BY VIV

We have made it to the end of another NRLW season for the Raiders. Round 9 sees us taking on the Gold Coast Titans in a junk time. The potential outcomes are:

• We win by a bigger margin than the Dragons win – we finish 7th
• We lose by less than 84 points we finish 8th or 9th depending on how the Dragons go
• If we lose by more than 84 points we get the spoon

The last time we took on the Titans we lost 30-6 and they continued onto the grand final. This year the Gold Coast have failed to live up to those expectations and will be doing a lot soul searching about where it all went wrong. Part of this can be explained by their injury toll. Lauren Brown has been ruled out with a broken hand, Niall Williams-Guthrie has a lisfranc fracture and Rilee Jorgensen is out with a back injury. On top of this, the Titans lost their prop Ngatokotoru Arakua who is serving a 2-match suspension for a hip drop tackle last week.

So who is lining up for the Titans this week? Unfortunately for the Raiders, Jaime Chapman looks set to start in centre which will keep Cheyelle Robins-Reti busy in defence. Evania Pelite continues at fullback and Karina Brown returns for her last ever game of NRLW before retirement. The Titans forward pack has been unchanged for most of this season – Jess Elliston, Shannon Mato, Shaylee Bent and Georgia Hale should be familiar names by now.

If the Raiders want to play smart and draw on their experience there are opportunities in this game to test the Titans’ decision-making. Lailani Montgomery, Sarina Masaga, Georgia Grey and Lily-Rose Kolc are all in their rookie seasons. Georgia Grey has impressed on the wing this season scoring 2 tries in 7 games in her first season as a development player for the Titans.

The Raiders name a completely unchanged side for the last game of this season, some “commentators” described this side as “full strength” before we went down to the Eels last week. 

Key Matchups

Ash Quinlan and Lailani Montgomery

Ash has had a great 2024 and it’s a shame to see her sign with the Bulldogs for next year. Her experience in NRLW and touch football brings class to our attacking moves when we can make them stick. Lailani Montgomery has been filling in at halfback and five-eighth this season to cover injury and suspension. Ash should be able to put pressure on Montgomery’s decision-making this weekend to improve the Raiders’ field position.

Georgia Hale and Simaima Taufa

Simaima Taufa received her second Mal Meninga medal this week as the Raiders’ NRLW player of the year – averaging 169 run metres per game, 16 tackle breaks for the season and scoring 4 tries. It’s easy to take her hard work for this team for granted. Georgia Hale is the Kiwi Ferns lock and has had a quieter season (103 running metres/game on average but is making 96% of her tackles) These players are the heart of their teams and will be looking to inspire their teammates to victory on Sunday

Conclusion:

I’m tired of being sad, Raiders by 12 and Apii Nicholls to score her first NRLW try!

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