Kick, chase, smash, repeat: The Raiders formula for Townsville Cow-killing
Fear turns to excitement for our author as the mighty Green Machine heads north to battle the star-studded competition favourites North Queensland on their own sticky wicket. We got this. Here's why.
And so to Townsville and the Cowboys’ excellent home ground, whatever it’s called, something about farmers, possibly, let me Google it … Queensland Country Bank Stadium!, it’s a cracker, for the round one clash between Canberra Raiders and North Queensland Cowboys. And I am afraid.
Well, not afraid-afraid, like watching Damien Omen II, or Amityville Horror or what have you. Mainly because I don’t like watching those sort of films, I don’t get why you’d watch something makes you anxious.
Instead, I rather prefer watching Canberra Raiders win games of rugby league. And that’s why I fear for our plucky Men in Green ahead of their tough first-up fixture in the air-soup of North Queensland.
There will be no excuses, of course, in the humidity. They know it’ll be sticky because Sticky will them. And he’ll tell them don’t be blouses. And he’ll tell them that it’s still a 116m x 68m field for both teams, it’s predominantly made of grass and the other mob, they are but men.
And Hudson Young will sit in the dressing shed and suck all that stuff in, and as ever there’ll be a battle between his inner madman trying to head-butt his way out of his own skull, and the excellent controlled Action Jackson man who’s nudging Origin.
Regardless, still, I fear the Cows. Because the Cows are good. And head-to-head, on paper, certainly, they look better than us.
Not a massive amount. But better. Certainly better credentialed. Have a quick look at their backs:
1. Scott Drinkwater, 2. Kyle Feldt, 3. Val Holmes, 4. Peta Hiku, 5. Murray Taulagi, 6. Tom Dearden, 7. Chad Townsend (c).
There’s quality there. Heap of experience. Drinkwater’s a beauty. Holmes is quicksilver. Hiku and Feldt have been bopping around the National Rugby League since 2013. You play ten seasons of NRL, you’re a deadest ironman.
Their forwards, too, have Origin flavour:
8. Jordan McLean, 9. Reece Robson, 10. Reuben Cotter, 11. Coen Hess, 12. Jeremiah Nanai, 13. Jason Taumalolo.
The backrow is arguably the best in the comp. That Cotter’s a lunatic. Nanai they’re tipping as a Great One. Taumalolo already is.
I don’t know much about the hooker but the replacement one, Jake Granville, has also bopped about in his ten straight NRL seasons.
And then there’s the replacement front-rower who’s been playing for four years longer than that. James Tamou is the NRL’s only current player with over 300 first grade games.
So yes – coach Todd Payten and Cowboys Inc. have assembled a side to win the comp this year. This is not about ‘rebuilding’. They’re not blooding punks. These people are prime and primed, and ready to rock.
But I still like our people. If we hang onto the ball. Play the ball fast. Complete sets. And repeat. We can do to them what they do to us. And if we do it more often, we win. As the meerkat said: simples.
The attack looks after itself. Big Jack Wighton in the six, of course, is the focal point for all good attack. He gets that big, athletic step going close to the line, he’s harder to stop than Arab Spring. And if there is such a thing as Sticky Ball, one element is kick long, piss-bolt after it, and smash the ball carrier. Wighton’s kick, chase and smash is NRL best practice.
But he’s going to need some mates. Jordan Rapana and Nick Cotric must run all night, and support the new No.1 Seb Kris, whom Drinkwater, Townsend and Dearden will rain with Steedens like mortars.
The two centres, Matt Timoko and Harley Smith-Shields, have a mighty job against Holmes and Hiku.
Very keen to seen Smith-Shields in action. Very keen to see Timoko running hard and straight angles.
Their defence, though, could decide the match.
As will our forwards.
Because while the Cowboys big units and bench have played more games than old mate defending Robodebt, our forwards, even without Josh Papalii (calf, a week), will be well up for this.
And we have weapons of our own. Can Joe Tapine, 28, get even better? Word is he’s trained the house down.
I don’t anything about his front-row parter Pasami Saulo but they didn’t get him down from the Knights to play parcheezi. He’ll be eyeing off Papalii’s front-row starting jumper and appears to have been awarded first dibs. Looking forward to seeing him bop about.
Elsewhere we know what to expect from our own very tidy backrow of Young, Corey Harawira-Naera and Elliott Whitehead: a high degree of all-action penetration, pressure and skill. That trio, proud men all, will be right up for the clash with the star-studded Cows.
Actually – forget ‘fear’. More that I sit at this keyboard and chop in this gibber, the more upbeat I am about the Machine’s chances in Townsville.
In fact fear’s turned into excitement. I like us. Let’s do this. Let’s rock the world.
Up the Milk!