Raiders to crush Dragons and hear the lamentations of their women.
Well, maybe they will. Who knows? Hardly bankers, the Machine. But Jack's back and so's Big Joe, and on a cold rainy day in Canberra against the equally enigmatic Dragons we should get the biscuits
And so to the St George Illawarra Dragons at sweet home GIO for the round seven fixture in this man’s National Rugby League, and we should beat ‘em, and beat ‘em well, because didn’t we just smoke the table-topping Broncs on their patch in Brisvegas?
Yes, we did of course, and the author of this bit of kit is not above crowing about prophesising it like that one in a million monkeys who actually bashed out a novel on all those type-writers, true fact.
And thus the bookies think we’ll beat ‘em, too, just, and neutral fans might toss us into a multi, and Raiders fans - and Dragons fans, too, must be said - think, Jolly-well dashed if I know, wot, if they’d decided to think en masse in the voice of a dandy from the late 19th century, as people … maybe do like those interesting types who dress up as knights and have sword fights, they reckon they really get into them, get immersed in the character and think they are a knight in an actual sword fight. It’s a Thing. They say.
So yes! We should win. We’re at home. Jack Wighton’s back and so’s big Joseph Tapine and that guy’s tops at footy. Bustling nugget Nick Cotric is back on the wing, and surely Ricky Stuart has been impressing upon all his people that the Broncos win doesn’t mean poop if we drop the next one to the Dragons at home, you’d suggest they’ll have been on message this week.
Plus the weather’s going to be shit, 14 degrees and raining, and the Raiders train more in such conditions, why up at Kogarah and down the Gong they get a speck of rain on a cigarette paper they’re off to the Leagues Club, union rules.
No they aren’t. But the Raiders know cold muck weather more than most, and that should be enough, across 80 minutes, with discipline, for our team to amass more points than their team.
But anything can happen. It’s the Raiders. It’s the Dragons. It’s 12th (them) vs 16th (us). Last year they beat us by two points in the Gong (in Great Controversy) and we beat them by two in Canberra (in equally Great Controversy).
But I like us, just, in the slop.
Because Good Things:
Our two wins in ‘23 were over Broncos and Sharks, teams that put 40 points each on the Dragons;
In their last 18 games at GIO Stadium in Bruce, the Dragons have won four (4) times;
Backrow is humming with Corey Horsburgh in the 13, played a thousand minutes last week and has parlayed his passion into a controlled aggression. It’s a heady mix of power and passion and our Red is coming into a good time for a footy player at age 25. Horsburgh’s time is now;
Wighton will run at Talatau Amone, and if he’s close enough to the line power over and through him, along with a couple others with that big body, big step, big momentum. Big game coming from Jack, here’s hoping;
The rest of our players, outside the halfback mentioned shortly, are, head-to-head better or at worst equal of their opposite numbers. Blake Lawrie, Tautau Moga - solid first graders. Arthur Beetson and Steve Rogers they are not.
Bad Things?
Ben Hunt. An enigmatic cat himself, must be said. But enough ball going forward he can ruin you. Tapine, Josh Papali’i, Emre Guler and Pasami Saulo, and throw Big Red into the middle there too, have a job: stop the Dragons go-forward. Dominate. Crush their enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women, as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Conan the Barbarian said in the hit film Conan the Barbarian.
Make of it what you will.
Raiders by 7.
Up the Milk.