By Rob

The Raiders slumped to fourth straight loss in round five, going down to the Cowboys at GIO stadium. This loss was more than just disappointing in and of itself – it was almost certainly the death knell of the Raiders season.

The decline in the capabilities of this side are clear to see. Injuries are plaguing the backline, forcing Coach Borthwick to constantly rotate players both in-game and on a weekly basis. The forward pack boasts international and state reps, yet they struggle (sometimes) to overwhelm their opponents with any sort of authority.

The game got off to the worst start possible with the Cows working it down-field and then boosting a bomb towards the Raiders right edge. Nicholls tried to make it to the right edge, but was too late to stop Naikore from taking a sweet catch and scoring. It took less than a minute.

The second Cows try came through some god-awful officiating and some equally traumatizing inattention from the Raiders. An excellent kick by ZT was clearly fumbled by the Cowboys custodian only for the ref to blithely ignore it and allow play to continue. With the Raiders (rightly) blowing up Krystal Blackwell saw fit scoop the ball up at dummy half and run right the confused Green Machine on her way to a 90 metre try.

The Raiders finally got on the board courtesy of a combination between Grace Kemp, Chante Temera and Sophie Holyman. Having been on the Cows line for a few sets they were desperate to crack that navy blue wall. Kemp’s power running set the play up, with the Cows having to swarm her between the sticks to halt her progress. Dwarfed by her teammates frame Chante fired a pass back to a perfectly angled Holyman who essentially fell through a gap with her name on it.

Things were looking up – the Raiders were down by just four points, the hectic breeze playing havoc with the Cowboys conversion efforts. The reprieve was short lived.

The Cows game again and this time earned themselves a repeat set after Nicholls failed to clean up an erratic grubber that bobbled every which way. From there the visitors shifted right until Jasmine Peters decided she could just run between Maddie Bartlett and Mackenzie Wiki.

The pain piled up in the 32nd minute when Raftstrand-Smith simply toppled over the line, despite four Canberra defenders, to plant the ball.

Canberra started a mini comeback in the second half, first with a try to debutante Felice Quinlan. Sereana Naitokatoka ran an excellent line, drifting slightly left before making an angled pivot back against the grain, getting tackled and having the awareness to offload the ball left into the hands of Quinlan.

The Raiders third try came in the 64th minute, but only after Naikore added her second to the Cowboys haul. A charging Simaima Taufa smashed into four defenders and simply dragged them with her as she crashed into the in-goal.

The Raiders were back within four points, but it just wasn’t to be. The Cowboys returned to the Raiders try-line and in the final minute of the game sent Jasmine Peters over for her second of the afternoon.

The Raiders are now in the unenviable position of simply playing out the season, and with games against the Titans, Roosters and Eels it’s going to be the toughest of mountains to climb in terms of footy playing form. They need to find some sort of unifying motivator pronto, especially as the comp will expand to 12 teams next year (and hopefully a 6 team finals format).

We know they can beat teams like the Roosters – they just need to remember how.

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Feature image courtesy of NRL.com