Bloody shattered after last night. The Raiders did not win the game we lost it and that is the pure and simple fact. Piss poor last six minutes really showed us where we are at. Looked great and played some inspiring footy most of the rest of the game but it is an 80 minute game..... I hate the Raiders with a passion and the way they celebrated their tries especially the last one shows what terrible examples they are to kids wanting to play the game in the true spirit. No need for that poor excuse for a sportsman Leilua to behave the way he did. Disgraceful....
One thing that continues to piss me off no end is the time wasting antics by the Raiders who are basically fat and unfit in the forwards. They do it each and every week ,game in game out, sauntering through the opposition defensive line with half a dozen of their flabby forwards moving the ten to fifteen metres they need to actually be in line and then behind their team mate playing the ball. Walking in front of and within the defensive line with complete immunity for the first few tackles and in effect being involved in the play around the defensive side.
https://www.nrl.com/siteassets/operations/nrl-laws-and-interpretations-2018.pdf
Out of Play A player from the team
in possession is out of play if he does not “retire behind his own players involved in the play the ball or to their own goal line.” Section 11 (10) (g) An ‘out of play’ players(s) may again participate in the play if he retreats to a position where he has both feet behind the point where the ball was placed on the ground in the prior play the ball.
Where an ‘out of play’ player becomes involved in the ensuing play, he is to be penalised with the penalty being awarded in line with the previous play the ball, at the point where the player became out of play
Offside
A player is offside if he has one foot (either on or off the ground) in front of a teammate who ‘last touches, is touched, held or kicked the ball’. Section 14 (1)
Croker takes so much time with his goal kicks; grabs the tee, puts it on the ground; unclips his head gear and places it on the ground; grabs a water bottle from the trainer and rinses his mouth a few times, takes a sip of water spits it out; moves to the mark, grabs the ball from the ground and then puts it back down again after he crouches down to fiddle with the kicking tee; picks up a few blades of grass to test the wind direction; then attempts the first of six tries to position the ball on the tee
THEN the referee decides he had better call time out because it has been over a minute since Croker has commenced his interminable fiddling to get ready to actually stand up and then address the ball ready to kick it BUT he then needs to measure up, move back, talk to himself look at the posts half a dozen times, then the ref calls time back on. He
then moves in to kick the ball a good two minutes since he started his goal attempt
EXCEPT he has no issue whatsoever in taking a kick for goal in under 20 seconds when it is the last six minutes of a game and his side is behind. He had the ball placed on and its way basically as soon as the tries were awarded. If he can do it then when the pressure is on he should be able to do it each and every time.
Yes, I understand that every kicker takes liberties when they are shooting for goal but he CONSTANTLY wastes so much time to give his side a breather and wind down the clock every game. Think about it; six kicks close to twelve minutes wasted because the dumb arse officials won't call time off. What is the difference between the ref calling time off immediately; (the kicking side still gets a breather with the kicker taking forever to put a kick up in the air for a conversion) or allowing the clock to continue and not calling time off , I'll tell you what the difference is -less minutes on the clock in the way of game time.
Saw Moses and Reynolds at the game last night but they promptly disappeared at kick off Reynolds to the Fox box and probably his bestie with him. Moses is no longer with the club so was he there as moral support, to give his ex team mates a boost? Yeah, mate ship can run deep but he did not really give a rats when we were paying his way why now. Call me bitter, call me cynical but I did not see him go shake hands with his old team mates unless it was done in the confines of the dressing sheds; but he did have a beer or something similar in his hands. Yeah some people went and got a photo and an autograph, meh.
A nice thing though happened last night. The eighteenth jersey was presented by Greg Buckley who as a young man played at fullback for the Dogs until his career was sadly cut short after a horrifying on field incident at BSG vs St George in 1988. I was there that day and watched , with many others, the terrible scene unfold and the long wait as the helicopter landed to ferry him away to hospital. It was indeed heart warming to see him walk onto the field, albeit with a distinct limp and one arm hanging beside him. He does not recall anything at all about it and sadly rued the fact that his career ended that day but he is forever thankful to the club and those within in it for the support and well wishes in those bad times. Bought a tear to my eye and made me understand that footy after all is not all there is but that we should be thankful for being still able to walk and breathe each and every day.
Next week we have the Rabbitohs and I am not looking for a win....the players themselves will have been pretty gutted with the loss and it will take a monumental effort to get up for the game and truly I am not sure we can. This year has been a procession of just not good enough efforts and I can't see it changing. The next few years will be painful as we look to rebuild and try to salvage something from the shit that the master coach Hasler has left us in. Heard some very funny rumours last night about possible destinations for the master destroyer; Penrith and wait for it lolololololo Manly. Also, if anyone caught the story in the paper about a sex tape doing the rounds in relation to Manly also heard about ANOTHER one separate to that in relation to a player( no longer there) having video of another player ( still there).....mind boggling....