LIVE GAME Round 1 Discussion *Spoilers*

Live Game Discussion
if there's one chink in Canberra's armour its down their left edge. Sullivan needs to play straight, run the footy and isolate Papali'i one on one with Strange. Newcastle did it once with Frizell and they parted like the red sea.
 
It was a good solid game from the Raiders. Smart football that wins early round games. I fear if they play that well against us especially utilising the same attacking kicking game, we won’t be able to defend it.
There were a few players that played well last night that many had written off- Frizell, Gagai, Rapana, Cotric. Also a good example of a short centre that is great value is Timoko- he is tough and aggressive and gives 110%.
Once Newcastle get the mistakes out of their game they will be OK - certainly ahead of us.
 
I think we match up well with Canberra for the same reason we're competitive with Penrith.
They're predictable with what they do.
It'll be a very close game.
 
Todd Packer said:
I think we match up well with Canberra for the same reason we're competitive with Penrith.
They're predictable with what they do.
It'll be a very close game.
Click to expand...

Hope you’re right TP. However I’m not sure how we match up well - they are bigger, tougher and stronger than us in just about every position on the field and they have a lot more desire and intent than us as well.
They might be predictable but I’m concerned our guys don’t have the grit to match them for 80 minutes. From what we’ve seen so far we look physically underprepared and generally soft. They could tell us specifically what they’re about to do play by play and we still couldn’t stop them!
 
Todd Packer said:
I think we match up well with Canberra for the same reason we're competitive with Penrith.
They're predictable with what they do.
It'll be a very close game.
Click to expand...
If our forwards stand up. Yes.
But a lot of people are under playing the skill that Canberra played with.
With acouple of new players there is a lot of upside to their game.
Strange hardly ran for one, and didn’t kick.
however he can do both.
He did display very slick ball skills along the try line.
Not to mention the short passing between the forwards.
Rapana is in his prime and will be an asset at fullback.
They have the gritty base that they can build off.
They’ll be in around the 8 that’s for sure.

I would love to see us play a similar way this year and slowly build off that base.
 
jrtiger said:
if there's one chink in Canberra's armour its down their left edge. Sullivan needs to play straight, run the footy and isolate Papali'i one on one with Strange. Newcastle did it once with Frizell and they parted like the red sea.
Click to expand...
Yes they did.
After that Strange adjusted his defence and they didnt even look remotely like cracking him again.
That kid has excellent technique.
Both Newcastle tries were on the edges where defenders made poor decisions. That happens early in the season. Most of Canberra's tries were offloads and short quick passing. That is a lot harder to shut down. If we think giving the pill some air will result in a win next week, we'll get flogged. Arm wrestle win like the one we almost got in Cambpelltown last year against them is the only chance.
 
I have a sneaky feeling Canberra will be there abouts this year

They’re just this tough, grubby team that makes the opposite side implode and they end up capitalising

I have a feeling they will spank us next week if we don’t hang on early.
 
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Demps said:
Thoughts on Savage?

I can see why Ricky didn't really use him much last year.
Lots of mistakes in his game.

Could see him going to a new club & improving though, much like Valemei.

Looked to be lacking last night, maybe confidence. Tried hard though.
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I like the look of him.
He went well at fullback late in the game and his try was pure speed and power.
Very disrupted start to his career but hopefully we see him put a big stretch together this season.
 
Tucker said:
I like the look of him.
He went well at fullback late in the game and his try was pure speed and power.
Very disrupted start to his career but hopefully we see him put a big stretch together this season.
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Not sure he makes the team, full strength.

I hope we consider signing him, albeit he has a lot to work on.
 
Speed2burn said:
I have a sneaky feeling Canberra will be there abouts this year

They’re just this tough, grubby team that makes the opposite side implode and they end up capitalising

I have a feeling they will spank us next week if we don’t hang on early.
Click to expand...
If you go off the Penrith model of just a tough, uncompromising, well drilled side; where although Cleary is an out right superstar his game base is built off effort and excellence not freakish ability. You start to see a pattern of the teams that will be there when the whips are cracking.

Thinking about it. There are two types of ‘star’ players in the comp;
The 75%ers and the 50-100%ers.
The 75%ers I would say are the guys that don’t wow you but deliver, each game you know what your going to get out of them.
The 50-100% players are clearly more talented but their game isn’t built off effort, it’s built off their ability to break a game open with speed, skill, agility whatever the ability they often have limited impact or Star performances each game.

Now I would say Canberra like Penrith have a game built off a player base of 75%ers.
Where as the knights like Brisbane have player base and game that is built around the 50-100%ers.

This means that for the later two to have a successful season year on year out they need their star players playing above the 75% mark.
With most of Newcastle’s rise based off a Dally M winning performance from their star fullback; it kinda means he has to have a similar level of impact again for the knights to get there
Be interesting to see if Brisbane and the Knights maintain the same position as last season or if they slip.

On that same note I would expect teams like the Warriors and Roosters to be up there at the end of year.
 
Speed2burn said:
I have a sneaky feeling Canberra will be there abouts this year

They’re just this tough, grubby team that makes the opposite side implode and they end up capitalising

I have a feeling they will spank us next week if we don’t hang on early.
Click to expand...
I feel the same and someone on year said they will finish last

And If the dolphins had a halfback they would be top 6 team they have a great squad
 
jrtiger said:
if there's one chink in Canberra's armour its down their left edge. Sullivan needs to play straight, run the footy and isolate Papali'i one on one with Strange. Newcastle did it once with Frizell and they parted like the red sea.
Click to expand...
Yep, with Whitehead out Newcastle had to make them pay more often on that side.
If Young misses a week for his late shot on Ponga, both edges might be a bit more frail. Also need to do a much better finding space with our kicks. Fogerty won the kicking duel by some margin.
 
Both Young and Guler will be available for the clash next week.
Both charged and looking at small fines for early pleas.

Whitehead, Horsborough and Kriss will all be missing but they werent missed last night too much.
 
Needaname said:
That was Newcastles mistake tonight in my opinion.
They were pretty much matching the Raiders for play up the field. Similar meterage, similar line speed similar field position. The difference is Canberra continued to tuck the ball under the arm, offload the when the opportunity presented itself and continue to work up the middle.
Newcastle on the other hand favoured the shift. Nearly at every opportunity, they made some decent meters shifting the ball early but in the red zone there was far too much side to side block to block ball movement to be effective.
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Do you think we’ll beat Canberra at that discipline? I think back to a time when we used to trouble the Storm with expansive play occasionally because we surprised them. Either way I think it’s an L.
 
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