Rnd1: Raiders v Knights

[Bay56]

Hopefully the uplifting news of TC's signature attached to Raiders letterhead will be the missing factor that has eluded us at away games in the past.

An away victory might reduce those odds of the Wooden spoon ... i suspect that come September the team we are playing tonight will be lowering the wooden spoon.

Obviously not a must win game but certainly one that will give the club a boost ... and with the current form of the Bumbies (having lost their second game at home last night and third for the season) a chance for the club to regain some of those bandwagon supporters ... this year will obviously see that gap in avg crowd number reduced.

GO THE RAIDERS !!!

 

[Raider_69]

We should win this game, im fired up big time, if the players are half as fired up as the fans, there will be no concerns over us not giving it a bloody good go tonight

as you said not a must win by any means but its a should win, and would be a great start to the season not only for the fact of kicking the season of with a W in the column but to give the boys some confidence about winning on the road.

 

[Bicey_18]

I dont see how its a should win for Canberra? They have a woeful away record.. I think have lost their last 7 or 8 on the road? The forward battle wont be as easy as most of you think.. last year with basically the same pack of forwards at Newcastle you didnt run over the top of us.. thats with Perry going off in the first 5 minutes. Our forwards will hold their own giving the likes of Mullen and Gidley room to do their magic.. No games this year will be a "should" win.

 

[Raider_69]

I disagree
your pack is rubbish, it lacks size and agression, and impact
you're halves are good potentially but from what ive seen both crack under pressure and Dureau is suspect defensively, our halves are far more developed (Carney > Mullen and Campese > Dureau) and with Campo there, defensively sound
the backs are not all that potent with exception of Giddley and leak alot of points... Monaghan's addition will sort out one side of our sh*tty outside back defence, but the other is still fair game, whilst both of you're fringes are fair game.

Giddley and Paterson are the only real worrys imo... assuming we dominate the forward battle like we should, Buderus and Mullen will be ineffective behind a well beaten pack... Paterson and Giddley have the ability to create something from nothing. We'll have to watch them very closely

So in concludsion we should win this game, thats not to say we just have to turn up and we will, we've got to turn up, execute our game and we'll be fine... but as you do state our away record is not good, for what ever reason we seem to struggle to execute away from bruce, if that happens tonight we will lose, the knights have enough talent to make us pay if we dont play well enough

 

[Bay56]

I dont see how its a should win for Canberra? They have a woeful away record.. I think have lost their last 7 or 8 on the road? The forward battle wont be as easy as most of you think.. last year with basically the same pack of forwards at Newcastle you didnt run over the top of us.. thats with Perry going off in the first 5 minutes. Our forwards will hold their own giving the likes of Mullen and Gidley room to do their magic.. No games this year will be a "should" win.

Cant disagree with you there but things may (need to) change with respect to that stat.

Imo this game will be won on possession ... the team that has the most will get over the line in a close contest ...

... and that is where we may be at a disadvantage ... an inexperienced ref with 8 FG games experience can be easily influenced by the local Newcastle crowd ... if we compound that with dropped ball we will be on the wrong end of 60-40% and that is all you need in todays game.

I'm hopeful without being confident.

 

[Bay56]

Btw I've heard that the Bumbies might be playing one of their home games at Telstra Dome next season ... they have an affiliation with the Victorian RU.

The Victorian Bumbies ??? ... now I might follow that side.

 

[Raider_69]

The sooner those pricks f**k off to melbourne the better
VIC Brumbies has a ring to it... and that can only mean good news for the raiders

 

[Apey]

7 hours to go and may the best team win rather than a dudd ref call. (Hopefully the Knights of course)

Can't f**king wait

 

[Mullins_y2k]

Like all of you I'm sooo pumped for this game!! BUT! i'v got a party and have been told that the house doesn't have foxtel!! im gutted! lol but i have to show cos im going with my new GF!

 

[Bay56]

Like all of you I'm sooo pumped for this game!! BUT! i'v got a party and have been told that the house doesn't have foxtel!! im gutted! lol but i have to show cos im going with my new GF!

GF + FOOTBALL = CONFLICT

... not a good equation Mullos

I once had an equation that read ...

DIRECTORS 50TH BDAY + LAST GAME AT BRUCE FOR THE SEASON = CONFLICT

 

[Bay56]

Hopefuly Tilse will step up tonight ... I can remember his best game last season was against his former club ...

... considering that we basically have the same personal as last season a number of things have to improve for us to be a force in 2008 ... and one of them is Tilse ... this lump of a man has to become more dominant, especially in attack, bend the line, or least have a good off-load that will enable our forward pack to dominate that 10% over season 2007.

 

[skeepe]

7 hours to go and may the best team win rather than a dudd ref call. (Hopefully the Knights of course)

Can't f**king wait

We know all about dud ref calls with the Gidley quarterback impression in 06 and the ridiculous No Try to Alan Tongue last year.

 

[dolphinboy]

The sooner those pricks f**k off to melbourne the better
VIC Brumbies has a ring to it... and that can only mean good news for the raiders

We dont f**king want the clowns

Better option than the Reds I guess :lol:

 

[dolphinboy]

On topic we will be buoyant from yesterday and if we filter that in to our game we should go very nicely indeed.

 

[Bay56]

Hopefully the ref also has that buoyant feeling

 

[edabomb]

Good work getting this thread up and running Bay. I'm hoping for the perfect birthday present tonight, and then after she's gone I'd like to see the Raiders win

 

[Timbo]

Hopefully the Raiders will step up and give me a birthday present.

Even more hopefully the pub I'm going to will show this game instead of Sharks/Eagles...

 

[edabomb]

Timbo, bring back the MacGill avatar!!! I'm staying in for this one, too old to bother drinking these days :L

 

[Bay56]

Good work getting this thread up and running Bay. I'm hoping for the perfect birthday present tonight, and then after she's gone I'd like to see the Raiders win

Happy Bday ed .... maybe you can time both events at the same time ... will take a bit of effort on your part to last the 80 mins

 

[Timbo]

I'd forgotten you and I were similarly b'dayed Ed.

Last year my present was two tickets on halfway at Brookie for round 1...

Hopefully it's a better one than last year!