Good matchup. Lots of interesting storylines to watch:
Simpkin vs Croker vs GCKT
Simpkin has arguably his weakest game for us against the Rooters, whether you like his first few games or not, that's the reality. He wasn't great against Easts. Whereas Gordie had his most minutes against the Rooters, and it was his strongest outing hands down - he was the Dummy-half on the field as we mounted a comback that almost won us the game. Also, Croker/Simpkin are more interchangeable with similar stat similarities. GCKT is our x-factor based on stats right now, and I'm ok with Simpkin getting a week off to consider his performance.
Hopoate back
..Is a big add for us. Brother Albert sits on the ressies for Canberra, and the mail is that we got the better of the 2 bruzzies on that one hands downs. I tend to agree - Lehi on Wing shifts Talau to Centre which is where I believe he belongs, whilst Lehi get's to add his surprising return run-metre workrate from a position he can handle. He deadset makes more post-contact meters than a guy his age/stature should be making. They will absolutely pepper this wing with the up-and-unders all night too - and Lehi will rise to the challenge and defuse them all. I think he is that good. I actually feel safer with him under most high balls than even 8ft-16in Saab.
No Aloiai
...Actually hurts. Can't believe i'm saying it. He was really good against a Newcastle pack that on-paper shat on us. Our backline was class vs the Knights who were half-baked sure, but someone had to dull the Knights forwards, and Josh was a major instigator of Pack dominance. We put 30+ on them before they even threatened us. Look at the Knights pack again - we had no right to mash them like we did without Paseka. We need to do that this week with a similarly daunting pack from the Raiders side, running at us in a bitterly cold Canberra setting. At least we have Taniela back, and Toff has been good this year. Ricky has messed with the Capital's favourite Ranga, and given he wants out I think it spells trouble for the Fwd motivation. Hopefully Paps has a trademark off-week and we just roll 'em thru the middle. We have a great record at Canberra and an axe to grind after that home-loss earlier in the year.
'Mole - A better Do'er than talker
He just sounded like he wasn't up for talk, just ready to murder them this weekend after 3-weeks of no footy thanks to Origin. Couldn't talk out any meaning for his Origin suspension to save his life, but I just feel he is a spring-loaded ball of fury ready to strike. Leave the talk, and give this guy the ball. He's in for a big end to this season, and being "dropped" from origin to become a bench-warming support pet is something that he will want to make a statement around. We have all moved on from Origin - 'Mole hasn't been given the chance to. I hope he takes that benching personally this weekend and destroys the Raiders. I suspect he will be on the tryscorers list by nights end.
First-pick Spine - for first time since May!
The DCE-Brooks-Turbo-Croker spine has not been available since that awful loss to Canberra - the only home-loss all year. We lost Croker at 60-mins mark, and didn't score again. Raiders scored twice and snatched it. This is the first time we get that spine back since that game in early May. We'll discover whether this is our best spine - we had a great record at the time of that injury/loss, having had only the 1 shocker against the Dragons at W'gong - which was a mistakeathon from our marquees. We have been lucky with Lawton (not getting injured), Simpkin's addition and GCKT's cameos being highly effective replacements - but to push for September impact we need our best team on the park. Time to see if this is still our best spine - and if it's not, we still have time to adjust. Canberra have an impressive spine too, built on youth and guile. Kaeo at the back they should know well, and Strange is a special half no doubt - but if a combo of DCE/Brooks/Turbo/Croker can't outsmart the Raiders spine at their ages, we have no business being at the sticky end of the finals period.
