Round 18: RAIDERS vs TITANS (2023)

Always hard to justify changing a winning team, but I’m looking forward to seeing how Jimmy L picks his bench. With Tino back somebody misses out and Randall was much better than Clarke against the Broncs. Let’s see if he has the guts Holbrook didn’t.

Should come down to a simple question in my mind - which player is better defensively. We don’t need our bench middle creating opportunities, we score plenty of points.

Anybody know if Haas, Mikaele are available for selection?
 
Tino in for Clarke and Hass in for Isaac so we can move Stimson to the middle rotation half way during the match. Tho Isaac had his best ever match for us so maybe keep him in, i just still dont know about Stimson playing 80.
 
Tino in for Clarke and Hass in for Isaac so we can move Stimson to the middle rotation half way during the match. Tho Isaac had his best ever match for us so maybe keep him in, i just still dont know about Stimson playing 80.
I like Stimson a lot for the work he puts in. He needs to be rotated so he's not as gassed as much.
 
Randall moved out to the second row after a bit of a stint in the middle, I thought Randall was great out there and think he's more solid then Haas right now while covering a bunch of spots. I'd just give Randall more minutes but I liked what we did and never really thought of switching him with Stimson.

It's interesting watching them play during the period they're on, Stimson is walking the wing the whole time and Randall is doing all the runs and Iszac and Randall are sticking by Stimson in defence.
It seems like some very good coaching and planned.

I think we'll just see the brothers swap despite Iszac having his best game by a bit in first grade, Maybe Clark but he also had probably his best game this year.
 
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Good evening
Make no mistake this is a Mini GF.
Back up an away win in Drongoes Land with an away win in the cold of Canberra and we are back in the integrity stakes and finals hunt for 2023.
So Jimmy needs to get the needles out, go into camp early and we must target this game as a whatever it takes do or die special.
Let’s friggin go!!!!
Re Holbrook-sorry to see him go, I have great respect for him but we need a heavy hitter like Des to call out the NswRL referees and the Sydney/Brisbane scum media who think our place is at the bottom.

See you post game brethren.

Mini GF this week. Don’t lose.
 
No Papalli should even things up through the middle.

Looks like Croker ok after going off for HIA.

Probably mentioned in the other thread but did Foz just get a breather or is he injured?
 
No Papalli should even things up through the middle.

Looks like Croker ok after going off for HIA.

Probably mentioned in the other thread but did Foz just get a breather or is he injured?

It looks like JC coming on for Foran might just be the rotation at this stage. Total guess
 
I like that Randall's been kept on the bench but surely Jimmy moves Clark out for Iszaac or Haas. A bench of JC, Clark and Randall is way too small; despite doing well last week.
 
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Shame to see little to no changes
 
There were a tonne of changes in our interchange and how we played though that made a big difference, Haas isn't needed when Randall is going to be playing there + Canberra are running Starling and Cotric. It'd be tough to change anyone when we just beat 1st place.

The big in for me is Alick... He might actually get a shot at some point which would be cool.
 
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I hope someone is pulling AKP aside at training and going through some kicking drills with him. What he tried on the weekend was atrocious. But, it’s a skill that can be learnt. And MUST be learnt.
 
Lenihan looks like he's drinking from the Holbrook selection Kool-Aid still.

Does he not have his own ideas on his best 17? Hopefully he proves to be more than just a Holbrook lackey but this team list makes me wonder.

- - - Updated - - -

I hope someone is pulling AKP aside at training and going through some kicking drills with him. What he tried on the weekend was atrocious. But, it’s a skill that can be learnt. And MUST be learnt.

Lofi couldn't kick a passed-out drunk sleeping on a kerb.
 
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Interesting selections. Agree with Cow on the inclusion of Alick in the Reserves. I hope he gets a shot soon.

I think Jimmy isn't under much pressure so as the man in charge, he can give a few of them enough rope to hang themselves by picking them following an unusually non-diabolical performance. He might have completely different ideas but this is a way to expedite the process. For example, if he likes Alick more than Haas and Clark fails this week, Alick might get the jump.

The big query which would answer a lot of questions in the back 5 is: is Schoupp better on the left? If Kelly doesn't play well, we might find out. Schoupp was great on the weekend but surely Jojo can't be too far off coming back into the side.

If we lose and don't play well and Jimmy picks the same team again, then we can start second-guessing him but too early at this point IMO.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Des meets with Jimmy.
 
Mikaele is unavailable, as is Vuna. So not to burst the Alick bubble, but that's prob the only reason he's named - there is no one else available that is an edge or middle to round out the extended squad.
 
Mikaele is unavailable, as is Vuna. So not to burst the Alick bubble, but that's prob the only reason he's named - there is no one else available that is an edge or middle to round out the extended squad.

Vuna is Michael Horrenderson level meh. I'd much rather the unknown guy in Alick be given a shot than him.
 
Vuna is Michael Horrenderson level meh. I'd much rather the unknown guy in Alick be given a shot than him.

Unknown at NRL level but you can get a fair idea by observing them at Qcup level and training simulations

Id love Alick to be given a go - but his strengths are tied to being an edge backrower at the moment think
 
We're also clearly not re-signing Alick so there's no real point in playing him at the end of the day as harsh as it is. I know everyone's a bit off Clark but he's signed till the end of 25 and had his best game all year. Against Broncos he had 22 tackles and 1 miss with the best efficiency (him and Iszac basically the same) in the team along with 9 hit ups for 77m in 41 mins and I thought his passing game was good.

The Tigers game he got 17 mins, I don't know if something was going on with Holbrook and Clark but to me it looked like he was being told to play like Liu where that doesn't suit his game and Jimmy might have simplified a lot of it and given him some belief. We still need to see way more but if Clark can keep producing those type of performances I think he's more then OK being in the 17.
 
I suppose an interim coach isn't going to do too much to rock the boat.

If it was me it'd be like Dale and Brennan from Step brothers. "We're here to **** **** up"
 
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