{"id":145545,"date":"2025-09-15T18:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/145545\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T18:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T18:20:06","slug":"nrl-news-2025-billy-slater-exclusive-on-canberra-raiders-defence-vs-broncos-final-vs-sharks-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/145545\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2025, Billy Slater exclusive on Canberra Raiders defence vs Broncos, final vs Sharks, analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater<\/a> is tipping the Raiders<\/a> to exit NRL<\/a> finals in straight sets, and says they desperately need to fix one glaring issue before Saturday’s knockout clash against the Sharks.<\/p>\n

Canberra led Sunday’s qualifying final against Brisbane<\/a> 28-12 before Broncos fullback Reece Walsh sparked an all-time comeback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both sides scored five tries and could only be separated by a Ben Hunt field goal in the 94th minute, following 10 minutes of extra time and four minutes of golden-point chaos.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Horrendous’ detail of alleged abuse aimed at Reed Walsh<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Devastated’: Emotional tributes to boxing great, dead at 46<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Horrendous’ detail in alleged abuse of Reece Walsh<\/a><\/p>\n

The comeback sparked memories of Penrith’s 2023 grand final miracle, when Nathan Cleary orchestrated a Panthers victory over Brisbane with three tries in 14 minutes.<\/p>\n

Slater could not believe the reigning premiers let a 16-point lead slip when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

“I really thought the Raiders were going to go on with it after they scored the first try playing against 11 men,” he told Nine’s The Billy Slater Podcast.<\/p>\n

\"Corey<\/p>\n

Corey Horsburgh of the Raiders reacts during the loss to Brisbane.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“They will look back in the review and think that’s an opportunity missed because they really stopped playing. They stopped playing the way they have been playing all year.”<\/p>\n

A theme emerged from Sunday’s thriller that Slater has been noticing for some time.<\/p>\n

Of Brisbane’s five tries, four of them came on the left side of the goal posts.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In particular, the three tries that cemented the 16-point comeback came courtesy of some flimsy defence on the same Raiders edge.<\/p>\n

The Broncos targeted the Canberra weakness and Slater says Cronulla will do the same this week.<\/p>\n

“The Raiders’ edge defence was awful. That’s a real concern going into not just this week, but the rest of the finals series. Especially the right-hand edge,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There were deficiencies all over the place and it’s not a one off, that’s a regular occurrence for the Raiders. It’s been a real issue for them, and it was the issue on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

“Make no mistake, (the Sharks) will be attacking their left-hand side, attacking the right-hand side defence of the Raiders.<\/p>\n

“Not only do you have to recover physically and emotionally from that defeat, you’ve got to fix some holes and making sure your defence is sound.<\/p>\n

“(Leaking) 29 points in a finals game, after being the minor premiers… defence is key at this time of the year. Look how many points the Panthers conceded (against the Warriors), eight points; the Panthers know how to get it done at this time of year.<\/p>\n

“You have to get your defence rock solid at this time of the year.”<\/p>\n

It was an emotionally draining day for the Raiders, never mind the physical impact of playing 94 minutes of intense rugby league.<\/p>\n

Ricky Stuart and his men thought they had won the game twice, only for the Bunker to bring the players back.<\/p>\n

They led 28-26 at the end of regular time and referee Ashley Klein blew the full-time whistle, before the Bunker found a penalty against Walsh in the final play.<\/p>\n

Canberra then scored a try in extra time only for the review official to find a knock on in the process.<\/p>\n

Slater says it is up to the team’s leaders to get the players back on their feet for Saturday’s do-or-die clash with the Sharks.<\/p>\n

“They’ve got to pick themselves up off the floor, put the emotions to one side and disappointment aside and move on real quick,” he said.<\/p>\n

“(The Sharks) are flying, they’ve got a real feel about them at the moment, and they get the extra 24 hours’ preparation so they will be going down to Canberra really confident.<\/p>\n

“It’s a big task for the Raiders because you don’t want to go out in straight sets after winning the minor premiership, that’s not a tag you want.”<\/p>\n

The Sharks stunned the Roosters on Saturday to earn their trip to the nation’s capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billy Slater is tipping the Raiders to exit NRL finals in straight sets, and says they desperately need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-145545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}