You really dropped the ball on that one

Raiders go down away from home

Part of quite an absolutely rubbish weekend involved listening to the Raiders lose to the Titans thanks to ABC Grandstand's live coverage from Skilled Stadium in Robina. From the sounds of it, the score should have been a lot more (Final score 24-4), but the defensive effort, especially that of Josh Dugan and Shaun Fensom was absoulutely massive. Fensom was expected to leave the field in the opening minutes after he was seeing stars, but was averaging close to a tackle a minute in the first half.

The Raiders were backing up on a short turnaround after the Monday night match against Brisbane, and were always going to struggle in the heat. The amount of dropped ball was simply not acceptable for a first grade side. I think there were 18 knock ons in the match from the Raiders, Troy Thompson responsbile for two huge mistakes. Unfortunately for the big bloke, that may have been his last game in green.

Somehow, after line dropouts again and again, the Green Machine were only down 8-0 at half time. It took right until the final minute for the Raiders to get on the board, thanks to a consolation try to Daniel Vidot in the corner.

The commentary team suggested the team should stick around in Queensland and all turn out for feeded team Souths Logan. They said the guys playing in the reserves couldn't be any worse. They were probably right. The attacking options were simply terrible all round.

Adam Mogg, who played two games for Queensland for 3 tries has returned to the Canberra fold, and will provide valuable experience. Enforcer Tom Learoyd-Lahrs should also make his return to the squad. Travis Waddell has a broken jaw thanks to a high tackle that did not receive a penalty.

The Easter weekend brings the Tigers at home, which is usually a good game. I will be away competing at the Australian Footbag Championships, so won't get to go to the game. Hopefully there will be a number of changes in the lineup.

My team would be

J Dugan, D Vidot, J Croker, A Mogg, D Milne, T Campese, M Herbert, D Tilse, G Buttriss, S Logan, B Harrison, S Fensom, A Tongue. TLL, T Thurling, D Shillington, J Thompson