Raph

[Saintschampions08]

Do you "carry" Raph in the seniors and hope he regains last year's form, or do you send him back to the seconds to find that form? It's hard to justify carrying him when there are others pushing up to take that place.

Not last years form, he played 8 games in good form. He was terrible at the start of the year, hit a purple patch at the end of the year...but as far as i've seen, those games are the only good games he's played.

Here's hoping he can improve.

[battye]

Raph was poor today and he's the natural out for Gilbo. IMO Raph in form is in our best 22 but he's a fair way off that form atm.

Others who would like to perform better than today:

Goddard
Baker
Max
Geary
Blake

I can cut Max, Goddard and Geary some slack, Max for first game back and Geary & Goddard for their seasons to date.

Baker and Blake need to lift badly on today and the last few weeks performances.

I thought Blake was fine today. Some solid marks and there was one point where he looked threatening when he went up the ground a bit.

[Spinner]

Is it now unanimous ?

Mistakes and skill errors aside I thought there were about three instances where Raph really showed what he will be capable of.

Two were where he hit the pack extremely hard and work a handball out of nothing, the other was an extremely hard contested spoil.

He showed glimpses in my book - aside from the skill errors....

[saintly_safes]

Im not a big Raph fan,but its not his fault they keep picking him.He is clearly under pressure to perform & he is not good under pressure.He is a talented player but he is not up to it at the moment.I think he needs a spell in the magoos to get some confidence back because at the moment he is shattered.

[saintsRrising]

Raph was very poor today...very poor last week...and ok to poor in his first game back.

Other players are more deserving even if we diid not have Gilbert, Gardi and Milne all de back.

Ben for gardi...assuming that King does no get suspended.

After that the call is a lot tougher.

Gwilts last quarter was good and may see him retained.

Baker, Blake, Geary, Gwilt.....one of them will get squeezed out.

Possibly Zac..but his form has been very good and Zac will be wanted for the Cats game.

[Thinline]

Raph was poor today and he's the natural out for Gilbo. IMO Raph in form is in our best 22 but he's a fair way off that form atm.

Others who would like to perform better than today:

Goddard
Baker
Max
Geary
Blake

I can cut Max, Goddard and Geary some slack, Max for first game back and Geary & Goddard for their seasons to date.

Baker and Blake need to lift badly on today and the last few weeks performances.

Baker and Raph, yes. The others played their part IMO.

[maverick]

Look Raph made mistakes today no doubt, but his effort before half time which ended Warren's day was magnificent, as was his tackle and follow up on the other side of the game. He also works well in close trying to break lines. He needs work on his execution, not his decision making IMO.

He constantly presents himself and takes risks though dangerous parts of the ground which means at stages he will commit clangers.

IMO we don't have enough risk takers in the side and he has to be perservered with in the hope he becomes the top liner the coaching panel thinks he can become.

Grammy was great today, he is another risk taker, but on occasions can turn the ball over. Milney is another.

You can't judge everyone on mistakes alone.

[duckduckduckgoose]

He needs work on his execution, not his decision making IMO.

Are you serious?
Go back and watch the tape and keep count of the poor decisions he made today.
You will get RSI from jotting them all down.

He is the only guy in our team who will leave his man to jump on a 3 saints, 1 opposition pack... and of course, they squeeze the ball out and his man sets up a goal. (check the tape, 2nd quarter i think?)

Or him folding like a deck of cards at a 50/50 contest in defensive 50. (2nd quarter also?)

Not to mention the KILOMETRES of space he gives his direct opponent every week.

Forget official clangers etc.... he has directly cost us many, many goals over the last fortnight.
And in a team with premiership aspirations... there is no room for this much downside.

[kaos theory]

Baker, Blake, Geary, Gwilt.....one of them will get squeezed out.

How does geary fit into that? He has been coming along nicely.

[Solar]

With the caveat that I only watched it on tv and therefore didn't see anything that was occuring outside the camera focus, I thought Raph had a very ordinary game today.
He seemed to turn the ball over by both hand and foot and just 'looked clumsy'.

If either Gilbert or Milne are ready next week, then I think Raph may be dropped. Gilbert in a straight swap, and Milne with some restructuring.

On the other hand I reckon Gwilt showed enough today to give you some confidence that he can play that 'medium forward' role that seems to be the missing piece of our forward line puzzle.
His attack on the ball, especially as the game wore on seemed intense and his ball-handling was 'sure'.

agree with both points

[saintsRrising]

Baker, Blake, Geary, Gwilt.....one of them will get squeezed out.

How does geary fit into that? He has been coming along nicely.

Yes he has...

But we have Milne, Gilbert and Gardi to come in...all are first 22 players and so someone has to be squeezed out.


We are in a very nice place at present.

Raph will IMO be dropped for poor form.....the next two players will be squeezed out by better players. Though if King is suspended that may save Ben for the time being.

[maverick]

He needs work on his execution, not his decision making IMO.

Are you serious?
Go back and watch the tape and keep count of the poor decisions he made today.
You will get RSI from jotting them all down.

He is the only guy in our team who will leave his man to jump on a 3 saints, 1 opposition pack... and of course, they squeeze the ball out and his man sets up a goal. (check the tape, 2nd quarter i think?)

Or him folding like a deck of cards at a 50/50 contest in defensive 50. (2nd quarter also?)

Not to mention the KILOMETRES of space he gives his direct opponent every week.

Forget official clangers etc.... he has directly cost us many, many goals over the last fortnight.
And in a team with premiership aspirations... there is no room for this much downside.

Don't watch the tape for decision making, prefer the actual game, much easier to see the WHOLE picture

[duckduckduckgoose]

Don't watch the tape for decision making, prefer the actual game, much easier to see the WHOLE picture

Couldn't agree more- thats why I had a great view of Raphs decision making/faking at the dome today.

I dont wanna knock him just for the sake of it.

He has been a liability for the last 2 weeks. Period.

[Enrico_Misso]

You can feel the collective groan of 20,000 StK supporters each time he takes possession.

And sure enough, he always decides against the first option, then can't make up his mind, and eventually has to just get rid of it, usually resulting in a turnover.

[maverick]

Don't watch the tape for decision making, prefer the actual game, much easier to see the WHOLE picture

Couldn't agree more- thats why I had a great view of Raphs decision making/faking at the dome today.

I dont wanna knock him just for the sake of it.

He has been a liability for the last 2 weeks. Period.

Look I agree he's struggling, but we need someone like him in the team, he's a line breaker like it or not, we just don't have enough of them.

Personally I hope he stays in until at least the Cats game and would be very interested in how he goes against the very best.

Under pressure in the finals in 08 he cut the mustard, I just don't think that was a fluke.

[borderbarry]

How come everyone is down on Raph for poor form, when Bakes has been poor for longer.

[ausfatcat]

Well ralph did at least two good things today.


Stopped two players from having any further part of the game.

[robbie muir]

Raph Clarke just doesn't seem desperate enough and his disposal today was very ordinary.

With Gardner, Gilbert and Milne all possible inclusions for next Friday i just can't find a position for him

[BringBackMadDog]

Ben for gardi...assuming that King does no get suspended.

Even if King is cleared he must be dropped, his game was disgraceful today, he did not contribute at all except for the ruck contests. I thought Big Ben was far more effective when he was on the field

[JohnE]

Raph and Bakes have to be outs, we've got blokes waiting in the wings that can do better and they should get a couple of games under them before the Cats game...

[Beej]

Should be dropped.

Does not fancy the tough stuff one bit. Couple of times he fumbled when he knew there would be body contact.

If we're fair dinkum about being a hard, uncompromising unit then surely there's no place for Raph in the form he's in at the moment.

Needs to prove a few things before getting another chance IMO.

[claystreet]

All the calls for Blake to be dropped, i had him in our top 10 he was going good.

[bergholt]

Look I agree he's struggling, but we need someone like him in the team, he's a line breaker like it or not, we just don't have enough of them.

Personally I hope he stays in until at least the Cats game and would be very interested in how he goes against the very best.

it's hard to be a "line breaker" when you only have 7 touches.

i think we can probably carry one player on potential, but i'd argue that we're already doing that with gwilt. i don't think we can afford both of them in the side, and on present form gwilt's ahead of raph.