Phins Down in Redcliffe Bloodbath
Don't know if it'll be a bloodbath. It was more about using language to generate an evocative and click-worthy headline. But we'll beat Redcliffe, or whoever they are, in north Brisbane tonight. Fact
People of The Milk! Good match-day to you.
Firstly, apologies for the tardiness of the last pair of missives, if by tardiness one means not writing them at all. Have had a bit on, not least is which a book about Royals rugby club that’s become all-consuming, I don’t want to put it to bed so much as bury it in a shallow grave somewhere on the Hay Plain. But! No excuses. Must and will do better.
As will our Canberra Raiders this evening in the northern Brisbane burgh of Redcliffe where we meet Wayne Bennett’s over-achieving squad of devil dogs, they go okay, the shiny new ‘Phins, they keep on coming.
We’ll win, though. Because we keep coming, too.
No Hudson Young, no worries. Josh Papali’i is back from what nobody called #HipDropGate but might have, if it was their wont, and Simi Sasagi slots onto the bench. I like us in the big units.
For even though there appear to be seven of the same player and they could probably offload a little more, and I’d like to see Joe Tapine running hard at an edge, you know what you’re going to get: physicality, go-forward, no mistakes.
Well, there might be some, as there were in the Roosters game. Few mistakes there. But those people, the bastards, are good. Like, really good. They’re the in-form Destructors of Worlds at the moment, five games in a row, 40-plus points, even if, yes, one game was 38 points. Doesn’t mean they’re not shit-hot at the moment. Doesn’t mean season’s over for us. Doesn’t mean we don’t beat ‘em next time. Fact, fact and fact.
True story - we can tend to catastrophise losses (especially really, really big ones) and not give ourselves enough credit for the wins, especially the knock-em-down-drag-em-out ones of which there were two in May (you know, the month just gone), one with 11 men against Matt Burton and Stephen Crichton - and the other versus Manly Sea Eagles when down by 20 points in the wet at Brookvale.
And being on Brookie Hill for that game, sports fans, was footy fan gold. One of the best wins we’ve had, last five years, discuss.
Or don’t if it’s not your wont, which is bit of a weird word that the internet says is “of a person in the habit of doing something; accustomed.” Stupid word.
Anyway! We beat the Phins, and beat them good. Their best players - Felise Kaufusi, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Kodi Nikorima - are not playing.
Their other best player is Herbie Farnworth and he’ll take some holding on Matt Timoko’s side. But Timoko goes alright, as may have been highlighted within these e-pages, and he can burn Herbie good as Herbie can burn him. Good battle there.
I also like Ray Stone for them, he’s tough and he’s good, and he has a cool name. I wouldn’t mind being called Ray Stone, you could introduce yourself with a gravelly voice. Ray Stone. Pleased to meetcha.
So they have that going for them.
They’re also on their home track where they beat us there last year in the wet, and they’re coached by a fair dinkum witch doctor, a shaman, a conjurer of performances from men in whom he inveigles belief like a clew of ear worms.
Yep: the collective noun for a group of worms is a clew, I had no clue and I’ll warrant nor did you. A clew…
Ado, without further of, something-something, we’ll predict that, with some chance of rain, our Canberra Raiders 26 (Timoko, Savage, Strange, Levi, Tapine tries; Rapana 3 goals) defeat Redcliffe Dolphins 20 (Isaako (2), Farnworth, Bostock tries; Isaako goal).
And that’ll do us. You may still purchase - yes, incredibly - a copy of The Milk, the 40-year history book of this our Green Machine that one review said was “like having a yarn at the pub with a well-informed mate”, which I quite liked. And you can do that via this big green button and become a Paid and loved-to-the-point-of-obession-though-not-in-a-creepy-stalker-way Subscriber.
Fact.
Up the Milk.