Well that result was never outside the realms of possibility. The Raiders can blow anyone away at Canberra Stadium if they get in the mood and the other team can't handle the momentum.
The funny thing about this particular hiding is that I don't believe we got particularly dominated in the forwards, metres-wise anyway. We actually didn't have that much trouble getting out of our end, and any time the Raiders tried to hit it up one off the ruck we handled it ok. It was on the fringes that they absolutely killed us. Ferguson, Papalii and Milford when he came on found it very easy to make breaks once the ball got a couple of passes wide.
Big picture, I think it's silly to slit wrists so early even though the response in here to that performance is predictably furious and rightly so. We're still in 5th spot. No Mullen, Scott, Smith and Buderus isn't an excuse for a performance like that but it is a reason for a) our structure breaking down, particularly in the second half and b) our fringe defence falling apart.
Our goal during these few weeks should always have been to get through this difficult period without too much damage. We should have won last week sure but Raiders in Canberra is always very difficult. Talking about missing the top 8 and all that is just rubbish, so much water to go under the bridge.
