The National Rugby League Thread of 2012

[PlainSimpleJoel]

With the season due to start tomorrow night, with the Knights - Dragons game. But I'm looking forward to Friday night and watching the Eels play (and beat) the Brisbane Broncos.

I'm looking forward to a good season, and hoping the Eels make the top 8 this year. They have the talent.

 

[Jono]

I'm just hoping that Dugan and Campese can play more than half the games this season for Canberra. If not, they have no chance. They have Storm first up which is great since Storm are their boogie team (2 wins in 16 I think). I hope for a competitive match and no major injuries...I'll trade a win for Campo, Dugan, Lahrs and Shillo getting through uninjured.

Newcastle just lost and it was an average game. Lots of mistakes as you would expect in the opening round. I don't care but when Gidley went to even it up with 10 to go instead of a try I got to say I was hoping the Knights would lose for not going for the win.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Parramatta were very disappointing in the second half. There is always next week.

 

[Jono]

Thought the Raiders might surprise me and they came so close, within 1 1/2 mins of winning. Saw some good signs, the Raiders were winning in several facets (though only the score counts in the comp), which is good signs given the quality of the Storm. From what they showed I don't think we'll see a repeat of the 8 game losing streak they had at the start of 2011.

Haven't heard of any injuries, but tomorrow will really tell. If its all good news I consider this a "good" start to the season for the Raiders.

 

[Jono]

Good win by the Raiders yesterday, their first at Robina. It was encouraging to see them hold the Titans to zip in the second half, especially in the final 5 - 10 mins when the Titans really were pressuring and Campo got sin binned...though to be fair the ref helped by denying the Titans a try that was more likely than not a fair try.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Oh yeah another loss. The scoreline doesn't indicate how close the game was. Plus Hindmarsh pulling out and Hayne get injuried didn't help.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Who are you tipping to win the premiership this year?

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Hopefully Manly don't win again. I'll decide later on. Got other things on my mind right at the moment.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Bloody disappointing Parramatta. So it's 0 from 3. Next week changes should happen - more pressure on Kearney.

 

[Captain_Nick]

Go Melbourne Go, win back the premierships that were stolen from you

 

[Jono]

The Raiders lost to a poor Roosters side. As soon as Dugan and Fenson went off so early I felt my hopes fade and than Thurling before half time had any hopes of holding out shattered. While it was a close game it was no thanks to a supreme effort by the Raiders, while they had to put in a big effort with some many injuries they weren't fantastic, it was more down to the Roosters' poor ball control and error count. The Roosters should have put at least 15+ on the Raiders given the Raiders started to lose players at about the 10 min mark leaving them to play 40+ min with only 1 on the bench. Though if I were a Roosters supporter I'd be looking past that and focusing on the fact that my team walked away with the 2 points.

The worrying news is injuries. Dugan and Fenson are looking at possibly sitting out for a while with their injuries, while isn't good given Dugan's importance in attack and Fenson's importance as a work horse. That really does counter the good news of Lahrs returning from injury. I was hoping for a season that wasn't going to be dominated by who was unavailable for the Raiders.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

Bloody pathetic effect from the Eels. Turned it off around 30 minutes into the game. Still yet to score. Very disappointing. Looks like has been learnt from last week's performance.

 

[Jono]

Raiders beat an average Tigers tonight. Good to see Campo looking like he is getting back his form and while there were injuries again at least this week they didn't derail the team.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

I'm very happy that the Eels won last night. Seems to still problems with defence, but things are looking up.

 

[Jono]

Rubbish 1st half by the Raiders and they got dusted. More concerning is the injury toll, for the 3rd week in a row the Raiders lost 2 players during the game. Nothing much to say other than the better side won.

 

[Jono]

Good win by the Raiders against the Warriors on Sunday. The Warriors were well off the pace though. It was also the Raider's first win at home for the season. Still missing personnel but I haven't read any reports of new injuries, which is good and hopefully will give the Raiders a higher chance of putting back to back wins together when they meet one of the form teams of the comp next round - the Broncos

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

The Eels were very disappointing. I feel at times when I'm losing my faith with them - due to situation with the team and current coach.

 

[Captain_Nick]

I understand Parramatta are cellar dwellers at the moment or close to it

You should change your allegance - the GWS Giants are looking for new members

 

[Captain_Nick]

What am I saying, GWS will be on the bottom of the ladder for years (!)

 

[Jono]

The Raiders were in the game for about 10 mins. The loss of Campo in the 1st half didn't help, but they had lost the game by then. With such a short turnaround (an example of how the TV rights can disadvantage teams) they needed to go into the second half with a decent lead so 20 - 6 down meant it was never going to happen and in the 2nd half the Raiders never looked in it at all so the fact the Broncos only put on 10 points is a miracle...though that was more to do with some poor finishing by the Broncos, they could have put 50+ on if passes stuck/handling slightly better.

I hope Harrigan gives the refs of this game a serve, they were quite poor. None of them seemed to know what a forward pass was. They let both sides get away with too much and for some reason didn't put a Raider player on report for a clearly dangerous tackle. The refs didn't impact who won, but that doesn't mean they did a great job.

Something has to be down with the left edge defence of the Raiders. Croker is continuing to show he is quite weak in defence and the Raiders need to do something about it. With inexperience outside him and now inside him with Williams coming in the problem isn't going to get better.

Word is that Campo's injury isn't an ACL tear...if it is the Raiders certainly aren't going to threaten the top 8. My dream of a season not heavily marred by injury has completely gone now and I any slim hope I had of a top 8 finish has now really gone.