Friday 26 July 2013 10:36 AM
When the write the annuals of the Great Games in Rugby League History I don’t expect that there will be a chapter dedicated to Canberra v Parramatta Round 19 2013, but it was another important win in the context of our season and the push for the eight.
It is fair to say it was absolutely freezing at Canberra Stadium last week and I thought our guys braved the conditions pretty well and whilst never really clicking into full attacking gear, I didn’t think we really ever looked like conceding the lead. It was the first time we had kept the opposition scoreless since 1 August 2009 and that fantastic 56-0 night against the Broncos. One player who was impressive last week, scoring his second try in NRL was Sami Sauiluma.
Sami has played four games now and I think has improved with everyone. I think he might struggle to hold his position over coming weeks as we get a few outside backs back from injury and suspension but he has shown that he is capable at this level and is also an option for a bench spot because he can play in a number of positions.
Despite the cold weather, it was great to see three grades of rugby league at Canberra Stadium for the first time in many years. Mounties are our feeder team in the NSW Cup and I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity to sit in their coaches’ box on Saturday and my thanks goes out to Michael Pugsley and Steve Antonelli from the Mounties for giving me that chance. It was the first time that I had sat in a coaches box for Rugby League having previously been involved in a similar level to the Mounties in Australian Rules.
It seems to me that Steve Antonelli has a pretty simple coaching style which is what is required for that team when you are really bringing players together from two clubs and they train together for an hour each week. My observation was that he doesn’t send out a lot of messages, but the messages he sends are well thought out and constructed rather than the often meaningless blastings that for so long were synonymous with coaching.
Dave Furner and Dave Hamilton were also in the box and it was fascinating to see the things they pick up during the game, often just small positional moves to structure the plays or management of which forwards should be coming off when and when they should be pushed for an extra hit up or two.
The Mounties had a great win over Newcastle which they described as their best of the year. Much of it was set up by Sam Williams whose injury is going to hurt them over the next few weeks, but I think all Raiders fans can be satisfied that those not making first grade are going back to a club with a really strong culture and commitment to make this alignment work and achieve the twin goals of winning games whilst providing the platform for players to move into first grade.
So onto this week and our trip to Wollongong. This is another vital game for our finals prospects. A few weeks ago we went to Campbelltown against a Tigers side that probably won’t make the finals and we came away without the points, we simply can’t afford to do that again against a side that is also unlikely to feature in the finals action.
Much of the focus this week in the media has been on one certain Dragons player and that was always going to be the case. Me personally, I couldn’t give a stuff whether Josh Dugan is happy, sad or indifferent, whether he wants to talk to Dave Furner, whether he felt he got a fair go at the Raiders or not. What I do care about is that he is one of the more dangerous players in the opposition line up and he needs to be stopped. There are plenty of Raiders fans who would like to see Dugan put on his back this week, but for mine all I am interested in is that he his team doesn’t come away with any competition points and we do. That’s all the satisfaction I need.
Apart from Dugan, the Dragons showed on Monday night they are still a team that on their day can match it with the competition front runners and if you go through their team they have a lot of very capable players so it is surprising that they have had a lot of poor results this year.
The forecast suggests that the conditions tomorrow will be the best they have been in some weeks, so hopefully we can put together a good performance and come away with the two points and start to cement our place in the top 8.
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