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Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 2982008, member: 1899"] I see Ricky has gone to the ESL to try and snag himself another Hodgson and Whitehead. Stuart has signed a quality player in Bateman, but I struggle to see where he fits in at the Nation's Capital. Bateman is an edge forward who primarily plays on the left hand side, a role that's filled either by Papalii or Whitehead. Papalii looks to be transitioning to the middle which is a move I'm not fond of. Sure he plays there at Origin level, but that's more out of necessity than Josh's limitations. On the edge, Josh is able to play with more freedom and gets the opportunity to show off his foot-work and ball-play, a feature of his game that would be limited in the middle. As for Whitehead, I see him in a similar mould as a Ben Creagh. A quality edge runner and a real option close to the line. If you bring him into the middle he doesn't have the skill-set to move the ball nor the size to bend the line. Suffice to say it's a head scratcher. Bateman will certainly win some admirers and could be a wise fantasy investment but he's going to compromise the rest of the forward pack. Speaking of which, with Boyd and Paulo gone it's tough to see how the Raiders are going to deal with their departures. Dunamis Lui had his best season to date in 2018, but he's still just an honest toiler. Right now their only other experienced option who is a through and through prop is Ryan Sutton from Wigan. A bench forward who averaged 6.72m a carry, less than a 100m a game, 5 missed tackles and quite honestly is a mind boggling signing. Maybe he'll pull a Mike Cooper? Their best hope is that Guler, Hala, Hunt, Knight, Makatoa somebody anybody come of age. Truth be told they don't have to do that much to replace Boyd or Paulo who became liabilities at the back end of their stints. However, they need somebody to help fix that defence which is such a pillar of Ricky Stuart's gameplan. Of all the decisions Ricky Stuart made, going with Sezer & Williams as the halves pairing may have been one of his better options. Williams is a natural halfback, Sezer is a natural five-eighth, they compliment each other and now that they've sorted into their roles they can build their combination. This has to be the end of the line for Sezer. Aidan has a deal until 2020, but at 27 years of age he can no longer be considered a developing half and has to deliver on his potential. If I was a career manager, I'd be looking at other clubs prono, preferably one with low expectations and a decent forward pack. The backs are the Raiders strength, but they need to sort this Wighton mess out pronto. Ricky has annoited him their star player and while he isn't as good as Ricky pretends he is, he's certainly their best option all things considered. This on it's own could be enough to derail the Raiders, so it's certainly one of the bigger stories of the off-season. What excites me about Canberra is the prospect of some of their youngsters. Hala, Kris and Horsburgh are already in the NRL squad, but I'd be keen to see what O'Hagan, Smith-Shields and Lyons have to offer if given the opportunity. Their backline is typically fun to watch too when they get to play unstructured footy which makes for unpredictible footy. It isn't always great, but the Raiders have a knack of doing something unusual. [/QUOTE]

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