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2019 GF | PREMIERS - Roosters 14-8 Raiders @ ANZ

Grand Final: Roosters v Raiders

  • Total voters
    60
  • Poll closed .
The Vaulting Violinist

The Vaulting Violinist

Bench
Messages
4,040
Don’t get me wrong roosters have a good forward pack but I’d say Bateman, paapali and Hodgson are the best three forwards that will run out on Sunday
 
YoHadrian

YoHadrian

Juniors
Messages
1,527
I think the Roosters will get home on their defensive structure alone. The way they contained a team as good as the Melbourne Storm was impressive.
 
Valheru

Valheru

Coach
Messages
19,208
Tommy Smith said:
I've heard a few times now that the Raiders have a slight advantage in the forwards.

Our pack was also seriously underrated last year, too. In fact it was called our weakness!

With a pack so strong that Crichton, Taukeiaho and Butcher are coming off the bench I'm just curious to know where people think Canberra have the forward edge...
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We are true underdogs Tommy

Can't blame the punters for writing us off.
 
AlwaysGreen

AlwaysGreen

Post Whore
Messages
50,434
Roosters making a grand final despite being $2 million under the salary cap would surely get the neutrals behind them.
 
B

big hit!

Bench
Messages
3,452
Walt Flanigan said:
I guess because Balmain were in the GF the year before, had a great set of forwards plus a few other things like no team had ever won from 4th and no team outside of Sydney had ever won the comp.

A lot of people also look at the Raiders team and think what an All-Star line up but some of those stars were also very young. Daley 19, Clyde 19, Stuart 22, Lazarus 23
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that's right. The Balmain guys were largely established. Canberra had great names on paper when you read it now, but they were still making their name in 1989. Interestingly, the hero of that game ended up nothing.

And Warren Ryan also replaced Roach and Sironen with half of the second half still to go. Monumental f**k up that. Who knows how it would've ended for Balmain had those guys played a little longer.
 
Walt Flanigan

Walt Flanigan

Referee
Messages
20,727
big hit! said:
And Warren Ryan also replaced Roach and Sironen with half of the second half still to go. Monumental f**k up that. Who knows how it would've ended for Balmain had those guys played a little longer
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Made the same mistake as Bennett in 2015. Stopped playing footy and tried to protect the lead.
 
MilkShark

MilkShark

First Grade
Messages
5,162
The key to this game is to take keary out, for the entire game.

With his history, he wouldn’t be coming back
 
B

big hit!

Bench
Messages
3,452
The Vaulting Violinist said:
I just hope the raiders don’t shit the bed - if they do it’ll be 40-0

If raiders turn up it’ll be a 4-6 point game
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The Raiders middle will be fine. It's the edges that will have their work cut out for them. A team involving Cronk will always be organised. You saw it with Melbourne, QLD and now the Roosters. Rarely does a team with this legend in it waste a play with a spud taking it up with no clue what to do, running it sideways, back ways, passing it to someone else not expecting it, etc. Every one knows what they're doing and he is the conductor setting it into action. And once the 4th or 5th tackle attacking play is on with Cronk, to Keary, decoys, and Tabasco, and then Manu or Mitchell, on the end of it, Bateman and Whitehead will need to be alert and on their game because the defending out there will succeed or fail with their organisation on their respective edges.

And it's not just attack where he is influential because that little super human f**ker will be around the ball runner in defence making the last ditch effort to save a try. He did this a couple of times against Melbourne in the prelim, and has done it his whole career. Look up repeat effort in the rugby league dictionary and you'll see a picture of him. He doesn't slack off because he doesn't have the ball in his hands.

If there were more players like Cronk, the defensive aspect of this sport would be ridiculous, unlike some of the soft tries we see week to week. Cronk makes any football team 100x times better.
 
Captain Apollo

Captain Apollo

Coach
Messages
15,493
From the Wide World of Sports website -

Roosters hooker Sam Verrills' heartbreaking grand final inspiration
By WWOS staff
3 hours ago

Roosters grand final hooker Sam Verrills will carry a heartbreaking inspiration into Sunday's decider: the memory of his late brother.

Jack Verrills took his own life, aged just 20. He is in Sam's thoughts every game day.

"It was a pretty tough time for my family and I play every game with my brother's initials on my wrist. He's definitely there. Every week you can tell," Sam told Nine's Danny Weidler.

"I miss him every day. So does (the) family."

Sam Verrills was captain of Manly's Harold Matthews under-16s team at the time. Rugby league became his escape - right from the morning after the tragedy.

"Sam just said to us, 'I have to go and play football', and he left that morning to play football," mother Kimberly Verrills said. "Total escape."

Father Mark Verrills added: "It took his mind away from everything."

Jack worked on boats on Sydney Harbour, which was always his dream. He was also a junior rugby league hooker who taught Sam the tricks of the trade.

Jack was a full-throttle player and broke his back at 15, a setback that Sam has previously said sent his brother into a "downward spiral".

Still, Jack's decision to take his own life was incredibly hard to understand and devastated his family.

"In the week leading up to it, I thought, 'Something's wrong here' ... and I was like a deer in the headlights," Mark Verrills said.

"I froze. I didn't know what to do. If I had that week over again, I would do 180 degrees, totally different."

Kimberly Verrills said that she felt proud knowing Sam played football to honour Jack.

"Because every day, he pushes through and achieves what he wants to achieve," she said.

While Jack is always there in spirit, his parents couldn't resist taking part of him along to the Roosters' preliminary final win over Melbourne.

"We've got his ashes at home and we grabbed some of his ashes and took them with us," Kimberly Verrills said.

"Kind of weird for some people to hear that, but we did that. It's nice to do that. (Sam) said it was a bit weird!"

The whole family, including two other brothers - Billy and Oliver - will be thinking of Jack as they watch Sam play the biggest game of his life on Sunday: a grand final against the Canberra Raiders.

"Sam will be thinking about him, definitely," Mark Verrills said.

Kimberly Verrills: "We'll all be thinking about him, wishing that he was with us."

LIFELINE: 131 114
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