Defence the key focus this weekCanberra Raiders Captain David Shillington was noticeably disappointed over Sunday’s result at the side’s recovery session today at CISAC, but has stressed that the team is confident in their ability to bounce back this week against the Manly Sea Eagles at Brookvale Oval.
The side came up against a red hot Cronulla Sharks outfit that has now won six on the trot, and whilst the Green Machine displayed glimpses of what they are capable of, the game was a timely reminder of the level they need to reach as they strive to be a force in this year’s competition.
“It certainly was disappointing,” lamented Shillington. “I was pretty confident going into that game, I know a lot of people have written us off with Campo [Terry Campese]being out but I’ve still got plenty of confidence in the team and I know that the rest of the boys and the coaching staff feel the same.”
Todd Carney’s masterful kicking game earned his side repeat set after repeat set and in the end the monstrous defensive effort required by the Raiders and the superior amount of possession Cronulla enjoyed proved the difference.
Cronulla enjoyed an enormous 61% of possession which forced the Raiders to make an extra 118 tackles.
“I think Cronulla must’ve had a dozen more sets than us and with their forward pack going forward so well it gave Todd Carney a lot of room to move. On the other end of the scale, our forward pack wasn’t going forward too well and it makes it very hard for our halves to play footy.”
“The lack of possession and also a lack of quality field positioning made it a really tough day for our halves.”
“We’ve got a bit of work to do this week and we’re all motivated to come back to training tomorrow and rip in. It was a shame to go down like that, especially at home. It wasn’t a great game in the end for us and we’ll have to work hard again this week to turn it around against Manly.”
Defence will be the focus this week in preparation for the encounter against the high-flying Sea Eagles, a side whose forward pack’s offloading ability rivals that of the Sharks.
“Defence will have to be a big thing that we’re going to have to work on this week. In the middle we just weren’t as effective as we could’ve been. We let them find their front too much and pop some balls out the back and on the edge we were just clean missing too many tackles. If we have a really big defensive focus this week it’ll go a long way to turning our performance around.”
“We’ll come to training tomorrow with a big defensive attitude and continue to train hard all week to prepare for the game as best we can. Manly are always really hard to beat at Brookvale and away games don’t come much tougher than that. It’ll be hard but I know if we rip into our defensive work at training and get our principles back we’ll go a long way to beating them.”
Source: Raiders
Topic: Raiders to Work on Defence Ahead of Trip to Brookvale
