ANALYSIS: Raiders survive, not thrive - and someone put Anthony Griffin out of his misery

Canberra will take it. All wins count the same on the ladder and while today’s 20-14 victory over St George Illawarra will not live long in the memory, Ricky Stuart will not care less.

It was beyond clunky at times, especially in the first half, but a moment of inspiration from Hudson Young was enough to deliver the Raiders the win.

Jarrod Croker, edging in on game 300, was the difference too: he was perfect from the tee and his counterpart, Zac Lomax, was dreadful. It was three tries apiece, but the Dragons centre missed all three conversions.

It started with St George Illawarra having an interchange deducted for starting Moses Mbye when the teamsheet had been submitted with Jacob Liddle in the run-on team, and ended with Josh Kerr taking a settler with the game on the line. It was that kind of afternoon for Anthony Griffin, who is surely on borrowed time.

“I don’t really have anything to talk to you about that,” said Griffin in the post-match media conference on the speculation over his job.

“I don’t create that, I’m just more worried about our players, getting them over this and getting into the next game,” he said, adding he couldn’t question his players’ desire.

“It’s a really tough couple of weeks when we put ourselves in a position to win two games. That’s never been an issue, we’ve just got to play better at vital times, both sides of the ball. They’ll turn it around, they’re a good team.”

Ricky’s Raiders need to step up

The first half barely merits conversation: there were 18 errors before the break and just the one try. Canberra were lucky to get nil and St George perhaps even luckier to get four, given that Tautau Moga was able to score despite five Raiders having ample opportunity to stop him.

These are two of the more conservative-minded sides in the NRL and it looked like it. It was side to side, uncreative stuff.

For the Dragons, this is not new. Their Plan A is to frustrate, bash and make the game ugly.

For Raiders, however, it was more confusing. They would have known that the Dragons were going to do Dragons things, but seemed to turn up without any sort of plan to counteract it. 

Last week they produced their best performance of the year and played with real vigour and intensity, but seemed to have left that spirit in Brisbane. 

The huge vacillations between best and worst is a long-running theme for Ricky Stuart’s men. Remember, this team was formerly the Canberra Faders, who could go from brilliant to dreadful and back again within the same game, let alone week to week.

Stuart’s style is built on intensity and it might just be that Canberra can’t keep it up over a long period. Certainly, that seemed like the case at half time. Had they turned in half the performance that they did last week, the Raiders would have been 20 in front. Instead, they trailed.

Thankfully for the coach, his men decided to up their game after the break. It might have been a classic Sticky spray, or just a realisation that the Dragons were there for the taking. 

St George Illawarra kept dropping the footy, kept giving Canberra opportunities and eventually, they took advantage.

Matt Timoko’s try was even softer than Moga’s in the first half, with Jacob Liddle and Jack Bird tackling like pinball flippers to let the centre through, and Hudson Young had to create the clincher all on his own through a ball steal runaway.

It was hardly champagne stuff, but two points are two points and the Raiders get next week off to work on improving their performance levels. They got away with it today.

“We weren’t good today in a lot of areas of our game, but the positive is we get the two points,” said Sticky.

“There’s been a lot of games where we’ve been very good and we missed out in the end. So many errors on tackle one…but to their credit, they have a very healthy desire to win. These guys are competitive bunch.”

Sloan does it alone

The lack of creativity at St George Illawarra has been an ongoing concern for several years, which makes it all the more baffling that Tyrell Sloan took so long to get a game. 

In a side that struggles for points, in a game where neither side impressed in attack, Sloan was the most dangerous player on the park and walked away with four line break assists, two of which turned into tries. 

Sloan is only playing because of Cody Ramsey’s illness, having been banished to NSW Cup last year with question marks over his defensive abilities. 

His numbers, equalised for possession levels, were actually among in the NRL for creativity, and it seemed like the sort of trade-off that the Dragons could afford to make.

Other players who struggle defensively – Scott Drinkwater the most obvious example – are carried because they bring so much attacking upside. Finally, that is paying off for St George Illawarra, even if it they were forced into it.
It was a good time for Sloan to step up, too. Ben Hunt had an off-day and appeared to be carrying a hand injury, Junior Amone was quiet and Zac Lomax well off the boil.

If Hunt doesn’t do it, it rarely happens for St George Illawarra, and the fullback was the only man who looked like doing anything in attack.