Ricky Stuart says his Raiders were embarrassed by the Eels

And he did a heap of tackles ! But he still jolts and stiffles their attack overplaying his hand. He has a pack that should be steamrolling oppositions , but instead they never know when they will get the ball ?

The disappointing thing is you could see what Sticky should have done - he had Kris as 18th man but didn't have the foresight to have him on the bench. And you are right - the Raiders have time to fix things - but they need to get a bit more expansive and score some points - I don't think a low scoring grinding style is going to cut it with the pace of the game today

That was a rare poor game from Hudson - got a line break in the first half but unfortunately trod on the touch line - he's been terrific for the rest of the season - he's in my starting 13.

thats a ridiculous take on Hudson Young. He's our only player consistently making line breaks for us this year. How is he too slow?? He's faster than Croker and Rapana LOL

Starling and Havili on the bench is bewildering. Pick 1 or the other, we don't need two players on the bench who can cover hooker. Our kicking game is awful and line speed in defence is very poor... still early in the season so hopefully sticky can fix it.

Whoa?!?! No ref blaming...ok, what have they done with the real Ricky Stewart? :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Taree Raiders, So much truth in your appraisal !! I remember back a few years ago when we had Sam Burgess & Hodgson who both cost England a chance to win a RL test series because of their perceived selfishness against NZ. Hodgson was the worst culprit. Wanted toDrive the Bus, Run the Showers, Markout the pitch, act as a

With that score-line, I thought the Brumbies were at home?

The Raiders’ second try came off the back of a great and perfectly judged Hodgson run...

Pretty well nailed it Albo

Hodgson needs to look at the tape and watch how Mahoney played as the 9 ! He serviced his forwards with control and accuracy all night, and when he occasionally ran he made something happen without any "headless chook" impersonations.

The Raiders outside backs are no value to this team. Rapana tries but is a shadow of himself and should be over at Catalans running off Jimmy. Simonsson, Croker & Scott offer nothing especially when they need the ball hit up off their line. I would swap the 4 of them out. As for Hudson Young, he had a shocker last night missing 4 tackles that led to 4 tries, but he should have been put over for 3 tries himself, if Hodgson used him appropriately rather than bypassing him, and he has been one of their best forwards this season. I would give him another chance. James needs to come back in and Papalii needs a shake up. Horsborough needs to be somewhere on the bench.

You could possibly carry Croker for his goalkicking and occasional try poaching from kicks, but he is an average defender , and he makes no ground off his own line when carries are required. And when Simonsson & Scott also make no ground either, the Raiders are spending way too much time in their own half. Opposition teams just need a big kick downtown and wait to get the ball back when the Raiders have to kick the ball back defensively. As we saw Moses last night and Cleary a couple of weeks back. If they get into the opposition half with some tackles, they then have the trouble of Hodgson confusing everyone out of dummy half wasting runners efforts , or Jack constantly going on his own or hoping Williams gets in a good kick into the in goal. They need a better back 5 that can chew out some yardage, Hodgson needs to play to instruction or be dropped, and Williams needs to run the attack. IMHO of course.

Still a bit hot and cold though. Lol

Definitely agree it’s better seeing results like this than how the first month panned out If the comp is divided to three tiers, we’re seeing results we didn’t necessarily expect within that tier but very few results where a lower team is beating a team from a higher tier Those are the ones I’d call genuine upsets...

I'm sure we have different definitions of upset, TB. Mine for example, includes Manly not allowing the Titans to score a point, while putting 36 on them or the Dragons going to the Eels house and giving them a touch up, then that same Eels side doing likewise to the Raiders at their place. After the first month of footy, I'd resigned myself to seeing cricket scores in at least 2 or 3 games a round. That teams are now competing, I think means more upsets of the TB variety can't be too far away.

There are some issue that can't continue to be ignored Harry - the spluttering attack, the unbalanced composition of the bench, Croker's lack of contribution etc. The Raiders still have a very good forward pack and potentially a decent spine but they can't continue to slide down the ladder. Some tough decisions need to be made. Kris, CHN and Horsburgh all need to be in the 17 for them to be competitive for mine and Wighton, Williams and Hodgson need to simplify what they are doing.

This season is still lacking upsets The last couple of rounds have been good that there have been a few unexpected results, but we’re still not really seeing upsets What I’ve labelled the “big 6” of Storm, Panthers, Roosters, Souths, Eels and Raiders have still only lost two games out of 22 against teams outside that group… the warriors beat the Raiders and the dragons beat the Eels The Cowboys, Broncos, Bulldogs have won a combined one game against team outside their group I originally included Manly in that group after their opening to the season. Including them, the four teams have won 3 from 18 including Manly’s wins against the warriors and Titans Those four teams have played the big six 11 times for zero wins I tipped the Raiders to beat the Eels but a top four contender beating another (although that may be a generous description of the Raiders ATM) isn’t really an upset It’s been good seeing Manly’s turnaround and the Broncos and Tigers get close but there’s still been very few genuine upsets…

The Eels have been very good against the Storm and Raiders Andrew so the answer is yes - Arthur would have been very pleased with their performance last night

Does this performance knock the "Eels are just flat track bullies" narrative on the head for a little while?