BY VIV

And just like that we finish the 2024 season with zero home ground wins (no next week doesn’t count, Bankwest is not home). In this episode the Raiders went down 18-16 to a much improved Eels.

The Eels drew first blood four minutes into the game after a 40/30 kick from Rachael Pearson giving the Eels great field position. Then Mahalia Murphy slipped out of a tackle and crashed over the line. It wasn’t the only time the Raiders let themselves down with ill-discipline. In the 11th minute, Chante Temara got penalised in the ruck, immediately followed by Sophie Holyman and Grace Kemp both being pinged for high tackles.

23 minutes in and Apii Nicholls dropped a poor pass from Maddie Bartlett 10m out from our line. On the next set, Tyla Amiatu had five raiders trying to hold her up. She still managed to roll over and plant the ball down. There were some promising shifts in attack but the Raiders couldn’t hold onto the ball. Going into the sheds at half time they were lucky to be only down by 12 points, have given away four penalties and five errors.

The second half started well with Nicholls, Robins-Reti and Bartlett able to combine to score early. Parramatta gave the Raiders plenty of opportunity to get back into the match. They weren’t able to convert that into points. This was either due to handling errors or the Eels’ stout goal-line defence repeatedly holding the Raiders up over the goal line. 

A Simaima Taufa try was the only thing keeping the Raiders in touch. However, a second 40/30 kick from Pearson led to a Rory Owen try, followed by a penalty goal taking the score to 18-10 and surely the game out of reach. 

In the last minute of the game, Zahara Temara threw a massive pass to Shak Tungai to score a crucial try. It’s here where the Raiders’ poor game management reared its ugly head again. After Tungai scores, you can see her start to race back to get the kick-off. She knew that a conversion was useless and we needed to try and get the ball back. Our captain had other ideas and by the time the conversion was taken, the clock had expired and it was game over. Sure, it was extremely unlikely we would get the win but we needed to give ourselves the opportunity.

Watching the end of this game was like watching the Cowboys game all over again where we got a penalty 30 seconds before half time and instead of trying for points we took a nothing hit up and then let the clock run out. In these close games, awareness of the clock is crucial.

On the positive side, Mackenzie Wiki always looked threatening with the ball today but overall our backline could not make a move stick. So many times the backline shift started and moves that seemed so effortless last year couldn’t stick today and ended up with the Raiders losing possession. Grace Kemp and Holyman tried to lead from the front but Faleono and Pasikala quieter this week coming off the bench.

In the press conference after the game Darrin Borthwick called out the team for playing as individuals instead of a team and hinted at changes to come in next week’s lineup. Given next week’s game is effectively junk time, do we see Georgia Willey or Tatiana Finau get a meaningful run?

1,928 people turned up to GIO to watch the girls play today and they deserved better than to watch the Raiders learn another lesson in discipline, ball handling, and time management.`

To get more of Viv’s takes follow her on Twitter here, or like our page on Facebook. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not. Feature image courtesy of Elesa Kurtz and the Canberra Times.