For what was supposed to be a week off club football, the rep weekend left Raiders fans with plenty to be happy about.
City vs Country was a free flowing, high quality game of footy and our Raiders boys put on an absolute show throughout.
The game ended with 10 tries being scored – Raiders bagging half of them!
Blake Austin was absolutely superb and is proving to be one of the buys of the season.
He’s already demonstrated plenty in the lime green to suggest he’ll be one of the players of the future, and last Sunday he showed that form to viewers across the country.
Now just take that hat trick back to the NRL please, Blake.
The rest of the boys impressed as well.
Jarrod Croker was very solid and scored a brilliant try out wide.
Jack Wighton was equally impressive, scored a try, and put his underrated defence to use throughout.
Paul Vaughan also came close to bagging a try and made plenty of metres with his trademark runs.
The bloke could send Crimsafe back to the drawing board if he took their doors on, such is his strength.
All in all, it was a brilliant display by all the guys and they should head into this week’s game against the Titans with plenty of confidence.
We’ll need that confidence because the Titans have been playing some pretty good footy.
Ironically, leading their side into good form is Raiders 2016 recruit (round 13 deadline pending) Aidan Sezer.
Sam Williams and Aidan might just be battling it out for the halfback spot next year, so keep an eye on these two. Both will have something to prove.
Speaking of something to prove, this weekend should bring out more enthusiasm than a teenage girl waiting on Zayn Malik’s debut album (two 1D references in one year – I’m sorry).
Nate Myles will be keen to show selectors his rep career isn’t over and the Raiders pack will be out to show them it is.
The Titans pack in general will be out to show our boys they can play without the services of Greg Bird.
But who will get them to ‘lift’ when they really need it?
Dad jokes aside, there is plenty to get excited about this weekend.
Our boys are on a roll and are playing some of the best footy we’ve seen in years.
They’ll be keen to continue that roll this weekend and bring some winning form back to the capital.
So get on out there and support our boys this Saturday. It’s daytime footy and it’s not even winter yet so no excuses.
Go Raiders!
