Talking points: Canberra Raiders star Jack Wighton spins the MRC roulette wheel ahead of crucial Penrith Panthers clash

The Raiders face a nervous wait until the match review committee puts out its charges on Monday, with Wighton placed on report twice.

The first was for a high shot on Knights fullback Lachlan Miller and shouldn't be any real concern for Wighton.

But the second was for a late and high shot on Newcastle halfback Jackson Hastings.

The lateness shouldn't be a concern, but Wighton did catch Hastings high with his shoulder and faces MRC roulette.

Losing Wighton for their clash against the reigning premiers would be a massive blow.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart hoped the MRC would take into account the fact Hastings was falling when contact was made - and he didn't suffer any injuries.

"Hastings got up pretty quick so fortunately there's no problem there - if they take into account he was falling when Jack came in," he said.

"He's just trying to change the momentum, get a bit of energy in a desperate period of play.

"With Jackson falling like that and being collected in that fashion, fortunately he got up quickly.

"Hopefully they see it that way."

It's the tackle that highlights the complexity of trying to solve the concussion problem.

The NRL's doing everything it can to avoid high contact, forcing tacklers to go low so as to not cop the ball carrier in the head.

But that's just putting the tackler's head in the firing line instead - as exemplified by Kurt Mann's tackle on Raiders prop Joe Tapine.

The Newcastle lock went low and Tapine's hip copped him high.

Mann was taken straight off the ground and was not only immediately ruled out of the rest of the game - due to showing category-one symptoms - but also ruling him out of next week's game due to the NRL's new mandatory 11-day stand down.

It was Mann's first game back from a shoulder injury.

The purists might love having three grades played on one day, but if there was ever an advert for not having it - it was the players slipping and sliding all of the Newcastle turf.

There hadn't even been that much rain in the lead-up to the game.

But both the NSW Cup and the under-20 Jersey Flegg Cup played before the NRL sides ran out and you could see the divots on the ground before the main event had even kicked off.

You had the farcical situation of Wighton almost slipping over as he ran through the middle of the Knights defensive line to score his first-half try.

With a virus taking Raiders halfback Jamal Fogarty out and with Jordan Rapana still out suspended, it was unclear who would do the goal-kicking duties for the Green Machine.

Until the Viking-haircutted Corey Harawira-Naera stepped up to convert Hudson Young's opening try.

A quick look at Harawira-Naera's record showed he'd previously taken one conversion in the NRL - which he nailed against North Queensland last year.

He slotted his two attempts against the Knights to keep his perfect record in tact with the Raiders unable to trouble the scorers in the second half.

Hastings struggled from the kicking tee, missing his first two shots - with fullback Lachlan Miller taking over the duties in the second half.

Meanwhile in NSW Cup, Canberra co-captain Jarrod Croker calmly slotted a goal kick in the 79^th minute to give the Raiders a 20-18 victory in the curtain-raiser.

It has some Raiders fans calling for Croker's return to a young Canberra backline.

Adam Reynolds, Latrell Mitchell, Nathan Cleary and now Matt Frawley has joined some of the biggest names in the NRL.

Frawley's calmly taken two-point field goal, on the stroke of half-time elevated him to that company with the effort that gave the Green Machine a six-point lead at the break.

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