Ricky Stuart set it up all week with one of the crankiest displays we've seen from him a while. He was prickly, snarly and bristling at everything. It was done for a reason. The decision to catch a gameday flight to Sydney would have helped, too. It won't make up for last year's grand final, but it will help a little.

I still think it's going to be a huge effort to be a premiership threat with all their injuries, in particular to Josh Hodgson. But this is a great tonic.

The Roosters? Trent Robinson will be privately fuming with how they threw away that half-time lead.

And how about those tries they conceded? I can't remember the Roosters conceding so many tries straight up the guts. The Raiders just kept driving straight down Main Street, and the matchwinner to Josh Papalii was the best evidence of that.