StormFans.club

I don't always agree with the previews, but I agree with this one - this game is going to be won up front. I mean most games are, but this one in particular. Our key to stopping the Raiders, is stopping Papalii and Tapine. Between them they had 12 Tackle Breaks and Papalii's sneaky offload caused the Roosters a world of hurt last week. On the flip side, we need NAS and Tino to be causing the Raiders headaches with much of the same. Some strong runs, breaking tackles, finding their front for a quick play the ball and considered offloads.

Elliott Whitehead missed 9 tackles last week vs the Roosters and will likely be a target this week. Rapana has missed 14 in the first two Finals games.

The last few times we've played the Raiders they really haven't done anything special in attack, but their defence has been great and has really frustrated our clunky attack, particularly when in striking distance of the try line. Having the week off won't help our timing or combinations in attack, so I'm expecting a fairly slow, frustrating start from us where we'll just have to hang on as much as we can for the first 20 minutes or so.

The Raiders typically are gifted plenty of set restarts while somehow avoiding conceding these even when giving the ref plenty of reason to award them to the opposition, and we all know we seem to get the raw end of the deal when it comes to set restarts (aside from the few obligatory set restarts on tackle one), so our discipline is the key against the Raiders as far as I'm concerned.

We beat the Raiders when they're forced to create something in attack and instead start making errors, otherwise they'll just sit back and wait for us to make mistakes and they'll capitalise on the back of repeat sets and/or good field position. Every time we've lost to the Raiders in recent seasons it's been because of our own mistakes and missed opportunities (which hasn't allowed us to overcome the inevitably poor/one-sided refereeing), not because of the Raiders' scintillating football.

Oh yeah, and not allowing a Papalii crash-play try under the posts would certainly go a long way in this one!

yourhero wrote: ↑Tue Oct 13, 2020 8:40 am I don't always agree with the previews, but I agree with this one - this game is going to be won up front. I mean most games are, but this one in particular. Our key to stopping the Raiders, is stopping Papalii and Tapine. Between them they had 12 Tackle Breaks and Papalii's sneaky offload caused the Roosters a world of hurt last week. On the flip side, we need NAS and Tino to be causing the Raiders headaches with much of the same. Some strong runs, breaking tackles, finding their front for a quick play the ball and considered offloads.

Elliott Whitehead missed 9 tackles last week vs the Roosters and will likely be a target this week. Rapana has missed 14 in the first two Finals games.

Absolutely true. They’re a somewhat unusual team in the way that their back-rowers seem to do more improvising in attack.

They’re a big athletic team too. It’s almost like they’re entirely made up of fast offloading centres and back-rowers.

I think the key to beating them will be not only smacking them up front but doing what was done against the Eels and using the ball a bit to move them around.

I agree with you insomniac, the key is stopping their forwards. I don't rate their backs too much.

1. Ryan Papenhuyzen
2. Suliasi Vunivalu
3. Brenko Lee
4. Justin Olam
5. Josh Addo-Carr
6. Cameron Munster
7. Jahrome Hughes
8. Jesse Bromwich
9. Cameron Smith (c)
10. Christian Welch
11. Felise Kaufusi
12. Kenneath Bromwich
13. Nelson Asofa-Solomona

14. Brandon Smith
15. Tino Faasuamaleaui
16. Tom Eisenhuth
17. Nicho Hynes

18. Dale Finucane
19. Paul Momirovski
20. Ryley Jacks
21. Chris Lewis

Yourhero beat me to it. Tom Eisenhuth back on the bench and Dale Finucane in extended squad.

1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad
2. Semi Valemei
3. Jarrod Croker
4. Jordan Rapana
5. Nick Cotric
6. Jack Wighton
7. George Williams
8. Josh Papalii
9. Tom Starling
10. Iosia Soliola
11. John Bateman
12. Elliott Whitehead
13. Joseph Tapine

14. Siliva Havili
15. Dunamis Lui
16. Hudson Young
17. Corey Harawira-Naera

18. Sam Williams
19. Matthew Timoko
20. Ryan Sutton
21. Michael Oldfield

Match officials... wait for it
Referee Ashley Klein
Senior Review Official Jared Maxwell
Touch judges Chris Butler and Peter Gough

Scooter wrote: ↑Tue Oct 13, 2020 4:15 pm Match officials... wait for it
Referee Ashley Klein

Oh get f*cked, seriously.

Lol ffs

Klein gets another chance to cheat

How do we always get the same ref? Actually watching a game last week, my fiance who rarely watches league commented: "its always the same guy reffing" lol

yourhero wrote: ↑Tue Oct 13, 2020 4:10 pm13. Dale Finucane

14. Brandon Smith
15. Tino Faasuamaleaui
16. Nelson Asofa-Solomona
17. Nicho Hynes / Tom Eisenhuth

Man, if Finucane was completely healthy and NAS moved back to the bench, that is as good of a bench that you will ever see in the NRL. What impact from the pine!

Yeah bench looks strong, I reckon we'll have more legs than them in the end.

If Funucane was healthy, Jesse would be our worst middle forward and that would be pretty incredible.