Okay. We’ll cry a river for the Canberra Raiders team and move them up the list of most disadvantaged people due to COVID. Push them ahead of
The 900 dead
The 1 million who lost jobs
The 10’s of thousands of businesses forced to shut down
The thousands who didn’t get to say goodbye to loved ones

What are you talking about? Literally the last Preliminary Final played was 12 months ago and it was played in Canberra where Canberra was the home team!

As for Sports Science; The Raiders travel by bus on game day to Sydney last week to play the Roosters. They will be able to eat and sleep at home the night before and the travel time difference will make minimal difference. Their preparation will not be affected except for the fact they won’t be able to stop at Maccas at Sutton Forest.

Nice analysis.

Ricky is a clown. I am willing to bet the total commute time will not be much different to the 3hr bus ride from Canberra to the SCG last week.

The forward battle is clearly the key. I think the Storm edge can contain the Raiders edge, so then it comes down to the front rowers.

Munster v Whighton also looms large. Munster’s fitness will be huge while with Whighton, recently he has been a no show in the first half but managed to have a big impact in the 2nd. Whether the Storm will allow him to just switch on when he chooses to is another story and when Whighton is forcing, he is prone to errors or poor decisions.

The other random key will be Vunivalu. His defensive decisions could be crucial. The difference between a mis-read or an intercept could determine the game and he will be tested by Whighton/Whitehead and Croker.

Please. I know you are a Raiders fan, but stop with the “unfair travel”.
a) It’s just a game. The NRL has already been gifted different rules to the rest of the population, there is no reason/logic to give them further favourable treatment over the rest of the community or other businesses.
b) If the Raiders didn’t want to have to travel for a Prelim, then finish in the Top 4.
c) The COVID rule has been the same for every game against every QLD team all year hasn’t it? Didn’t seem to help the Titans, Cowboys or Bronocs.

Aahhh So it has been known for 3 weeks that the Raiders would be playing in a Prelim Final in QLD.
Well that explains the lack of sin bin’s for trips, tackles in mid air and high tackles by Riaders players all done to stop tries being scored over the last 2 weeks.
Carry on your whinging Ricky.

I can’t put enough money on the Chooks this week.
They played without multiple stars, a couple were still getting their legs back and they played almost no attack through Tedesco. Sure it will help Souths not having Sam in the line up, but assuming Cronk is fine after that late whack he copped they will win by 13+ this week.

Similarly Parra getting the Bronocs instead of a Sydney team is a huge plus for them. Factor in the game is the day game so a dry track which seems to be when they play their best and it feels like they should be far too good if they don’t let the moment get too much for them. Brisbane continue to be a team which looks rudderless which is a shame given the talent they have on the field.

That said, after last week I learnt the hard way that I can’t be negative about the Broncos, so i took a week off The Roar last week after I moped around all weekend (including what was supposed to be a joyous occasion – my first fathers day). It was a pretty tame crack, but the cumilative effect from a particular contributor (whose opinion I did value) had taken it’s toll. I have previously been treated for depression and I am not going back down that path of feeling a lack of self worth.

And to be honest i found too much confrontational stuff going on – which I take some repsonsibility for as well. 40/20 – while i completely disagree with your position on the NF Policy, to what end i let that discussion become to personal – i sincerely apologise (and it is rare i apologise to a Manly fan..).

So i am tapping out. Good luck to everyone and their teams. And be kind to one another – you don’t know who you are dealing with, their age, their triggers, their personal situations.

All the best.

Greg – The Bunker literally said that DWZ “right hand comes away for the ball”.

I saw no angle that showed his right hand conclusively came off the ball. We lose sight of his right hand but that doesn’t mean it has come off the ball.

Like i said elsewhere, i could have accepted the decision either way, by not over ruling the on field official – whatever he/she ruled. But not when the logic applied by the Bunker is flawed.

Manly fans should check out the great article by Bulldog Ritchie today which is supposed to highlight how the Sea Eagles can’t win at night.

He points out that they have lost 11 games at night this season (even though they have only lost 8 games total) and according to his math they lost 18 of 24 at night in 2015 and 19 of 24 in 2016 – suggesting they didn’t play a single day game… Manly lost 13 and 16 games total (day and night) in those seasons respectively…

More great NRL journalism from the DT…

Didn’t they extend Egan until the end of 2021 at the start of this year?
I guess that says either he is destined for reserve grade/been told he can look else where
or
(purely speculatively speaking),

There has been ongoing talk that the Tyrone May fall out could be greater and perhaps there is potential for him to be implicated in a way that see’s him miss significant time..?

He really hasn’t kicked on this year like I thought he would. He has to take responsibility for that (though he currently has an ordinary coach compared to what he had coming through the Penrith system). Assuming the later of the scenarios above is completely off the table, I still think he would be a good pick up for a team with a good coach that could help develop the between the ears part of his game. He was way to dominant, not just in juniors, but in ISP playing as a 20 year old against seasoned players, not to make it.

I tend to agree with you Albo. If you can’t see both of DWZ’s hands then you can’t tell if he still has both his hands on the ball. If he has both his hands on the ball, then that should be enough to constitute possession.

As you say the whole reason the on field official now gives a decision (try or no try) is because the Video Ref has to determine there is enough evidence to over turn. If the onfield ref had given no try, I don’t think they had enough evidence to over turn either, so I could have lived with what ever decision was made, but it is the procedural aspect that lets them down.
The later try was ruled no try on the field and there was nothing in that footage that clearly suggested the ball missed Morgan. The Bunker just flat out got that one wrong.

I am not a Manly fan, but I am guessing some do, especially given the rivalry.

Crocker was a hard man who walked the fine line plenty of times in his career. In that hit though, he was always going to plant the shoulder into him with intent to soften him up, but Stewart chose to go into the crouch position to catch it, so he wore it in the head. In todays game, Crocker would be in trouble both because of the shoulder hit and the carelessness of taking your eyes off the ball carrier, but I can’t see how it was a cheap shot. No different to driving your shoulder into a guys ribs. You want to wind him.

Watching last night all I could think of was Star Wars and the Emperor saying “Everything is proceeding as I have forseen”
Low scoring and pretty ordinary game to watch with at least one controversial bunker decision impacting the result. Who could have predicted that.

There is nothing wrong with the Bunker and the technology they have, because we can all see what the call should have been. It is the people making the decision. Train them properly. Get it right, If they get it wrong train them more. If they still get it wrong, get them out or get the guys training them out.

The onfield ref’s – two of the more inexperienced refs by NRL standard- did a pretty good job. Let down, again, by experienced men in the bunker.

Shane Wright has now scored 2 tries in his NRL career.
Both were from loose balls in the in-goal and both were incorrectly awarded a try by the Bunker.

Such a non-story. The media boffins cared but no one else really did. If he had a history of being disrespectful, then okay, it is a story. But clearly that isn’t who the kid is.

All the Telegraph and Fox did was improve the chances, however slightly, that the kid turns to NZ Union instead of staying in the NRL.

Eerr They do program the games before the start of the season, Noosa Duck is actually stating a fact. Unlike where you say the Roosters are rorting the cap (unless you have access to all their contracts and proof to the contrary).

But as you say – Believe that if you need to and if you want to sleep peacefully at night…

Tough one to pick (and most likely to watch). Cows haven’t won many games this year and even then, some of the wins have been pretty ugly. They (usually) stay in the fight for 80 minutes though.

The Dogs are on a winning role, but they are not scoring points. If Penrith was an example of winning without scoring points, then we have seen that sooner or later the wheels will come off. But Penrith were winning, scoring few points and making plenty of mistakes. The Dogs complete well and are disciplined (except when as a pack they attack a single player being spoken to by a ref) so I think there is a little more legitimacy to their winning run. This could be a tough watch – a bit of a grind. Hopefully the Cowboys play with a ‘lets entertain’ philosophy and the Dogs are forced to try and go with them.

Too many mistakes in the Cowboys for my liking, so I will take the Dogs but who knows, maybe the ball sticks for the Cowboys tonight.

Agree – “journalists” need to be more responsible in their reporting.

But…. They stir up the punters who abuse the player if he plays which has a terrible effect on players who are often found to be not guilty. Save the angry rants for those found guilty.

So I have an idea for addressing that – stand the players down with pay and remove them from the crowds of punters who can then abuse them…?

Maybe they would have been stood down – you are correct. I’ll accept that.

And I would have had no problem with them being stood down with pay.

But when you think I am twisting your words because you say people are found “not guilty” when in fact the charges were dropped, that isn’t picking at your words, they are two very fundamentally different things. It is these fundamental differences that make it hard to accept your position.

People are allowed to disagree with the No Fault Stand Down Policy, every one is entitled to an opinion. But you can’t choose to disagree with it because you you think “innocent until proven guilty in a court of law” has any sort of baring on the policy – that status is irrelevant to the policy because the policy isn’t judging someone. I am not judging whether or not JDB has committed a crime – true I might be questioning his morals given the facts that we are aware of, but not judging his innocence against the charges.

The policy is judging the impact the charge could have on the game and the impact that players face could have on the game given the various ways a season could go for a player – like standing on a dais receiving a MOM in a big game or Grand Final.

The NRL CEO will also be able to use his discretion to stand down players charged with other criminal offences, particularly those involving women and children.

Given the charges they both faced – no problem with it. And I had met and quite liked Tyrone May when I met him. But I guess I can put my biases to the side and see the bigger picture..

I would be on the Dogs as well. I like the unders there (36.5 points).

I like the overs (43.5) in the Knights v Titans game if they get a dry track for a 3pm game..

And are we seriously taking another game to the SCG unnecessarily?! Haven’t we got enough games there this year?!

Fergo is certainly a big in for the Eels. Darius is a big in for the Eels as well…

First time Curtis Scott, Dylan Walker and Api Koroisau have been on a field together since the biff. Especially as he has only been back a week or so and I already had judiciary charge, I can only imagine Scott will be read the riot act abut remaining disciplined and not being sucked in to anything…

Mind you I reckon Justin Olam could pack a punch. I wouldn’t mind seeing him put one on Dylan Walker’s chin. Then Walker’s partner wouldn’t have to interrupt his computer games to ask him if he wants a spoon or a fork because she would just need to bring him a straw….

Radradara and El Masri – neither were found “not guilty” the charges were dropped – there is a difference and it isn’t minor. Neither were facing a min 11 years in jail, so neither would have been stood down. Nobody in the Coffs Harbour scandal was charged.

These examples have no relevance to the No Fault Stand Down Policy. They have relevance to the matrix guidelines being proposed (which needs more work IMO) is to manage fall out from such issues because, as you observe above, they create appalling publicity and hence why something may be needed. Fortunately (again IMO) Peter Beattie won’t be around to drive it going forward

Problem with all of this is there are quite a few youngsters and what we have learnt is Mary does not seem to have the knack for bringing on young talent to realise their potential.

And one who I don’t think has played a tonne of fullback.