Canberra Raiders vs Penrith Panthers: NRL live scores, blog

Raiders got 4 tries off 4 dubious penalties. 4 marches up the field. Had no right to the field position they held after half time. Panthers did it on their own albeit through some paper-thin defence at times.

Come on Raider !! All replays showed Edwards foot never touched the line and the Mansour run was from a knock back that was obvious to all but some frustrated Raiders eyes ! Sure the refereeing in the ruck was ordinary, as it is every week, but if anyone was disadvantaged it was Penrith and the resultant 8-3 penalty count to the Raiders kept them in the game ! Booing home crowds can be rather deceptive in relation to the reality of happenings on the field.

This result makes no difference to the finals, the Panthers won't do nothing and will lose their first finals game, while the Raiders are out it, no matter what. The Raiders have been an underperforming rabble all year and making a go of it in the last few weeks is, too little too late!!!

Don't forget how the game panned out. The Panthers were continually offside in defence, they held the Raiders down, so much so that you could see it was an obvious tactic but nothing was done about these tactics by the match officials. No team can play attacking, fast open football when this happens. For the first 25 minutes the Raiders had the ball for two sets from memory. Obviously at the game it looked even worse, I'm not condoning the disgusting act of spitting at the Ref, but the crowd let the Ref's know what they thought at half time. Obviously during the break the Ref's interpretation changed as the penalties flowed in the second half & the Raiders were back in the game. However for the Raiders to ever do well in any finals series they have to be able to counteract the standing offside & wrestling tactics, because all teams, bar the Bronco's rely on this during finals. You watch the Storm 'choke' the opposition to death come the finals. That is what the continually successful team do. The Raiders have a very good, well balanced team. Ricky Stuart has to show us that he can manage that great team next year. I don't care if we don't win every game. I do care that they go out & have a red hot go, utilising all the resources available. Kurt Baptise being a case in point.

Yeah - credit to the Panthers they were very strong today. Mansour had a picnic - the bloke is really hard to pull down - and I thought their halves were very good. Couldn't believe the Raiders just stood back and watched them today - not enough intensity in defence. Should have come out and smashed them instead of ball watching. You'd think the Raiders will come out of the blocks all guns blazing next year after such as a disappointing season.

It's Geoff Taree Raider. I actually live about 4 minutes drive from Bruce Stadium. Yeah good to see Jack have a good game. It was poor young Nick Cotric who had a case of the dropsies today. Only bad game I've seen him play this year. I think Dave's gone unfortunately. You'd think the Raiders could offer him a 2 year deal on decent money just to keep him here. He's become a crowd favourite. I thought he was the best of our forwards today - although Shannon Boyd was pretty good.

Future looks bright for the Raiders if their halves can be more creative with their end of set plays. They'll be written off in 2018 so no pressure to perform like this year. Hats off to Penrith...they will cause an upset or two in September.

Agree on Baptiste - should have played the last 25 minutes. The bloke injects so much energy when he comes on. At least Dave Taylor has been getting more game time. Would love to see Dave in green again next year. Apparently the Raiders had a 67% completion rate to the Panthers 87%. Explains a lot. Yet another close game goes down the gurgler.

Bruce, I always enjoy your comments. Me too about Wighton. I have waited 18 months for him to come good. I didn't think he could but he has. Go Jack. The Raiders need Dave Taylor bad, real bad. Sign the man up. Every game he has played he has been great, running hard offloading when he can. None of the old trying to be the ball playing 130kg half back. SIGN HIM UP.

Sham you are spot on. The Panthers did however exploit the ruck by holding down the attacking players for an eternity. They had the ball for the majority of the first 25 minutes. The game officials were very ordinary, the linesman didn't see the Panthers fullback put his foot out. I was unsure at the time, but the players reaction showed that he was out & so did the replay. On the line is out. Mansour picking the ball up offside & running through the Raiders, who knew that it was a knock on was disappointing, especially when the Panthers scored on the next play. But that's the way the game goes, the second half the Ref's penalised Penrith as they should have in the first half. Jack Wighton, what a player. I have been bagging Jack for the past 18 months, today he came good. Lets hope he can back it up for the next 4 years. I admire the way the Panthers got the job done. Ricky has to take responsibility for the overall performance of the team. Baptise has to be utilised more. He is the type of player that every team would have. GIVE HIM MORE GAME TIME. How the Raiders haven't resigned Dave Taylor is beyond me. Maybe next year.

Just got back from the match. Great contest. The Raiders had their chances in the last 15 minutes but couldn't get over the line. Needed the halves to conjure something but it appeared to be a lot of one man hit ups. I wish they'd use the grubber into the in goal a lot more than they do for a chance of a try or a repeat set. Panthers had 3 consecutive sets at around the 70 minute mark and finally found a chink in the armour right next to the posts. Weight of possession proved too much in the end. Credit to the Panthers - they were good today and this win will give them a lift coming into the finals. Disappointing to lose like that but you couldn't question the endeavour of the Raiders in the second half. For some reason the Raiders lacked intensity and line speed in the first half which cost them with a 10 point half time deficit. Plus Klein refused to enforce the 10 metres. You may as well just walk back 7 metres and stand there as he does nothing about it. I've been bagging Jack Wighton a fair bit in recent weeks but he had a great game this arvo as did Sezer and Dave Taylor. I'd love the Raiders to throw some cash at Dave and get him to stay for a couple more seasons. There is a remote chance of the Raiders getting in the 8 if they flog the Knights on Friday and get over the Storm away in the last round and the Cowboys lose to both the Tigers and the Broncos in the last 2 rounds. Big call but not beyond a possibility.

Raiders were ordinary today, the world to play for and at home as well. Run of penalties in the second half kept them in touch, ordinary defence at times and missed a lot of first up tackles, Crokers first half miss on Latu was the killer in the end, i think they will dish up the same stuff next season.

While I am disappointed by the result as it ends the season for the Raiders it was a great match. Both sides gave it everything. On that I do not watch free to air games but the fact that this was not the 4pm game is a joke. The Raiders made too many mistakes in the first half. They did extremely well to hit the lead but I felt they lost it when they had repeat sets on the Panther’s line while two points in front but seemed to just make hit ups. They had to attack with a bit more purpose as they had been doing earlier. The ruck was a bit of a joke - guys were holding the attacking side down for what seemed like an eternity. The Panthers will do well in the finals as they are very hard to defend against as they are always looking for offloads but despite this they don’t make many errors. They score what look like soft tries as the opposition can’t just smash the ball runner as there is always the danger of an offload when Penrith are attacking the opposition try line.

We can still unseat the Cowboys.

Congratulations to Penrith...their defence won it in the end. Raiders looking forward to 2018 now and have a few things to work on over the off-season.

That's it. The Raiders season is truly over.