KeithSheldon
Reserve Grader
The Silvertails Preview: Round 13 The Manly Sea Eagles v The Canberra Raiders
It’s been a while, partly due to the bye we had in round 12 and partly because of the absence of this thing in round 11, which was caused by assessment and what have you. So anyway, we lost the Broncos and Cronulla match meaning we have lost 3 in a row, although to be fair we improved in the Cronulla game, and could have won it all if it weren’t for Jamie Lyon’s crap goal kicking. But hey, living in what ifs and what nots is pointless, we aren’t in a good position. Fortunately, we did lose against three of the top four, and if any team has to make a run like that they would have similar results.
Canberra, aka the Warriors 2.0. They go form amazing one week, to awful the next. Heck they go from awful one half to great the next, which was shown in their last week win against the Bulldogs. That is the problem with the raiders I feel is that you never know what Raiders side you are going to face. As good as their side looks on paper and as well as they can certainly play there are times where their halves are directionless, their forward pack doesn’t try and their backs are error prone. The result on this game will depend on them more than it does us.
Team Lists:
The Canberra Raiders:
1. Jack Wighton
2. Brenko lee
3. Jarrod Croker
4. Joey Leilua
5. Jordan Rapana
6. Blake Austin
7. Aidan Sezer
8. Shannon Boyd
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Joe Tapine
11. Josh Papalii
12. Elliott Whitehead
13. Luke Bateman
14. Kurt Baptiste
15. Sia Soliola
16. Clay Priest
17. Paul Vaughan
18. Junior Paulo
The Manly Sea Eagles:
1. Brett Stewart
2. Brayden Wiliame
3. State of Origin Star Dylan Walker
4. Steve Matai
5. Tom Trbojevic
6. Jamie ‘slower than a speeding Thaiday’ Lyon
7. DCE
8. Darcy Lussick
9. Matt Parcell
10. Nate Myles
11. Lewis Brown
12. Jamie Buhrer
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Api Koroisau
15. Josh Starling
16. Brenton Lawrence
17. Siosaia Vave
18. Blake Leary
Dylan Walker is expected to back up after his heroic origin performance, meanwhile Nate Myles will either be on the bench or rested, if the latter expect Leary to slot in on the bench or AFB to come into the main side. Also, Steve Matai is likely to be out as well.
Meanwhile Josh Papalii is unlikely to back up for Canberra, meaning mid-year recruit Junior Paulo will come into the side.
Analysis:
Jesus Christ I hope Wighton has another one of ‘those days’ against us. People often ask how a single player can cost a team a match, and when I am asked that I point at his performance against the Dragons, or his performance in the first half last week where his errors gifted the Bulldogs 14 points. He made like 6 errors in that game, which is madness. I don’t think he is a bad player, but he isn’t a fullback and that can easily be exploited. We need to take advantage of this and bomb to him as much as possible.
Honestly, this isn’t a popular opinion but Aidan Sezer has been one of the flop buys of the season. He hasn’t added anything to this Raiders side and is only a slight improvement over what they had last year based on his current form. Meanwhile Austin is still carrying a bit of a niggling injury which is affecting him. This Raiders side is weird in that most of their points aren’t coming from their halves and fullback.
Josh Hodgson is the form dummy-half in the comp. He was good last year, but he has improved out of sight this year, racking up try assists like they are nothing. His service and ability to kick 40/20s are phenomenal, and he is leading the Dally M’s for a reason. He is a central pillar of the attack of this side, and we will need our marker defenders to be on point against him.
Whilst Hodgson has provided a large number of the points for the Raiders, their other attacking strength is the pairing of Leilua and Rapana, who are both the form winger and centre of the competition. We will be lucky not to get ripped apart on their edge, especially since I believe that Walker and Wiliame are defending on that edge.
As for their forward pack, it is significantly better than ours. There is no way around it. Vaughan, Paulo, Tapine, Soliola and Priest are all great forward, and the rest are no slouches either. Every week I like to imagine how many forwards would fit into the pack of our opponents. Only Jake and maybe Brenton would make the cut into their forward pack. Either they will need to have an off week (like they have done in the past) or our plodders will need to step it up. I don’t understand why we haven’t picked AFB over Starling. AFB is our only prop that makes consistent and decent metres after contact with the defensive line, and deserves to be in the side more than Vave, Starling or Lussick.
I have no idea how Koroisau is going to get used, hopefully it won’t be as a dummy half player, because as much as Koroisau tries he isn’t nearly as good as Parcell is. I do think that he could provide some creativity off the bench since he was a decent half whilst DCE was injured but for it to work he will need to be used cleverly, and given Barrett’s inexperience and how he has used the bench so far…. well that isn’t looking good. I hope I am proven wrong but still.
Conclusion:
You know when the main positive points for a side you can come up with is ‘maybe the opposition will implode’ that you are screwed, and I think we are. I just don’t think our forward pack is up to it, plus considering the betting/match fixing scandal I don’t think our players will be in the right frame of mind to win it. I think we will lose this game by about…. 10 points, but honestly I have said it before but it will depend mostly on which Raiders side actually turns up.
It’s been a while, partly due to the bye we had in round 12 and partly because of the absence of this thing in round 11, which was caused by assessment and what have you. So anyway, we lost the Broncos and Cronulla match meaning we have lost 3 in a row, although to be fair we improved in the Cronulla game, and could have won it all if it weren’t for Jamie Lyon’s crap goal kicking. But hey, living in what ifs and what nots is pointless, we aren’t in a good position. Fortunately, we did lose against three of the top four, and if any team has to make a run like that they would have similar results.
Canberra, aka the Warriors 2.0. They go form amazing one week, to awful the next. Heck they go from awful one half to great the next, which was shown in their last week win against the Bulldogs. That is the problem with the raiders I feel is that you never know what Raiders side you are going to face. As good as their side looks on paper and as well as they can certainly play there are times where their halves are directionless, their forward pack doesn’t try and their backs are error prone. The result on this game will depend on them more than it does us.
Team Lists:
The Canberra Raiders:
1. Jack Wighton
2. Brenko lee
3. Jarrod Croker
4. Joey Leilua
5. Jordan Rapana
6. Blake Austin
7. Aidan Sezer
8. Shannon Boyd
9. Josh Hodgson
10. Joe Tapine
11. Josh Papalii
12. Elliott Whitehead
13. Luke Bateman
14. Kurt Baptiste
15. Sia Soliola
16. Clay Priest
17. Paul Vaughan
18. Junior Paulo
The Manly Sea Eagles:
1. Brett Stewart
2. Brayden Wiliame
3. State of Origin Star Dylan Walker
4. Steve Matai
5. Tom Trbojevic
6. Jamie ‘slower than a speeding Thaiday’ Lyon
7. DCE
8. Darcy Lussick
9. Matt Parcell
10. Nate Myles
11. Lewis Brown
12. Jamie Buhrer
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Api Koroisau
15. Josh Starling
16. Brenton Lawrence
17. Siosaia Vave
18. Blake Leary
Dylan Walker is expected to back up after his heroic origin performance, meanwhile Nate Myles will either be on the bench or rested, if the latter expect Leary to slot in on the bench or AFB to come into the main side. Also, Steve Matai is likely to be out as well.
Meanwhile Josh Papalii is unlikely to back up for Canberra, meaning mid-year recruit Junior Paulo will come into the side.
Analysis:
Jesus Christ I hope Wighton has another one of ‘those days’ against us. People often ask how a single player can cost a team a match, and when I am asked that I point at his performance against the Dragons, or his performance in the first half last week where his errors gifted the Bulldogs 14 points. He made like 6 errors in that game, which is madness. I don’t think he is a bad player, but he isn’t a fullback and that can easily be exploited. We need to take advantage of this and bomb to him as much as possible.
Honestly, this isn’t a popular opinion but Aidan Sezer has been one of the flop buys of the season. He hasn’t added anything to this Raiders side and is only a slight improvement over what they had last year based on his current form. Meanwhile Austin is still carrying a bit of a niggling injury which is affecting him. This Raiders side is weird in that most of their points aren’t coming from their halves and fullback.
Josh Hodgson is the form dummy-half in the comp. He was good last year, but he has improved out of sight this year, racking up try assists like they are nothing. His service and ability to kick 40/20s are phenomenal, and he is leading the Dally M’s for a reason. He is a central pillar of the attack of this side, and we will need our marker defenders to be on point against him.
Whilst Hodgson has provided a large number of the points for the Raiders, their other attacking strength is the pairing of Leilua and Rapana, who are both the form winger and centre of the competition. We will be lucky not to get ripped apart on their edge, especially since I believe that Walker and Wiliame are defending on that edge.
As for their forward pack, it is significantly better than ours. There is no way around it. Vaughan, Paulo, Tapine, Soliola and Priest are all great forward, and the rest are no slouches either. Every week I like to imagine how many forwards would fit into the pack of our opponents. Only Jake and maybe Brenton would make the cut into their forward pack. Either they will need to have an off week (like they have done in the past) or our plodders will need to step it up. I don’t understand why we haven’t picked AFB over Starling. AFB is our only prop that makes consistent and decent metres after contact with the defensive line, and deserves to be in the side more than Vave, Starling or Lussick.
I have no idea how Koroisau is going to get used, hopefully it won’t be as a dummy half player, because as much as Koroisau tries he isn’t nearly as good as Parcell is. I do think that he could provide some creativity off the bench since he was a decent half whilst DCE was injured but for it to work he will need to be used cleverly, and given Barrett’s inexperience and how he has used the bench so far…. well that isn’t looking good. I hope I am proven wrong but still.
Conclusion:
You know when the main positive points for a side you can come up with is ‘maybe the opposition will implode’ that you are screwed, and I think we are. I just don’t think our forward pack is up to it, plus considering the betting/match fixing scandal I don’t think our players will be in the right frame of mind to win it. I think we will lose this game by about…. 10 points, but honestly I have said it before but it will depend mostly on which Raiders side actually turns up.
Last edited:
