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saintkid wrote:Poor Raph tried hard today and not fair to bag him. He gave his all and put his body on the line a few times but the reality is he is never going to be a game breaker and is really a fringe player at best.
At least he has heart and makes a contest unlike the gutless softc*#k Gram.
Great stuff. Can I sit next to you at the footy next week.
As long as you don't tell me how "important" Gram is for the team who AGAIN copped abuse from plenty out there today....me included.
saintkid wrote:Poor Raph tried hard today and not fair to bag him. He gave his all and put his body on the line a few times but the reality is he is never going to be a game breaker and is really a fringe player at best.
At least he has heart and makes a contest unlike the gutless softc*#k Gram.
Great stuff. Can I sit next to you at the footy next week.
As long as you don't tell me how "important" Gram is for the team who AGAIN copped abuse from plenty out there today....me included.
Well you are a true supporter them or a knob. I will go with a knob.
Great stuff. Can I sit next to you at the footy next week.
As long as you don't tell me how "important" Gram is for the team who AGAIN copped abuse from plenty out there today....me included.
Well you are a true supporter them or a knob. I will go with a knob.
Thanks for the compliment....again. Coming from a delusional supporter like you its quite "heart warming" to be called a knob. There sure was a LOT of knobs out there today when it came to Gram's insipid gutless performance but you keep defending him. This joker of a footballer would have been dropped a long time ago playing that kind of footy at any of the top 4 clubs (or others for that matter). You know why the Pies are such a good club because every one of the 22 that put on their jumper play with a ton of ticker.
If you still think Gram is a player that is going to help us get back to the top again, then you should be calling yourself a "knob".
As long as you don't tell me how "important" Gram is for the team who AGAIN copped abuse from plenty out there today....me included.
Well you are a true supporter them or a knob. I will go with a knob.
Thanks for the compliment....again. Coming from a delusional supporter like you its quite "heart warming" to be called a knob. There sure was a LOT of knobs out there today when it came to Gram's insipid gutless performance but you keep defending him. This joker of a footballer would have been dropped a long time ago playing that kind of footy at any of the top 4 clubs (or others for that matter). You know why the Pies are such a good club because every one of the 22 that put on their jumper play with a ton of ticker.
If you still think Gram is a player that is going to help us get back to the top again, then you should be calling yourself a "knob".
Good stuff. If you are saintkid I pity what saint dad taught you as a supporter.
Saad got caught today from spud Farritto, plus he made dumb decisions...Millera also, so did Rhys Stanley - the team needs to learn to make better decisions going inside 50...Kosi was woeful, Blakey was tired and Goddard and Milne were distracted.
Goddard kicked it like Gilbert today....the goal would've started the 2nd half for us with some momentum. Even Roo made dumb decisions. What's the point of Roo leading when it's a hard lead and he's running into the boundary on the forward pocket....chances are you get an out of bounds if you try and honour his lead because he's running towards the line, or even if you hit him, he's got a low chance of snagging it from the angle...probably a 1 out of 10 chance, so it's a dumb lead by the captain.
can't believe I'm saying this but I gotta agree with St. Pav here
that being said...
really hard to defend that performance from Raph today. He just has this way about him that makes everything look so difficult... and it's frustrating because it undoes so much of his hard work... wish his team mates had his ticker and work rate
I don't know anymore because he's become such a divisive figure that rational arguments either way are very hard to find.
I'll let match committee make the call
STRENGTH THROUGH LOYALTY.
''I still get really excited, and I've got the '66 thing up on the wall in a frame … You look at it and think: one day, we want to achieve that.''- Arryn Siposs
a real diversity of opinion across the forums on Raph tonight. Have seen some say it was his best game for quite a while! I reckon no one who was actually AT the game tonight would have been applauding Raph's game. His courage is undoubted, but his skills, decision making and execution are generally dreadful. I reckon his papers are now well and truly stamped. Hope so anyway.
I disagree with the OP.
Yes the run down was a shocker, and a sad reminder of past instances.
But for most of the night, Raph was the backbone of any defense we had. He crunched every pack, spoiled brilliantly, took courageous marks, laid desperate tackles, and generally took on about half of all the courageous and body-crushing work on the backline. And, more often than not, delivered well to his teammates downfield.
Tragically flawed, yes. But he deserves to be greatly valued and admired too.
raph spent most of the game playing on an opponent who was far taller than him. Even so he did really well and put in a massive effort. Yes he got run down but he was not the only player to make mistakes. Our real problem is that we do not have a true full back and so we are playing raph and jimmy gwilt in positions that just do not suit them. Problem was made worse early in the third term when Blake left the ground and did not return. Agree about bringing simpkin back and seeing blake limping after the game think that will probably happen. But even simpkin is simply not tall enough.
There were worse players out there tonight.
Any good thing he does is instantly negated by 2 or 3 shocking things so people who try and stand up for him with he did this or that right are just ignoring the other stupid things he does.
First he kicks to a 50/50 contest in the middle of the ground, maybe you let it slide because it was a once off but low and behold he does the exact same thing again about 10 minutes later.
Then after Geary's kick he has a stroll down the corridor and uses his tunnel vision to kick it to Kosi of all people and completely ignores the three players to his left who are goal-side of their opponents and have about 3-5 metres on them. Certain goal if he hits one of them up.
I don't need to mention him getting run down for probably the thousandth time in his career, but I will. He had three options again which was obviously too many for him to make a decision so he ridiculously takes another bounce and by the time the thought of kicking the ball goes from his brain to his foot he once again gets caught holding the ball.
These are the sort of game changing mistakes he's been making for years and he still hasn't learnt.
Ok so the run down was a shocker but that was only one incident.
Can anyone please detail 1 other incident in the game that Raph clearly made an error on? I'm not after the generic 'bad decisions' or 'turnovers' crap, i am looking for a clear description of the error and if you know roughly when it happened I will happily go back and look at the replay to be proven wrong, but from where I was sitting his game wasn't that bad tonight and was not the worst by a long way.
Raph is couragous, committed and he's not our worst. However, Raph has never been more than a good athlete who is a bottom six player. He has had more chances than most and is no part of the future. When he's in the side he'll give his all, but when he's in the side he's delaying the development of a better prospect. He's not alone either.
The millisecond after Raph was run down I thought to myself: "10 page thread".
Typical bunch of clueless sooks you lot of Raph badgers are.
Raph at least played with COURAGE and COMMITMENT.
Can't say that about many of the spuds yesterday.
Sure, his ability to get run down is his biggest weakness, but there is ZERO chance I'd drop him on the back of that performance.
Plenty of injured and out of form players ahead of him. He'd be about number 7 on the list to go out. Watters won't make 7 changes. Raph stays.
Saintspremiers, please don't let the facts get in the way of a 10 page Raph bagging thread......LOLOLOL
Seriously, I would drop BJ ahead of Raph if you want to choose a player to drop on last nights performance (and he wouldn't be the only one). Heck, 3/4 of the team would have been dropped!!!! That is the worst performance I have seen from us in 12-18 months!!! The break just didn't work for us (similar to Adelaide last week). Bring on the 6 day breaks.....
Anyhoo, lets get back to the predictable and unwarranted Raph bashing....seems to help a few supporters on here to feel better after a loss......
Take a look at yourselves you bunch of Raph hating dills!
Look at the posters who jumped onto the bandwagon to can Raph!
He got ran down from behind, as did Saad which cost us a goal, but no mention of that. Probably because Saad got so few possessions his game was not worth mentioning, as with Kosi.
