2024 Round 4 v Sharks: Teams and Previews *Teams p1

[greeneyed]

Those “minor burns” look very nasty in the video in the SMH story. He has a number of very big blisters in a number of spots. Get well soon Albert.

[Azza]

It will be good to have a backline where all 5 players are an attacking threat

I woke up.

[CrabLord]

Rapana is the biggest fan favourite, cult hero in the team, and is playing his 200th game away. Why are we not resting him so he can get the reception he deserves at home for his 200th? I thought this sort of thing was important to the club and its fans?

[Hong Kong Raider]

Hoppa has been good IMO. What's he done wrong? I don't think he is a centre but he does a job.

Agree with you that Hoppa has had two good games. But the situation is similar to Saulo; he has been good, but in my view there are better players that are not in the team that would make us an even better side, that would pose greater threats to the defence. I don’t think Hoppa does that. As a centre he cannot set up his winger and the ball dies with him, as a winger he’s too slow to capitalise or even create like a Savage, Turuva, Saab, or Dominic Young. From what I’ve seen I don’t think he’s a finisher. And he’s no good in the air like Warbrick or Coates.

Ricky dropped him at the end of last year.

Hoppa is hard working and gives us hit up metres. It is a relevant metric but not the only one. Schiller offers something different.

[gerg]

Rapana is the biggest fan favourite, cult hero in the team, and is playing his 200th game away. Why are we not resting him so he can get the reception he deserves at home for his 200th? I thought this sort of thing was important to the club and its fans?

There is a massive difference between 200 and 300 games in the NRL. Fifty players in the 100+ year history of the game have played that many. I'm struggling to find any data on how many have played 200 but I'd guess it would be in the hundreds.

However IMO Croker should have played his 300th away to the tigers.

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[julian87]

Compare Hopoate against Timoko this season:

Hoppa:

1 try assist
5 tackle breaks
17 tackles
4 missed tackles
81% tackle efficiency
148 average running metres
445 total running metres

Timoko:

1 try assist
2 line breaks
8 tackle breaks
47 tackles made
4 missed tackles
91% tackle efficiency
174 average running metres
523 running metres

I’m not sure what this is meant to prove.

Column a is a player who wouldn’t make many back lines in the NRL. He offers nothing in genuine attack other than yardage. If he gets the ball in space he cuts in field because he’s as slow as a wet week.

Column b is an absolute stud who’s a top tier centre. An attacking threat whenever he has a tiny bit of space.

[julian87]

Beyond wanting a strong win. I have everything crossed that Schiller just has an absolute stormer. Having blokes in each wing spot who can score long range tries is an absolute must given our centres are arguably our biggest strength.

[The Nickman]

I just had a quick McDougall and found this old chestnut:

https://www.thegh.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10550

Tim blowing up deluxe!

Funny how back in the day there were threads dedicated to calling out individual players.

I hate younger me, I can't believe that was 16 years ago...

He did get dropped the next week and we pumped the Rabbits so guess it was worthwhile?

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Hahaha timmay.08 is my favourite incarnation of TW, that's for sure.

So good to see a sneaky Raider_69 appearance too... anyone know what happened to that guy?

[The Nickman]

Anyway, back to this week's game... I quite like this team, seems to me like Sticky is slowly inching towards the best team, this is our best one so far.

Intriguing to see if Hoppa will indeed come straight back in when fit, and it will also be nice to finally see the forward pack and bench get sorted out too, but I guess it's one week at a time, right?

[Andymachine]

Honesty I don't mind Hoppa as much as many others do but I'm absolutely on board with wanting outside backs with more attacking ability then he has. A more relevant metric than metres/pcm is metres per run. Hoppa makes good total metres/pcm because he is so willing. He does it through volume of work, not necessarily quality. Against the Warriors our two centres:

Timoko - 11 runs, 135m, 69pcm
Hoppa - 20 runs, 127m, 67pcm

I'm not saying everyone should be measured against Timoko. Timoko is exceptional. Hoppa is fine and I've got nothing against him and it's good to always have someone who's willing to hit the ball up. I respect his work ethic but he's very easy to handle in attack and his defence is iffy at best. He should absolutely never play centre because he extinguishes any expansive attack by taking the opportunity for a hit up, so if he plays, it should be wing only and ideally he's not first 17. So let's hope Schiller absolutely kills it this weekend and makes himself impossible to drop.

[The Nickman]

As long as your back 5 are digging the ball out of your own end at the start of each set it doesn't really make any difference whether it's Cotric/Hoppa or Schiller/Savage rucking it out along with Rapana/Kris/Timoko. Someone has to do it either way, just because Hoppa carries the workload when he plays doesn't mean someone else won't be able to do it in his absence.

What Schiller brings over Hoppa is the attacking edge and speed to score tries and also convert long distance opportunities that Hoppa just doesn't possess.

[BadnMean]

Honesty I don't mind Hoppa as much as many others do but I'm absolutely on board with wanting outside backs with more attacking ability then he has. A more relevant metric than metres/pcm is metres per run. Hoppa makes good total metres/pcm because he is so willing. He does it through volume of work, not necessarily quality. Against the Warriors our two centres:

Timoko - 11 runs, 135m, 69pcm
Hoppa - 20 runs, 127m, 67pcm

I'm not saying everyone should be measured against Timoko. Timoko is exceptional. Hoppa is fine and I've got nothing against him and it's good to always have someone who's willing to hit the ball up. I respect his work ethic but he's very easy to handle in attack and his defence is iffy at best. He should absolutely never play centre because he extinguishes any expansive attack by taking the opportunity for a hit up, so if he plays, it should be wing only and ideally he's not first 17. So let's hope Schiller absolutely kills it this weekend and makes himself impossible to drop.

Savage 15 runs, 114m 76pcm.

As Nickman says, there's others who can make metres.

And we proved last year with tugboats in the back 3 that while pcm can look impressive, you can't pcm your way over the line. You need to break it at some stage.

So yeah, hoping Schiller does well this week. He has looked to take his game up a level this season so far.

I'm fairly resigned to the fact that Hoppa's offer to train with a burned arm will set RIcky's bleedgreenometer spinning again and Hoppa will return though.

[LimeGreenMachine]

Faster backs can use their speed to make those metres before contact. Ive said before Hoppa is basically a metre eater , playing a forwards role. We can get others backs and the other forwards to share those metres. Hoppa offers nothing other than those metres.

[Regs Revolution]

Swap Rapana and Savage for moments in the game and I am happy with that back 5. Doesn’t get better than that.

[Bluesbrother]

I expect at the end of the season both Hoppa and Schiller to be back up options. With Chevy starting in the 1 jersey. It's not a bad position to be in. Our depth is very good. Personally, I can't wait for Chevy to debut. I think he will make us a completely different team.

[papabear]

I didn’t see last weeks game.

Was whitehead awesome and zac hosking garbage?

Zac hosking was one of (if not our) best over the first two weeks and whitehead was well of the pace last year in liability territory…

Or is this just another Ricky favourite suck it up thing..

[dubby]

Compare Hopoate against Timoko this season:

Hoppa:

1 try assist
5 tackle breaks
17 tackles
4 missed tackles
81% tackle efficiency
148 average running metres
445 total running metres

Timoko:

1 try assist
2 line breaks
8 tackle breaks
47 tackles made
4 missed tackles
91% tackle efficiency
174 average running metres
523 running metres

I’m not sure what this is meant to prove.

Column a is a player who wouldn’t make many back lines in the NRL. He offers nothing in genuine attack other than yardage. If he gets the ball in space he cuts in field because he’s as slow as a wet week.

Column b is an absolute stud who’s a top tier centre. An attacking threat whenever he has a tiny bit of space.

Sorry, I was meant to quote Bluesbrother.

[Northern Raider]

As long as your back 5 are digging the ball out of your own end at the start of each set it doesn't really make any difference whether it's Cotric/Hoppa or Schiller/Savage rucking it out along with Rapana/Kris/Timoko. Someone has to do it either way, just because Hoppa carries the workload when he plays doesn't mean someone else won't be able to do it in his absence.

What Schiller brings over Hoppa is the attacking edge and speed to score tries and also convert long distance opportunities that Hoppa just doesn't possess.

Simply put, guys like Savage and Schiller will score tries where the Hoppas and Cotrics won't get close. Would prefer them finishing plays rather than hit up merchants.

[Hong Kong Raider]

I didn’t see last weeks game.

Was whitehead awesome and zac hosking garbage?

Zac hosking was one of (if not our) best over the first two weeks and whitehead was well of the pace last year in liability territory…

Or is this just another Ricky favourite suck it up thing..

Zac Hosking was one of the best players in the first two rounds across all teams

[Regs Revolution]

As long as your back 5 are digging the ball out of your own end at the start of each set it doesn't really make any difference whether it's Cotric/Hoppa or Schiller/Savage rucking it out along with Rapana/Kris/Timoko. Someone has to do it either way, just because Hoppa carries the workload when he plays doesn't mean someone else won't be able to do it in his absence.

What Schiller brings over Hoppa is the attacking edge and speed to score tries and also convert long distance opportunities that Hoppa just doesn't possess.

Simply put, guys like Savage and Schiller will score tries where the Hoppas and Cotrics won't get close. Would prefer them finishing plays rather than hit up merchants.

Even further to this, they can create chances and opportunities more than the others imo. Schiller has proved this. So has Savage. Savages stop on AFB was epic. Could be contender for tackle of the year. He’s giving 30kgs against him.

[Northern Raider]

As long as your back 5 are digging the ball out of your own end at the start of each set it doesn't really make any difference whether it's Cotric/Hoppa or Schiller/Savage rucking it out along with Rapana/Kris/Timoko. Someone has to do it either way, just because Hoppa carries the workload when he plays doesn't mean someone else won't be able to do it in his absence.

What Schiller brings over Hoppa is the attacking edge and speed to score tries and also convert long distance opportunities that Hoppa just doesn't possess.

Simply put, guys like Savage and Schiller will score tries where the Hoppas and Cotrics won't get close. Would prefer them finishing plays rather than hit up merchants.

Even further to this, they can create chances and opportunities more than the others imo. Schiller has proved this. So has Savage. Savages stop on AFB was epic. Could be contender for tackle of the year. He’s giving 30kgs against him.

I'd already thrown the remote across the room when AFB got the ball. Cannot believe Savage made that stop.

It was all about effort. Savage has clearly gone to another level in that aspect. I doubt we see something like that from the 2022/23 version.

[The Nickman]

As long as your back 5 are digging the ball out of your own end at the start of each set it doesn't really make any difference whether it's Cotric/Hoppa or Schiller/Savage rucking it out along with Rapana/Kris/Timoko. Someone has to do it either way, just because Hoppa carries the workload when he plays doesn't mean someone else won't be able to do it in his absence.

What Schiller brings over Hoppa is the attacking edge and speed to score tries and also convert long distance opportunities that Hoppa just doesn't possess.

Simply put, guys like Savage and Schiller will score tries where the Hoppas and Cotrics won't get close. Would prefer them finishing plays rather than hit up merchants.

And the guys like Savage and Schiller will naturally pick up those metres from the back, along with Rapana, Kris and Timoko, so it's a no loss situation with plenty of upside.

[Billy Walker]

Some of the analysis on our best wing options that is occurring here is quite outstanding but the credibility of it all is a little shaky when it is being put forward by folks who until recently were vehemently defending Crabtric position in the team.

[Dylan’s Raiders]

As long as your back 5 are digging the ball out of your own end at the start of each set it doesn't really make any difference whether it's Cotric/Hoppa or Schiller/Savage rucking it out along with Rapana/Kris/Timoko. Someone has to do it either way, just because Hoppa carries the workload when he plays doesn't mean someone else won't be able to do it in his absence.

What Schiller brings over Hoppa is the attacking edge and speed to score tries and also convert long distance opportunities that Hoppa just doesn't possess.

Simply put, guys like Savage and Schiller will score tries where the Hoppas and Cotrics won't get close. Would prefer them finishing plays rather than hit up merchants.

Even further to this, they can create chances and opportunities more than the others imo. Schiller has proved this. So has Savage. Savages stop on AFB was epic. Could be contender for tackle of the year. He’s giving 30kgs against him.

I'd already thrown the remote across the room when AFB got the ball. Cannot believe Savage made that stop.

It was all about effort. Savage has clearly gone to another level in that aspect. I doubt we see something like that from the 2022/23 version.

Yesssss! I never throw anything but as soon as the ball was in AFB’s hands, my face just lost all expression, I went numb and I was resigned to him crossing the line haha.

I was shocked he made the tackle and the fact it was last tackle, I could celebrate it and not worry about the next play. All attitude and desire by savage, love to see it.

[LimeGreenMachine]

Speed and effort , he made it to AFB so quickly , any other player he probably falls over the line tackled.

[greeneyed]

'I'd be happy to stretch it out longer': Raiders recruit's short- and long-term plans revealed



Zac Hosking expects to continue starting on the bench for at least the short-term, while the Canberra Raiders recruit could see himself staying in the capital long-term.

"At this stage that's the plan yeah - get on early and finish the game out in the second row," he said on Wednesday. "I've probably settled in here quicker than the other clubs I've been to. I've got a three-year deal so I'll definitely be here for that sort of time, but if something was to arise I'd be happy to stretch it out longer."

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

[skeepe]

Some of the analysis on our best wing options that is occurring here is quite outstanding but the credibility of it all is a little shaky when it is being put forward by folks who until recently were vehemently defending Crabtric position in the team.

Has anyone ever told you that you’re quite the negative person?

[BadnMean]

It was all about effort. Savage has clearly gone to another level in that aspect. I doubt we see something like that from the 2022/23 version.

Kinda disagree with that. 2023 Savage was sliding in putting body on the line in try savers in goal in pre season. Whatever else happened the "he can't defend/doesn't defend"was already proven bull by Kris' defence stats vs Savages also.

[BadnMean]

Some of the analysis on our best wing options that is occurring here is quite outstanding but the credibility of it all is a little shaky when it is being put forward by folks who until recently were vehemently defending Crabtric position in the team.

Says the Levi /Adam Elliot fan club president.

[Seiffert82]

As long as your back 5 are digging the ball out of your own end at the start of each set it doesn't really make any difference whether it's Cotric/Hoppa or Schiller/Savage rucking it out along with Rapana/Kris/Timoko. Someone has to do it either way, just because Hoppa carries the workload when he plays doesn't mean someone else won't be able to do it in his absence.

What Schiller brings over Hoppa is the attacking edge and speed to score tries and also convert long distance opportunities that Hoppa just doesn't possess.

Simply put, guys like Savage and Schiller will score tries where the Hoppas and Cotrics won't get close. Would prefer them finishing plays rather than hit up merchants.

Even further to this, they can create chances and opportunities more than the others imo. Schiller has proved this. So has Savage. Savages stop on AFB was epic. Could be contender for tackle of the year. He’s giving 30kgs against him.

I'd already thrown the remote across the room when AFB got the ball. Cannot believe Savage made that stop.

It was all about effort. Savage has clearly gone to another level in that aspect. I doubt we see something like that from the 2022/23 version.

That's the tangible difference with Savage this season. There's no way he's doing that in years past.

Such a gun. Credit to the coaching staff.

Same goes with Schiller and Hoppa. Pros and cons for both of them with the ball IMO. Schiller is obviously a longer range threat with the ball, but the key thing is getting their defence to an elite NRL standard.

[Bluesbrother]

It was all about effort. Savage has clearly gone to another level in that aspect. I doubt we see something like that from the 2022/23 version.

Kinda disagree with that. 2023 Savage was sliding in putting body on the line in try savers in goal in pre season. Whatever else happened the "he can't defend/doesn't defend"was already proven bull by Kris' defence stats vs Savages also.

Stats only tell half the story.

[Botman]

Im not seeing anything in Savage that i dont think he could have provided last year.
No one will know what he could or could not have done at NRL level last year because he was not given the opportunities. What 2022 showed and what 2024 is now showing once more is that he was a talent worthy of being given opportunities and betting on.
Better late than never.

Trey Mooney is next cab on this rank... better late than never. Hope the Coach is late.

[gangrenous]

* This is potentially the best backline we have had in a very long time. It’s up to Schiller to hold onto his spot now. If he has a big game and we win, Stuart won’t change things.

I wouldn’t have your hopes on this one. Schiller could score a hattrick and set up two others, be man of the match and Hoppa will be on the team sheet next week.

Not at you TongueFTW, but in my opinion all the “Savage is so good this year, well done coaching staff” is a bit rich. In my opinion he’s doing the stuff he did before just on a standard experience age progression. Barring off-field explanations it’s still criminal he wasn’t in the team last year.

[Botman]

There is absolutely no question that when fit Hoppa is coming back in when he's fit.
And we'll be weakening our team to do it.

[Northern Raider]

There is absolutely no question that when fit Hoppa is coming back in when he's fit.
And we'll be weakening our team to do it.

That's because he's the epitome of Ricky's grind ball approach.