It’s now or never for the bottom five

By crikey i was loading the cannon after reading that first sentence on the bunnies but you balanced it out with logic and then hope which we ultimately delivered on last night... boom we beat the real enemy. Always a touch extra special giving it to Manly... particularly on a wet track without Reynolds!! The real difference this year has been young Murray starting at lock for us. Once Surgess gets his match fitness up those few extra tackles he wont have to make each game allows him a bit more gas to become the impact leader we all need, with and without the ball. Murray is one of those De Belin, Jturbo Gallen type locks who just smash themselves for 80 minutes tightening up the middle and ruck which allows us to concentrate on our edge defense which was awesome last night. Once Musgrave comes back in or even if young Tatola keeps impressing along with the resurgence of the Burgess Twins, Sammy will switch to the 11 edge slot and sutto will come into it off the bench with fresh legs. That along with getting Reynolds back, Inglis to FB, Hymel hunt to centre (is too good a player not to be starting) will be when you see what we are really capable of. Johnstone and Inglis will swap roles throughout matches (hunt to wing, GI to centre) to really keep things fresh. Bring it on SSTID.

I am late to this party, but how good is it?? Two of the Roar's League heavyweights going head-to-head! Love it. Tim, I agree with you in general that the refs should be better, and that the problem starts at the top. The refs should be backed to the hilt, not hung out to dry. They should be applauded for making tough decisions, not rewarded for wimping out of making tough decisions. I think the refs boss should come and give the public review at the end of each round, looking at contentious decisions. Some, like Friday night's obstruction in the Doggies first try and the penalty to the Broncs in golden point they'll have to own up for as being incorrect. But they should highlight all the many calls they get right as well, as well as backing them for calling lots of penalties, and using the sin-bin. However, TB has a point that your bias - conscious or sub-conscious - towards the Raiders does show through at times. Lastly, the squirrel grip on Rapana which has dominated the discussion. Based on precedent, its not currently a sin-bin offence, but I reckon it should be. What a stupid tactic. Definitely suspension territory too. But, I cannot accept that it is sexual assault. The NRL footy field has a very different set of laws to the norm. If you hit / tackled people in public the way they do on a footy field, you'll have an assault conviction very quickly. But its part of the game in NRL. They are clearly different spheres. Grabbing and whacking genitalia occurs every single game during tackles. With a bit of luck, neither of you agree with me, and you continue arguing - its very entertaining!!

Each to their own I guess. Barry would be one of the first people on the Roar that I’d have a beer with.

I think Tim and The Barry make highly intelligent contributions to the Roar and could not imagine the site without them. I enjoy TB's limericks and TG's stats.

I find The Barry to be highly intelligent and very funny.

Gee I'd hate to be on a interstate bus going from Perth to Brisbane with Barry. He never shuts up. What's worse is he will take whatever you say and argue the opposite just to annoy the heck out of you because he thinks the other Roarers wait in anticipation to read whatever dribble comes out of his mouth. Also like most amateur comedians he thinks he's hilarious with his jokes and limericks. He's not. Seems to me he is obviously on the NRL's books and is being paid by the "word".

Most disappointing part of this is that despite your one eyed-ness and propensity to refs fault you’re one of my favourite rugby league journalists. A fact I’ve expressed many times in the past. It’s really disappointing after years of correspondence, discussion and at times robust (but always healthy and respectful) debate you’ve chosen to make it personal with statements like me condoning sexual assault because I didn’t jump on your refs fault bandwagon. It’s a pretty low blow and I would have thought despite a couple of jokey hashtags I deserve better than that. Anyway good luck to the Raiders if for no other reason than to avoid another farken refs fault article next week!!

Nice article Tim. Can I suggest that this year, the first few rounds are too much out of the ordinary to read accurately. True, 0 - 3 will be a struggle but the Cows are only 1-3 and they are most people's premiership favourite. 0-3 is also only two wins behind last year's premiers, who will struggle to repeat that dominant result. I respect your stats of the last 40 years and NRL history, however, it's also the first time in forever that the last four of one year all win their first up games the next year. By round 2 only 1 team from the top 8 in 2017 is in the top 5. 2018 is not going to be a 'normal' year.

Why don’t you try the easy bit: When was the last time someone got marched for a squirrel grip? Sam Burgess didn’t. So In that context explain again why Proctor should have been sent off and how that cost the Raiders the game? Crickets... #refsfaultraiders

What do you think is going to happen? You write big long diatribes about me and I’m going to roll over and thank you for it... Typical response though...you don’t actually reply to anything.

How the hell do you get #metoo into a football article? Oh well, go talk to Hoppa's victims.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cm2YyVZBL8U

...do you honestly believe that an article counting penalties and what time they occurred gives you the right to refs fault your way out of every Raiders loss. Don't repackage your Soliola article. Yes you conceded he should have been sent off...you could hardly deny it...but that article was 100% in defence of Soliola and how he shouldn't be judged too harshly for one of the latest, highest, cheapest, grubbiest tackles in recent memory. I shouldn't be amazed that you defend a Raiders player for knocking an opponent into next week but then you're outraged at an opponent squeezing the bollocks of a Raider without injury. It's par for the course... If I was going to take your low approach I'd ask "so you support coward punches and violent assault do you Tim? Because that's what it is when you hit someone in the head from behind. You're a Neanderthal. Glad you don't live in my neighbourhood. Why don't you go and hang out in Kings Cross with your coward punch king hit mates?" But I wouldn't do that...I'm above that sort of thing...

Hey Tim , The stats say no team has conceded 50 points and won the title but I wonder if any team has scored 50 points and won the spoon? It wouldn't surprise me if it has happened.

It wasn't that good the first time mate. Certainly didn't bear repeating. My response has been held up by the mods so I'll try a scaled down version. It's beyond pathetic that you're trying to imply that I somehow condone sexual assault all because I didn't jump on your "it cost the Raiders the game" bandwagon. It's grubby. You really need to have a good hard look at yourself and why you'd do that to someone, particularly before you start banging on about throwing spanners. For the record I think Proctor should have been suspended. It shouldn't happen on the football field. But it does. It's just not the crime of the century you want it to be. If you genuinely think a sexual assault occurred why was your concern limited to why Proctor didn't get sent off and why it cost the Raiders the game? I think that's a worse response than making jokes about someone having their wheels grabbed. You're a hypocrite. Go back to your brilliant, insightful statistical analyses of games. They were original and exceptional. This constant "we wuz robbed" diatribe every time the Raiders get beat is destroying your credibility. It's become a laughing stock. Finally - you keep banging on about Proctor being sent off. But Burgess wasn't. Or sinbinned. Can you give one example of a player being sent off for this sort of thing? There isn't one. It's yet another immediately clear, tangible example where the Raiders have been treated exactly the same as every other club but you find a way to call foul and continue your "we wuz robbed" narrative.

Theres almost no point responding because you don’t answer anything directly. I find your weak attempts to imply that I somehow condone sexual assault to be pathetic and immature. Of course I don’t. And I think Proctor should have been suspended. But you’re carrying on like a petulant child with all this “it cost us the game” BS. It shouldn’t happen on the field. But it does. It’s not the big deal you’re making of it. You didn’t make any mention of sexual assault initially. It was all about “we wuz robbed”. When you got called on that you started this childish “oh so you’re in favour of sexual assault, are you?” My 11 year old maintains a higher standard of debate. Answer this: Why is it if you genuinely believe a sexual assault occurred, your one and only concern was that it cost the Raiders two points? That’s been your stance multiple times. It seems a weird attitude for someone so far up on their high horse... Sam Burgess didn’t get sent off or sinbinned when he squirrelled Chambers. The refs handled Proctors offence in line with that. But the Raiders got ripped off because he didn’t get sent off. Response? Throwing spanners from the cheap seats? How condescending. I forgot you’ve been nominated for a Walkley for your 27 part expose entitled “how the NRL dudded the Raiders this week” You continually have pot shots at the refs and the NRL. To the point of demanding the NRL hold a press conference to address an internet cartoon. Spanner! ? How can you of all people accuse anyone of throwing spanners. It’s all you do. You’ll never be happy because while ever the Raiders are losing there will always be a way to blame the refs or the rules or NRL HQ. Every team gets dud decisions. Everyone can choose their response. And yours is always “we wuz robbed” It’s an attitude “dude”. Because you have that attitude nothing will ever fix it for you. There will always be decisions that go against you regardless of the system. And when they do you say “that cost us the game. The NRL doesn’t know what they’re doing. It’s rigged. The refs are biased.” The Raiders are playing like absolute plonkers but all you do is lay blame with the refs. It’s just poor sportsmanship. I remember when you used to write brilliant, fascinating articles loaded with insightful statistical analysis. You need to get back to that and let go of the pettiness, anger and victim mentality.