Realistically speaking.....

[Jake the snake]

Everyone's happy that we beat the Raiders and it does feel good. And I think everyone is excited because we did with some future talent.

This may sound like a downer but we the next 2 weeks will show us were we really are compared to the top teams.
I dont mean to sound disrespectful but The Raiders were Pathetic. The Panthers and the Bulldogs will give us a work over. We still have problems in the forwards hopefully the return of FUI and Cayless will make a difference.

People should not have a false sense of hope as we may struggle over the next few weeks. The thing going in our favour is that we could at least improve by another 50% IMO. Our team can play much better then what we are seeing atm. Depending on injuries etc. It may take our team another 4-7 rounds before we are somewhere near the best we can play.

 

[strider]

well said - agree completely

apart from the first 15 mins, canberra were BAD and we were probably even on the better end of the refereeing ..... but our defense held strong which is a really good sign .... it was a confidence builder

 

[eloquentEEL]

the actual results will probably depend more on which Panthers team turns up and which Bulldogs team turns up, rather than how we go. as long as we continue improving a little bit each week, i'll be happy as a continued improvement in our performance is more important than the actual results at this end of the season.

 

[lucablight]

If we play the way we did against the Raiders I don't think we'll struggle at all. I thought part of the reason the Raiders played so badly is because we defended so well. I think we are in with a huge chance to beat the Panthers.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

Our defense was great, Canterbury & Penrith ( at home) are always hard games.

 

[TheParraboy]

One thing no one has mentioned is wet weather football

Defence is always easier in wet footy, so the jury is still out there on that IMO.

Canberra are expected to get the spoon, they will go close to it. On a given day they will win a game, but it wont be enough to get near the top 8 IMO

They were atrocious against us, so many unforced errors, a top 4-6 side wont give those away as easily.

 

[Eelectrica]

I agree the Panthers will be a better test as will the dogs, but yesterday the Panthers didn't look much better than the Raiders.
Although we know the Panthers are better than what they showed and will be looking to bounce back.

 

[Stagger eel]

Jake, that's very true...however the team will go into the oozing confidence and you just can't buy confidence, you have to earn it and although the Raiders were disgraceful, our boys including the younguns, did well to combat it.

I think they're in with a show against the Penny's

 

[Kornstar]

They played what was in front of them, we beat them well and we improved on last week. We have improved every week, so for the first time this year i am pretty confident we have a shot against Penrith. Can't gaurantee we will win but i have alot more hope than i have had for the first 4 rounds so i see that as a positive, 2 wins in a row is 2 wins in a row......

The way i also look at it is, Melbourne were worse than Canberra on Saturday and still won, do you think they are getting carried away with the win? I doubt it, but they would be confident that they know they can win even when they are not on their game, why can't we think that way??

I don't think we should be singing from the roof tops about the last 2 weeks, however i do believe that we should be gaining confidence with the fact that we have improved out of sight since round 1

 

[Perrymatta]

One thing no one has mentioned is wet weather football

Defence is always easier in wet footy, so the jury is still out there on that IMO.

Tell that to the Raiders...

 

[eel4life]

Just thinking about it, maybe this was what Hag's had planed for this year, change up the team against teams he knows the younger guys will play well in.

Canberra is such a team, due to the age of their players, it is easier to bring a younger guy in. Raiders at home are going to be hard to play against and they will win away from home.

Ball control is one of the keys to win a match, if you drop that much ball then the other teams will punish you. we all know that Raiders did that on sat night thats why we were able to get over them.

Green, Inu were great on saturday, they are smart young footballers and this year they are getting better with the new ideas at the club, this will show how they can back up against a more experienced team.

If we do all the little things right this friday, hold the ball, good kick chase, defend well then we will be a chance to beat anyone.

If MoiMoi, Cayless come back in the team we will have the go forward that we need.