Full Team Lists, Round 7: Saturday 12 March 2025, 7.35pm AEST at TIO Stadium, Darwin
Weather: Expected to be Fine
Ground Conditions: Expected to be good
Referee: Wyatt Raymond
Touchies: Drew Oultram, Belinda Sharpe
Senior Review Official (bunker): Grant Atkins
Eels: 1. Isaiah Iongi 2. Josh Addo-Carr 3. Viliami Penisini 4. Sean Russell 5. Zac Lomax 6. Dylan Brown 7. Dean Hawkins 8. Joe Ofahengaue 9. Ryley Smith 10. Junior Paulo 11. Shaun Lane 12. Kitione Kautoga 13. J’maine Hopgood
Bench: 14. Dylan Walker 15. Luca Moretti 16. Charlie Guymer 17. Sam Tuivaiti
18th/Extended bench: 18. Joash Papali’i 19. Dan Keir 20. Bailey Simonsson 21. Ronald Volkman 22. Ryan Matterson
Head Coach: Jason Ryles
Raiders: 1. Kaeo Weekes 2. Savelio Tamale 3. Matthew Timoko 4. Sebastian Kris 5. Xavier Savage 6. Ethan Strange 7. Jamal Fogarty 8. Josh Papali’i 9. Tom Starling 10. Joseph Tapine 11. Hudson Young 12. Matt Nicholson 13. Corey Horsburgh
Bench: 14. Owen Pattie 15. Simi Sasagi 16. Morgan Smithies 17. Ata Mariota
18th/Extended bench: 18. Trey Mooney 19. Jed Stuart 20. Adam Cook 21. Pasami Saulo 22. Danny Levi
Head Coach: Ricky Stuart
Replies
I am sorry, but I am not seeing what others are seeing in Kautogo. What am I missing? He is mistake riddled, does an aweful lot of jogging in the background and makes very few runs. Happy to be told otherwise, but I would take Matto over him ever my day of the week at this stage!
I know what your saying EE, that was my initial thought as well but he has exponentially improved since game one (who hasn't) but I did not like his trials either,
I watched him closely and he has a number of handling and concentration issues BUT he has learnt to move laterally and we have not had a second rower for ages that can do that. He really has a lot of potential and once he eliminates those mistakes he could prove to be pretty special, has guts, runs hard and is built like a Kikau (ex panthers/now dogs).
We have to remember all these young blokes he is blooding, won't become NRL players overnight. This guy has potential that the plodders don't have.
i agree, but last game he pulled a finger out. If you were at the games, you notice him more. I seen him parked on the wing against the dogs
This game has ugly written all over it.
In the fowards I see a more athletic and physical foward pack in the backs I see alot more of the above mentioned with speed to boot.
The only way I see victory here is no errors high completion rate and then coming down to our level.
If we don't show up with the right intent I see a real hiding staring us in the face.
I honestly don't like this game for us just too many bad matchups especially on the edge and outwide.
Yeah but the Raiders hardly ever travel well plus a team from Sydney has more chance to adapt to the Darwin humidity than one from Canberra
I think Canberra win comfortably but put the points on early and just defend the rest of the way. Like HT will be 18-0 then FT will be 20-12 or something like that.
In NQ they struggled around the 15min mark. We are definately a lot fitter than previous years, as apparent by how we finish games stronger than we start. If we are to win, i think simply it is just playing simple, as Coryn said with high completions. Kick early to dead corners and have them work themselves up. They use their middles a lot. So Ryles again may prefer to start Hopgood at Hooker, but i wonder if he will just start Walker at Lock to sure up the middle or if he just uses Guymer for a 20min stint. But use Smith for that energy off the bench can really help in the Darwin heat.
Though i just saw the weather report, it is rain and a storm around Darwin on Saturday night. So kicking game will be key. Fogarty has one of the best kicking games in the game. But we can also put pressure on Weekes.
I remember one year up there we towelled a hot Raiders team up in Darwin by 30 odd but outside of that Darwin's been a graveyard for us the last few visits.
With Lomax out it's going to be harder to win this game but not impossible. I hope Eels notch up their 2nd win. The heat should help the Eels more than Raiders. I'll tip an Eels win by 6 points
Matto needs to go to lock
Gawd our error count let's us down.
Open invitation says 'do us over' to opposition week after weeks:(
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