There’s a sense of relief in the camp at the moment. We’ve got our first win on the board and it feels good. No one wants to be 0-2 after two rounds of the comp and our win over South Sydney had a lot of merit.

We did the hard work and got the result. Did anyone see my cover tackle? I just proved I still have pace and our centres better watch themselves!

Speaking of the outside backs I thought one of ours was far more deserving of the man of the match award. While I’m happy to take it as the $1000 comes in handy I would have thought Joel Reddy was a deserving candidate.

While I’m talking about guys who have impressed at the club this year I think Joe Galuvao has really begun to show us all why he was such a success at Penrith a few years ago. We all know how damaging Joe can be it’s just a matter of getting it out of him.

Fuifui Moimoi and Eric Grothe have also impressed me, although Guru’s constant high shorts at training are getting to be a little disconcerting. Those white legs hurt the eyes.

After knocking off South Sydney we take on a Raiders side with their backs against the wall this week. That’s when they get dangerous and despite the fact they are 0-2 after a tough loss to the Tigers and a belting at the hands of the Roosters we are very wary of them and will not be talking ourselves up heading into the game.

The aim as a team this year is to keep level heads no matter how many wins we string together. Last year we didn’t do that and ended up looking like idiots.

We have to watch Terry Campese in particular. The youngster never actually looks like he is doing anything and then finds a way to stroll through a gap created out of nothing. He is classy and we can’t give him a chance.

Having said all that I’m happy we are playing Canberra at Parramatta Stadium. I don’t usually say this about teams but the Raiders are a side you want to play at your home ground. They always lift when they are in Canberra compared to how they play when they are away.

I notice forwards are dominating the Dally M count at the moment with Adam Blair and Steve Price on top and myself one point off them. Hopefully this is the year of the prop or back rower, for the first time since David Fairleigh won it while at North Sydney in 1994.

While I’m not really concerned about the Dally M what I do want is a rep jumper. I’ve made no secret I’d like to wear the sky blue again and will really be thinking about that in a few weeks time.

There’s been a lot written about the future of footy clubs this week and if someone had of asked me about the future of Parramatta five years ago I probably wouldn’t have worried as much, but the fact is these days in the current economic climate I am concerned.

Poker machine taxes have hurt the clubs and the longer I am here the more I want to see the club stand on it’s own two feet and never have to face a merger possibility. I don’t know the secret to financial success for the club but I do urge fans to get out and support us as often as you can and we’ll try and repay you with wins.

Growing up the Illawarra Steelers were my local team and I hated it when they had to merge with St George. I didn’t want them to merge, especially with the dreaded Dragons. A mate of mine Keith Gardiner, who will detest me for writing this, is that big a Dragons fan he cried when they lost a semi final game and after the odd win as well. There’s your moment of fame buddy!

It’s good to see that we are getting some good press at the moment, I didn’t take Archie and Buster to recovery for a stunt though, they have been a bit sick lately so they wanted to get out of the house.

Apparently Jarryd Hayne was quite well behaved at the races as well, sipping on wine and being a good lad, nice work Haynesy.

For all the horse racing fans out there I’m going with Roman Emperor at Rosehill as my tip of the week. He was climbing all over them two weeks ago but couldn’t ‘get out’.

If anyone can give me some help in Dream Team I need it. I’ve been scoring in the 500 point range but can’t seem to get the extra 100 points the leaders have.

So far my team has the likes of  Petero Civoniceva, Craig Fitzgibbon, Chris Heighington and Glenn Stewart leading the way up front with the likes of Luke Burt, Hazem el Masri and Luke Covell getting me some points in the backline.

Hindy

Sometimes life provides opportunities you don’t expect, so when I got to New Zealand last week and found out the Indian cricket team were staying at the same hotel, my first instinct was to sprint to the Rebel store downstairs and buy a bat for Sachin Tendulkar to sign.
 
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Saying it’s been a tough week for our game is probably the understatement of the week, but I would like to offer my thoughts.
 
I was as shocked as everyone when I first heard about Brett Stewart’s alleged incident. Too often rugby league players have been caught up in scandal but anyone who knows Brett knows [...]