Oh well...

[legend]

We went down fighting at least and were screwed over in another dubious refereeing decision which proved to be the difference in the end.

Our second half discipline killed us and we had some players who gave it their all but geez we have some unskilled players like Gafa, Mogg and Kahler. I thought Withers and Hodgson were also well below their best, extremely poor actually while Smith was the standout with Jason Williams having a good game.

The Cowboys are pretenders this year. They should have put us away by a lot more and I think they will make an early exit in the finals.

My question is where was the desperation in attack we showed tonight in the past ten weeks?

 

[edabomb]

Greeneyed told me Matty Elliott doesn't even tell the team to play hard, so we can blame the lack of desperation on him.

 

[GC_Gladiator]

I dont see how you can single Kahler out for tonight, i didnt see him do anything wrong and the nrl.com stats show that he didnt make to many errors, for what its worth. Jason Williams is an absolute wrecking ball, and tonight was the first time i had seen Todd Carney. I thought he threw some great cut out balls and looks to be fitting into the Number 7 quite well. Williams' try was absolute crap, where the hell is the consistency.

 

[legend]

Kahler made a few mistakes and makes little to no impact. I don't doubt he tries hard but the skill, size and aggression are missing in his game.

With tonights results, we are now in the market for the wooden spoon statistically.

 

[aussies1st]

Only positive from this game is Carney is filling the void we had in the 7 jersey and Williams finally hitting his potential. Now if only Elliot or Gafa and co would disappear.

 

[hotdogs]

I know we're pretty much at the end of the season and the boys are tiring, but can someone correct me if i'm WRONG! does elliott know how to use his bench properly!!! He has 4 forwards sitting on the bench, while the ones out there are running around struggling (or from what i see) they look like they are, and he lets them carry on while the other team are making changes and scoring tries. in the last few weeks there have been potentially great starts but we seem to be falling off come half way through each half. if you look at the when the other teams are scoring their tries, its always around 25 to go. i think guys like Thommo and crossy should definately be off by then and bring on the fresh legs like Williams when their forwards are tiring. our big guys are just being targeted by then and opposition are getting through. williams never got on till 10 mins left in the 1st, and by then Webb was on and rauhihi was getting ready to come back. its not our players faults for being tired its bloody elliot fault for not soing something about it!!!!did anyone see when toots came off in the second cos it seemed early, maybe he hadn't fully recovered from his injury, should have had a rest and used ale, saw him dressed before the game but what happened!!!

 

[nickraider]

Disagree boys. I thought we really gave it a go tonight and if not for f**kwit Archer and his video ref team (hence the Ty Williams try) we would have won. I thought we gave everything and were dead set unlucky to lose. The boys were fired up and gave it their all and Elliott deserves a lot of the credit for getting them up for this one. The Cowboys were lucky and will not get past week one in the semis. On ya boys for trying and having a massive dig! Coulda folded like those sh*tehead bulldogs!!!!

Proud to be a Raiders fan!!!

 

[Purtell The Turtle]

Proud to be a Raiders fan!!!

So am i, so am i.

 

[legend]

Funnily enough, if we beat Parra and Manly and Manly don't win another game, we are still a slim chance of finishing eighth as are the Panthers, Roosters and Dogs although the Dogs play the Roosters and Panthers in their last two games so they may all cancel each other out.

As of tomorrow, seven of the eight teams will be decided unless the Sharks/Manly game finishes as a draw leaving only the Dogs as the slimmest of chances and even then their for and against would pretty much count them out.

 

[SOULS 04]

yeh i was happier tonight than i have been the last 2 weeks.... we were more consistant for the whole game rather than just one half.

ah well season is over and ive got 2 more games to get too

 

[Raider_69]

man im totally in love with carney
you are an icon man!

 

[aussies1st]

Is he your new Ben Cross

 

[jed]

man im totally in love with carney

Don't come on too strong, start with chocolates, don't send roses on the first date.

 

[always a raider]

they tried hard last night, we really should of won it, that ty williams try really turned the momentum around. wtf is it with chris ward!

 

[eelsta]

extremely unlucky imo, you can certaintly be proud of the boys last night

 

[jed]

extremely unlucky imo, you can certaintly be proud of the boys last night

we're "extremely unlucky" too often though, we should be able to put away teams without luck being a factor

 

[aussies1st]

We could be in the top 4 if we had won those close games we keep on losing.

 

[Lego_Man]

We could be in the top 4 if we had won those close games we keep on losing.

So could half a dozen other teams.

 

[aussies1st]

Well unlike us they aren't giving games away apart from the Warriors.

 

[thickos]

Damn I don't know whether to laugh or cry. But I am proud, it was a top effort.

I'm not going to pan Elliott for his team selection as he only had 19 guys to choose from, the team picks itself. An incredible amount of courage shown by the lot of them. Carney looked good, Smithy was sensational, Williams added a lot of punch when he was on... it was an overall pretty good team effort. Bad decisions at key times cost us but we kept on swinging to the bitter end.

The Sun Herald said that Jason Smith made an emotional post match address to the team saying he's "never been prouder of his team-mates than he has been tonight and all season".

It sure is a case of shoulda, woulda, coulda, didn't, season 2005... but where oh where was this attack in the second half in the past two weeks.