Raiders fire back
Canberra’s 2017 season is not over, well not yet anyway. The Raiders fired back to edge the Dragons 18-14 at GIO Stadium. Ricky Stuart tried to ignite his attack by switching the side his halves, Aiden Sezer and Blake Auston, pay on and his ploy worked. They had to it the hard way, with a golden point try from Elliot Whitehead securing the points thanks to a freakish offload from Dave Taylor, but it was a much-improved performance from the men in green. There is still life in the Australian capital, still hope they can make a late run to the semis.
Mountain men charge
Like Canberra, Penrith are also enjoying a rare run of form. After upsetting Manly last weekend, the Panthers notched a 12-point win over the Warriors. Nathan Cleary ran the show, racking up 22 points in the 34-22 victory. While his opposite number Shaun Johnson was forced from the field with a knee injury in the 62nd minute, putting in doubt for him the rest of the season.
While it took Penrith a while to get into the contest, they finished strongly and showed some signs of their 2016 attacking flair. If the Panthers can cut out the basic errors and get back to the flamboyant style that cut opponents up en masse last year, then there’s a slight chance of sneaking into the eight.
Rabbit stew
One team that won’t be tasting finals footy this year is South Sydney. The Bunnies went down to the Cowboys 23-10 at Barlow Park, after opening the score in the 13th minute. This sparked North Queensland into life and they ran in four tries in the next 32 minutes to finish Souths off. What made it even worse for the Bunnies was the fact that the Cowboys were missing Johnathan Thurston, and Matt Scott.
It was another nightmare afternoon for the Burgess boys, Tom and George, whose hands let them down again and again. That loss condemns them to 14th spot on the table and coach Michael Maguire post-game. He held his tongue with the media, simply saying: “As you can tell, I'm burning about the game because I know what I have in that changeroom and we're not achieving that at the moment. The boys need to find a way to find those performances because what we put out there today doesn't represent us."
Tommy Terrific
There’s no doubt that Tom Trbojevic has to be in the NSW team next year. Injury meant he missed Game I and Laurie Daley stayed with an unchanged team for Games II and III. But the Manly star just keeps on getting better and better, and he would do a job for the Blues on either the wing or at fullback. Against Wests he was a constant threat, running for more metres (217) than anyone else on the field, as well as setting up two tries and making two breaks. His involvement in the try for his brother Jake was special and the pair seem to have a telekinetic understanding of where to pop up when the other has the ball. ‘Tommy Turbo’ is just a natural talent who makes things happen. Lock him in for Mal Meninga’s World Cup squad as well.
