We're into round 17, I imagine it would be pretty unprecedented for a side to fall from 8 points inside the top eight to miss finals. Whoever David Riccio is can do sit on his typewriter and rotate. The Raiders are an absolute bunch of chokers in any case, and their coach is a munter. The eight is set.
Pretty incredible that we went from one win away all season in 2017 to 6-1 this year. SK's plan of not talking about it seems to have worked in the end, right? Unless we actually ended up talking about it.
While taking nothing away from the achievement so far and a massive improvement in bogey issues like playing in Australia, winning without SJ and overcoming mental issues against certain teams e.g. Dragons and Cows.
The stats show we have won 6 from 6 against teams in the bottom 8 and 4 from 8 against top 8 teams (assumes Bunnies top 8 in round1)
So being a true threat we need to deal with the top teams better.
In saying that we had our full strength spine for 1 of those losses (Broncos round6) so there is some hope if we can keep them fit.
Isn't it 3 wins v top 8 (Rabbitohs, Dragons, Roosters?) This is a pretty strong 8 this year - no passengers, so I don't think that's a bad effort (and we haven't played the Sharks or Panthers). No one's saying we're top 4 but wins against the top eight this year are all bloody hard to come by. Feels like it's the strongest 8 in years, and we're in it. That feels good to me.But you are right, we do need to get better to be a threat, no doubt.