Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Big Pete, post: 3387161, member: 1899"] Speaks volumes of the Panthers that the Raiders were so resilient on their line yet they still put on 30 points. They're just in a groove right now and you don't want to arm wrestle with them because they're the best team in the competition at working the ball out of trouble. That's Edwards' break and butter and Taylan May might possibly be the best back working it out of trouble outside of To'o. They just play with a lot of balance. They have players like Fisher-Harris and Yeo who can keep the ball alive and give their livewire players like Koroisau and Luai opportunities, or they just go through their rehearsed set-plays and give their outside backs an opportunity to improvise and come up with points. They're on a roll right now and I'm just about prepared to give them the two points against the Titans. It's the month after that I'm seriously interested in vs. Parramatta, vs. Melbourne, vs. Sydney and vs. Cowboys. Get through that and I think they'll continue to steamroll the competition. Canberra did well to hang in there but just a few lapses hurt them. Elliott slow off the line allowed the Panthers to spread the ball and Timoko was caught in no-man's land which made life far too easy for Crichton. Then the Yeo try was far too easy with Harawira-Naera completely losing sight of Yeo. I find CHN to be such a frustrating player to watch because he's clearly talented but he just switches off. That effort on Cleary in the lead-up to the May try being a good example. It was just moments like that which really hurt them. I don't think they got too many calls their way. The only one I can remember is Tago being ruled to have lost the ball when replays seemed fairly inconclusive and if anything showed he held onto it. Otherwise it seemed like everything went the Panthers way. The straw that broke the camel's back was the Savage knock-on which seemed like a 50/50 - so often in that situation the referee will call it crowding. With that said, I thought the Raiders were poor working it out of trouble and their young backline was found wanting. It's where they really needed Cotric to stand-up but he only made 8 runs all game. That's where he and Rapana used to be so valuable rucking it up and raising the tempo of that play the ball, I think Rapana has just gotten on but Cotric should be doing so much more. [/QUOTE]

Verification

Active Now

No members online now.

Total: 287 (members: 0, guests: 287)

Reply to thread

Log in

Active Now