The Bench is where we won it

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.

Fluffy

Journey Man
Absolutely dominated their bench.

Myles 138m, raiders entire bench 95m

and Myles wasn't even out best metre eater on the bench

altogether we clocked up 382m

Hastings again provided spark without doing much but giving good service.

Surely the penny will drop soon for Barrett, the only reason i can think of is that Api is talked about being the heart of the side by a few of the players so maybe there is more to it that we see on the field.

Brown played well and really got us back in the game and believing we could get them with that pass to Walks

AFB trundled up and was just impossible to slow down let alone put down

In the end our run really started when Myles smashed the ball out when the raiders were looking to put the game away.
 
myles tackle changed the game he did great I'm liking this new myles lol it feels weird.

Lewis brown DID SOMETHING haha he had a good game.

afb was excellent he's a real handful and makes good meters after contact

hastings did great out of dummy half good service and nice scoots and decision making. api was in all sorts in the 1st half hastings did great there.

great game where's my mate Ryan who said raiders by 16. He owes me a title for 1 week haha
 
Myles and AFB were especially strong and Hastings did look good when he was on. I do think Api's toughness and heart adds value to the team but there's no reason we can't use Hastings as a regular interchange hooker. Always worked with Matty B and Le Strange, for example.
 
  • 🤝
Reactions: R3
Brown was really good playing at second-row although seeing he won't be able to start there I don't see the need for him on the bench still, when he was dummy half for that period in the first half his passes were third-world stuff, made up for it later. Great great great effort from everyone and how good were Taupau, Jake, AFB, Winterstein and Myles for the forwards and Walker, Hastings, Green (more input) and Kelly (despite being injured). Not enough ball given to Uate although he still was great as was the bloody left edge defence! They really lifted tonight despite the poor attacking first-half
 
Myles 10 runs 138m. Means he averaged nearly 4m past the advantage line each run BUT he did make a couple of long carry backs from line dropouts so that figure can be misleading.
 
Prefer Brown on the bench as a second rower rather then a hooker.

I Think one of Siro , Jake or Frank will need to be interchanged in a game. Due to being tired or poor form.

And the goat photos.
 
  • 😆
Reactions: R3
Myles and AFB were especially strong and Hastings did look good when he was on. I do think Api's toughness and heart adds value to the team but there's no reason we can't use Hastings as a regular interchange hooker. Always worked with Matty B and Le Strange, for example.

to be fair, the rules have changed and interchanges are down by 4 since then iirc which is essentially 1 extra swap.

I think this is a good thing but it means 2 swaps for hooker is a large chunk
 
to be fair, the rules have changed and interchanges are down by 4 since then iirc which is essentially 1 extra swap.

I think this is a good thing but it means 2 swaps for hooker is a large chunk
I stand corrected, Fluffy. That's a very good reason:)
 
Yes I think Baz used the bench well. I thinking kicking into touch all the time to prevent their back three kick returns was a coaching master stroke.
 
Prefer Brown on the bench as a second rower rather then a hooker.

I Think one of Siro , Jake or Frank will need to be interchanged in a game. Due to being tired or poor form.

And the goat photos.

which is why he keeps getting picked.

Hatings as sole "utility" cannot cover the backrow and we rarely play another backrower on the bench nor are there many options (Lane is the closest but his defence is very lacking and Billy B has been injured and is cap restricted and Hoppa is not cleared) so Brown stays.
 
Yes I think Baz used the bench well. I thinking kicking into touch all the time to prevent their back three kick returns was a coaching master stroke.

This probably warrants its own thread to be honest.

It was an interesting one and listening to Gallen (whom i find really good value as he tells it exactly as a player and the way he see's it) was interesting as he felt it was the wrong approach as it meant the big 2 props who are usually gassed at 20 minutes where in fact still on that park at 25 minutes, a very valid point. However in hindsight they might have been on longer but were far from as effective as in their short bursts. It also allowed our big boys in Taupau and Jake to play more minutes.

What was interesting was the faiders started to adopt our tactic. The team and Baz did not change the plan though and we came home the stronger. It was game management from above.

Then again it could have been just a defensive/safe ploy from DCE given we weren't on top and our error rate was fantastic. Api made the first error in the 45th minute losing the ball getting tackled during a half break whilst looking for support. You will win a lot of games doing that.
 
I agree Myles 138m, AFB a huge 171m and Brown 57m and a try assist. Literally swap Api for Hastings and this team will win a lot more games than they lose. Best effort from Myles in the maroon and white I think.
Myles has been very good four games in a row. His defence in the middle has been exceptional.
 
This probably warrants its own thread to be honest.

It was an interesting one and listening to Gallen (whom i find really good value as he tells it exactly as a player and the way he see's it) was interesting as he felt it was the wrong approach as it meant the big 2 props who are usually gassed at 20 minutes where in fact still on that park at 25 minutes, a very valid point. However in hindsight they might have been on longer but were far from as effective as in their short bursts. It also allowed our big boys in Taupau and Jake to play more minutes.

What was interesting was the faiders started to adopt our tactic. The team and Baz did not change the plan though and we came home the stronger. It was game management from above.

Then again it could have been just a defensive/safe ploy from DCE given we weren't on top and our error rate was fantastic. Api made the first error in the 45th minute losing the ball getting tackled during a half break whilst looking for support. You will win a lot of games doing that.
When you consider Paulo played 38 minutes straight for his first stint and Shannon Boyd played 30, the ol' 20 minute interchange is not necessarily paramount.
 
I am glad we won,but I think as a group the Raiders have the best group of forwards in the comp.Put some of those big boppers on the bench and have some of those workers type players who blunt opposition forward packs early and give Paulo,Papalii,etc..... opportunity to smash teams later.....(you will dominate as long as you have backs who can capitalise)but when you pay big bucks for players they have to start....That is why you don't pay big bucks for bench players....
 
When you consider Paulo played 38 minutes straight for his first stint and Shannon Boyd played 30, the ol' 20 minute interchange is not necessarily paramount.
I understand that,but neither tackled at all,minimum defense from both,only good if you have ball in hand for the first 25 min.Paulo and Boyd only made a couple of tackles all match from stats and that puts pressure on all players around them.
 

Latest posts

Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom