Brisbane back Milford to regain confidence after tough week

That's a 1980s,can't be bothered to research, platitude swannie. Looking back at actual results across a wide range of sports shows close games are not much better than a coin toss.

I don't know, there is a fair whack of evidence that very good teams lose close games. Otherwise you're saying premiership teams loses should be completely outclassed floggings.

About 7 minutes to go, Hunt was 15 metres out right in front of the sticks, no pressure on him. Instead of taking an easy shot he stopped, propped, and put in an ordinary kick to the corner. Any half in the competition that doesn't either have the ability, common sense or confidence to pot a field goal in that position shouldn't be in first grade. I don't care about all the excuses. In a situation where 1 point was needed, the opportunity was there with 0 pressure on, its not good enough what unfolded. Against the cowboys it was the opposite. Milford taking pot-shots with heaps of pressure, when if he had just sent the pass out wide we score in the corner untouched. I know it's easy from the stands to judge, but its infuriating to watch. How can we be so bad at closing out close games!!

I have nothing but admiration for the Raiders, but they have yet to prove to me they are a contender this year. If they were real premiership material then they would have won those 2 close games(and don't forget the Broncos basically let them back into the game in the last 15 minutes). Also, if Hodgson goes down they are exposed and lack a real general among the forwards. Just don't think this will be their year. Maybe 2018 when they develop more consistency in their game. As for Swans, that's for another forum...

Don't bother Agent - for some reason this bloke is death riding the Raiders - you'd think a one point loss away to the Broncos and losing in extra time away to the Cowboys away in extra time were reasonable efforts - a long way to go and I still think the Raiders will be contending at the end of the season

The Raiders are in this comp up to their armpits and have the team to win it this year. How did the Swannies go today? What a bunch of pretenders. I'd say why don't you stick to AFL but you probably haven't got much to cheer about there.

The good sides find a way to win those close ones and make their own luck. Raiders did make some silly errors last night and they need to eradicate this from their game to challenge the front-runners. Storm would never cough up the ball half as many times as Canberra do. I suspect they should bounce back against Eels but Titans won't be pushovers away and this could be a danger game so they could well be 2-4 after 6 rounds and losing touch with the top 4. I think their best shot at a premiership will be next year after their young brigade have another season under their belts.

1 from 4 doesn't tell the full story. Two of those losses were away from home to the cowboys and broncos by a freak golden point try and a field goal respectively.

In Bennetts own words. "Nobody here wants to take the shot." As a Brisbane fan I feel we were spoiled by Lockyer in the field goal kicking department and now anyone who doesn't slot field goals on the run from 40+ metres out is crap so no one wants to take them.

If the Raiders had held on to the ball last night in the last ten minutes they probably would have won. The Broncos were just hanging on in the end and fell over the line. The relief on the Broncos faces was palpable. The Raiders also had chances to beat the Cowboys away in round one but a couple of decisions went against them and Thurston provided a freak kick to the win the game. The Raiders could easily be 3 out of 4 at the moment but instead are 1 out of 4. That's footy. The frustrating thing is this team is good enough to beat the Broncos and Cowboys away but just aren't quite nailing it. The Raiders defence has been much better this year apart from that second half against the Sharks. So some good signs but not quite getting the results. I guess its better for this to be happening at the start of the season than the last few rounds. The jury is still out on the Roosters. Many predicted they would be very competitive this year but they have only played one team of note in four rounds. But I guess all they need to do is defeat the teams they come up against. And the draw doesn't see them play a round 4 team from last year until round 12. That is a significant leg up. The Storm continue to impress. They are so professional and just get the job done. Mind you they were lucky last week to fall across the line against the Broncos. The Broncos, Raiders and Sharks have had the toughest draws so far so I wouldn't be reading too much into where they are all sitting on the ladder at the moment. And its far too early to be predicting top 2 and top 4 finishers. On Milford he must have been affected by all the talk during the week about his attitude to training. He had a shocker and quite frankly kept the Raiders in the game with some of his poor decisions and execution. I thought Austin had a great game and sat Milford on his backside a few times with crunching tackles. Maybe he was trying to make a statement. I'm still waiting for Sezer to step up - he had a great opportunity to take over the show when Hodgson went off injured but still didn't do enough to put the game away.

The long wait. Roosters R12 and Storm R20 and R26. Subject to the usual injury rider they will pretend their way into the top 4, though the sternum(?) injury to an important cog like Josh Hodgson may cause Ricky a little anxiety. Their #6 and #7 have not yet hit top gear.

1 win after 4 games spells pretenders to me. Raiders have a long way to go if they want to challenge the mighty Storm or Roosters. Storm look the team to beat at this stage and barring injuries should finish top 2.

And every year I tell myself it's a long season and they'll gel. More than half the the plays on the line are breaking down and the man with the ball stops, and switches. Everyone seems to want to run the same line. A player like Gillett switching the play himself with zero momentum just looks silly. Change the line you're running off you half. Easy to say it from the stands or my couch. But it's such a consistent mistake. How can they not be working on it.

Hard to gauge where he's at off last night's game for me, he copped a lot of traffic from some big bodies in defence all night and both sides attack was hampered by the wet (which didn't really show on TV but Brisbane got drenched all day) with errors all round. If anything I reckon Milf and hunt need to feed off each other more, they don't seem to be getting out of their own corridors as much this season

Kevin Walters. It's not that they've gone away from it, it's more that they're not quite getting the plays together atm and I think losing Walters to the origin coaching job is a major reason.

Their attack close to the line hasn't looked great for years, apart from some hodges magic. If you look back to 2015 when their attack was lighting up the comp it was because their attacking plays were starting from their own 40. Not sure why they've gone away from that

Or anyone for that matter just to take the pressure off and make the opposition have a think about it. Half the team should be able to bump it over from 20m in front.

Hunt's confidence seems to really feed off his defense. And that was certainly on last night. ... Well his defense annnnnd not dropping kick-offs I suppose.

I don't understand why they havn't been going to kahu for field goals already, he's got the best boot in the team by a long shot

JT has become the standout set of initials in the game of Rugby League. JT is to our code what RR is in appreciation of the motor vehicle. When Coach Brown of the Newcastle Knights did not re-sign Joseph Tapine for a fair and reasonable $400K I started to have grave doubts about the recruiting protocols of his club. This JT is something special. Last night we witnessed why .The Knights could have done with him at Penrith. Then at Suncorp we saw why the Vikings are masters in the art of high value recruitment when Joseph Tapine turned it on and made the Broncos aware that he was here to stay. The Vikings lost but Joseph's effort was memorable. The tide has turned, the longboats are coming to pillage and plunder. The Viking clap will now cheer in seven straight wins ( R5-11) and it may well be ten (10) before their first bye... or should that be buy.