BY ROB

The heartbreak of last Sunday evening still echoes in my mind. I, like all of you good readers, am frustrated that our beloved Raiders couldn’t close out that first home final. Angry that once again NRL officiating seems to be more about vibes rather than any meaningful consistency. Terrified that those whirlwind 93 minutes against the Broncos will have taken too much charge from the Green Machine’s battery.

But here we are, on the wrong side of the sliding doors of history. If we want these men in green to reach the top of Mt Premiership we’ll have to watch them go the long way round.

Sticky will have had to deploy all of his coaching nous during the week. How long do you let them rest and recuperate for? How long do you spend fine-tuning those little sticking points? The right edge defence remains an ongoing concern.

The Sharks will smell blood in the water. Having toppled the Roosters they’ll be confident they can at least have a crack, aware that the Milk have a painful short turnaround. They’ll be coming for those edges, particularly on their left hand side.

If the Raiders wish to stay alive they’ll need to drum up the kind of energy reserves granted to a hyperactive child ten minutes from bedtime. They can’t show Cronulla even a moment of lethargy.

I won’t bang on about specific players this week, with the exception of Starling and Pattie. The younger rake needs to be on during regulation time, the earlier the better. Starling is having the best year of his career, but the immense workload placed on him would tire anyone. Sticky needs to find that perfect moment where Cronulla’s forwards begin to slow and make the switch.

Canberra came so close last week, and had things fallen differently they’d be enjoying a week off, awaiting the results of the Panthers/Dogs encounter. However this is the hand they were dealt, now they must play it or fold.

Lastly, while we are all living in a state of apprehensive limbo, a reminder that according to the so called experts we shouldn’t even be playing finals footy. This band of men saw off the majority of their challengers in the regular season, claiming their first silverware in 35 years. From where I stand I think they’ve done pretty bloody well.

Up the Milk!

In Conclusion

It’ll take everything they’ve got and more, but given the things we’ve seen this year anything’s possible when these guys take the field.

Raiders by a hard-fought 4 points!

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