]

Low key I genuinely think the club thinks Horse has another week - he doesn’t need to return via cup. It’s suspension unlike the 36 year old second rower.

Also because I’m still annoyed at the Guler selection…
2022: 76 run metres per game
2023: 87 run metres per game

Career average of 0.83 tackle breaks per game
Career average of 0.5 offloads per game
Career average of 2.2 missed tackles per game

I know he is a bench prop but what am I missing? What is he brining to the team because it isn’t run meters, opportunity, enthusiasm or second phase play. Just reminds of me Dane Tilse getting picked every week

Guler had a great year in 2019 and I really liked him then. Then he suffered that ankle injury v St George in 2020 and hasn't been the same player. I don't think he's agile enough and is too slow. He hasn't kicked on and he's 26. His best game for us since then was the 2nd half v Storm at AAMI Park in 2022. I say 2nd half as he had a bad first half in that game.

He's not a bad prop, just an average prop. That would be acceptable in teams such as Canterbury, Wests, St George, even Souths (LOL - he's better than Sean Keppie and some of their bench) but in our team, he's keeping two players from playing FG that have a much higher ceiling than him in attack and defence in Ata and Mooney, who are 22 and 21 years respectively. We saw what they could do in the Newcastle 2023 finals game.

[Raiders Lim!]

RIghtly or wrongly I'm thinking the Saulo/Guler selections are based on size as much as it is experience.
In comparison to Ata, but I'm also guessing both have a bit of size on the Warrior's bench as well? (Too lazy to search at this hour)
Lines up with the approach of keeping early season football simple.

[Joshjacksonshead]

He’s mates with Ricky, of course he’s going to defend anything the man does

You know more than Rick. Pop your number down and I'll make sure he runs his selection, recruitment and retention decisions by you.

You and your online mates bagging Ricky every chance you get from your protected lounge room. Get out and do something if you want to change it.

You said it bro