Mudgee: It was not good - but it was not that bad, either
Daly Cherry-Evans pinned Raiders like weevils and piloted his side to a deserved 25-6 victory. But talk of wholesale change is madness given club is two-and-two minus first-choice hooker and halfback
And so to the sexy little town of Mudgee for the round four fixture of Raiders and Manly in our National Rugby League, and fans of the Green Machine witnessed another tres ordinary period, this time of 20 minutes, amidst the greater 80 minutes, it seems our people struggle to maintain rigour for the full allotment.
That said, whatever that was (‘rigour’, eh? thanks Oscar Wilde), when you’re missing your first-choice hooker and halfback it can quite denude your attacking cut-through, take Jahrome Hughes and Brandon Smith out of Melbourne Storm and they’ll probably still beat you, but they would be quite denuded.
Denuded. I like it. Use it today.
So yes - Storm can still beat you. Our guys, not so much. Especially when Daly Cherry-Evans channels the ghost of Daly Cherry-Evans past and uses the sou-westerly wind as a ninja might deploy a Japanese fighting kite.
Or something but DCE owned pretty Mudgee’s pretty Glen Willow Oval and used the conditions to excellent effect, sending whistling torpedoes to the corners and into touch for repeat sets, and hurling up mighty bits of kit that rained down upon the Raiders like wobbly mortars.
It was kicking Lance “Buddy” Franklin would’ve been happy with and Dally M judges could’ve awarded the Manly half 3, 2 and 1 points.
Your correspondent caught the first stanza on the 20-metre line on the north-eastern hill, in perfect alignment with Tom Trbojevic dropping Jack Wighton’s sky-bomb that led to Wighton scoring the Raiders first and sadly only try.
Position Wighton 10 metres out with the footy in hand, stepping off both feet, that big body going hard to the line - and do it often enough - and good things will happen.
Alas it was rare enough in either half, particularly the second one when Cherry-Evans pinned our men to the boards like so many weevils.
My small posse of Raiders fans (all from these northern beaches of Sydney town, an odd enough thing) had the idea of seeing Canberra storm the southern end in the second half, and picked out the glistening horns of a green Viking man who later proved to be this fellow.
And over to his hill we went for the second half and saw, mainly in the distance, Manly thundering towards the men in green on the back of DCE launching the Steeden like it were shot out of one of those gun things that killed Maude Flanders.
And when Canberra had the ball in Manly’s half they appeared to have no actual method through other than bunting pill for leapers left.
Hard to remember Jordan Rapana or Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad having a crack on the right, nor even Nic Cotric left, for that matter, though statistics say they ran for 134, 192 and 106 metres respectively, much of it out of the corners.
Stats? In the piglets Josh Papalii made 7 runs (for 64m) in his 45 minutes on the field, his fellow bookend Joe Tapine made 14 runs (for 120m) in 43 minutes.
Corey Horsburgh and Emre Guler had similar numbers and impact.
Make of it what you will.
As for critique of “forcing” “silly” passes, I have an issue with the descriptors because when those passes stick defensive lines can rupture, and maybe we’re back in the game.
Ricky Stuart has imbued his men with a have-a-crack attitude, and we cheer like fiends when the second-phase stuff gets funky, it seems churlish to criticise when it doesn’t work out.
That said, of course, we should sack them all.
No, we should not sack them all. I’m not sure we should punt any of them. Well - you’d have liked Xavier Savage coming off the bench ten minutes before half-time or any time in the last half hour, if anything to make opponents second-guess possibilities. Because that kid can bolt about like a little kangaroo.
But again – in Rick we trust, right? He’s in his 21st season as a top-level coach and has held the clipboard in 445 more first grade games than me and I would warrant you. You’d back his judgement, and that of his backroom assistants. And if they’re holding Savage back, it’s not like they haven’t, you know, thought about it.
Anyway - we’re 2-and-2 after four rounds of 24, so headless chooks can chill. Put it down to one of those games. The other mob had all the ball and all the territory because they were just better.
Mudgee? Cracker of a town. It’s like the Tidy Town perennial winner. It’s a Sydneysider’s idea of a bush town. It’s country but not too country. There are vineyards and nice restaurants and nice old pubs, and there are authentic, actual farm people with beards and big bush hats getting about town in utes with dogs on the back. So it’s the country but it’s not like you’re going to step in something.
And we ate some meat from a place called Three Tails, and you should go there, it is magnificent meat.
I was there to hock The Milk to an audience 90 per cent Manly fans, in hindsight, the best kind of sight, it was something of an err in judgement about the travelling capacity of Canberra fans, it being a six-hour drive up to Mudgee.
Indeed the Raiders supporter group numbered largely myself, the former president of the Seaforth Raiders, a couple blokes from French’s Forest baseball and Denis Carnahan who was working for the sound on ABC Grandstand.
There were a few others. And there was a total of nine (9) books sold outside the Book Nest on Church St and one (1) in the fine Kelly’s Irish Pub across the road, a lesson learned yet again: fish where fish are.
Which, as we know, is the fine city-town of Canberra. Thus will be down for long weekend of April 22 (Penrith in Penrith at 4pm, might find a pub), and after that Friday May 6 which is Raiders Old Boys Day for the game against the Dogs.
Until then! Go well, and up the Milk!