The General 2010 NRL Discussion Thread

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ABshark

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The Raiders and us

Raiders rookies not overawed
By Joe Barton
Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:23:32

To outsiders, Canberra's brightest young stars are readying themselves for the biggest game of their young careers in Saturday night's NRL qualifying final with Penrith.

But to the brilliant youngsters themselves, the crowd at CUA Stadium isn't going to be all that intimidating - after all they've lifted in front of a bigger crowd than what Penrith can offer.

The junior Raiders were runaway minor premiers in the Toyota Cup in 2008, before claiming a thrilling 28-24 golden point victory over Brisbane in front of a huge crowd in the grand final.

20-year-old Josh Dugan won the Jack Gibson medal as best on ground that day and celebrated with team-mates Jarrod Croker, Daniel Vidot, Shaun Fensom and Travis Waddell - all of whom have since progressed into the top squad.

He said his young team-mates would not be overawed in their NRL finals debut.

"It is a first and it's a first for a couple of the boys, but a few of the boys like me and `Crokes' (centre Jarrod Croker) have played in the grand final for the Toyota Cup," Dugan said.

"It's the same sort of stage and hopefully we can come out there with the same confidence we've been playing with for the last few weeks."

Dugan added that the youthful squad was brimming with confidence thanks to a sensational five-game winning streak that sends them into the finals as the NRL's form team.

Among that winning streak were victories over Saturday's opponents Penrith and minor premiers St George Illawarra - giving Dugan the belief that they won't be feeling any pressure despite it being an elimination match.

"I think the confidence from the boys is overshadowing the pressure," Dugan explained.

"It's a must win game but we've been playing like that for the last seven weeks, it's nothing new to us so we've just got to go out there on Saturday and put our best performance in."

If the Raiders are victorious, they will earn a home final in week two against the highest ranked loser from week one, a prospect which has Canberra players and fans alike licking their lips.

"It's sort of in the back of the boys minds ... it's especially in mine," Dugan added.

"It would be awesome to win this weekend and come back home for a home semi, and hopefully pack the stadium out."
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NRL.com

I can't help but admire the Raiders at the moment.

- They play and attractive, but tough and physical style of football, and one that has A LOT of improvement left in it.
- They have developed a very strong club off the field, one of the richest in the competition surprisingly enough.
- And they have bitten the bullet in the last few seasons (particularly 2009) and cleaned out a whole lot of nuffies from their playing roster- Purtell, Graham, Plum, Smith, Goodwin, Kelly, Thompson, even Flanagan.
- In their place they have made some astute purchases in Shillington, Tilse, Logan and even Monaghan- who though he is overpriced, has brought some experience, class and leadership to a young squad.
- And of course, they have brought through this "Golden Generation" of Dugan, Croker, Waddell, Fensom, Low, Thompson, Carney and Vidot- plus that NYC half (Williams Blix?) and Sam Mataora.

Sure there are pieces missing from their puzzle. They miss a halfback, their shape in attack can be horrible- imo they mimick Melbourne too much given they don't have a Cronk or Smith to keep them in shape, and thus don't utilise Croker and co fully. They can also be quite ill-disclipined, and their edge defence is really shoddy.

But they have to be our goal. We are, after all, quite similar clubs- not 'glamour' clubs but have traditionally strong local junior bases. They also face a somewhat apathetic local population and have to compete heavily with AFL and the Brumbies, not unlike our competition with soccer and the stains/dogs/bwunnies etc. What have they done that we could do?

I know that they have had their reserves playing in the Qld Cup for Souths/Logan over the last few years and that has been very successful for them as a feeder club. I think they even got Daniel Vidot through that connection. I know the NSWRL are looking to stop them and Manly doing it next year, but perhaps its something the club should be looking in to?

They have also bought a number of liscensed clubs in the ACT which aren't affected by the NSW Gov's pokie taxes. That's probably not an option for us, but obviously alternative/diverse income streams would take a lot of pressure of the Leagues.

They also used their players to ring up punters and ask them about memberships- given Gal's phone skills helped get Graham and J. Smith across the line for us, surely he would convince some weak-kneed fans to fork out for 2011!

I'm just regurgitating what I've read- does anyone know anything about what else they do that we perhaps could?

My hope is that we can unearth our own "Golden Generation." If we do, then I think Ricky ough to be one of the first people who to be thanked. Is Luke Pickerd our Jarrod Croker? Can Gards keep up his form like Dugan has and be a top shelf fullback? Can Duncan Reilly tackle, tough-out and lead our u20s side to some NYC glory next year like Fensom did at lock for Canberra? What about Mills and Matt Wright? Can we graft together a top shelf halves pairing out of Kelly, Graham, Peachey and Townsend? Can this Cameron Rodgers tear up the NYC and stake his claim as a future first grade hooker, a la Travis Waddell? Is Daniel Moroko our Justin Carney? Moefaauo our Mataora? (and, conversly, was Fergo our Vidot and KOD our Joel Thompson?) That is the hope, and what we should be shooting for.

I know there's no clear formula to winnnig premierships and long-term success, and the Raiders have only just scraped in to the 8, but surely if there is a model we should follow then that Canberra's is it. And of course the other question is whether we can build some sort of success off the field as they have so we can give ourselves the best chance of this happening, and retaining them when these kids do come good?

/rant.
 
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