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The Raiders premiership favourites? Not if Ricky can help it

18th August, 2016
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Ricky Stuart was frustrated by Darren Lockyer more than once. (Photo by Colin Whelan copyright © nrlphotos.com)
Expert
18th August, 2016
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You’d think given the Raiders’ recent strong results, that their players, administrators and coaching staff might be positive about the future. Upbeat even.

No chance.

There is a serious siege mentality growing in Canberra, and they aren’t about to get excited about anything.

There are historical reasons for that.

Back in 1987, the Raiders had made their first grand final and were given a motorcade through the city. That Sunday they got toweled up by Manly in the decider.

In the four grand finals they played in the following seven years, they never got carried away early like that again.

Ricky Stuart has form from those days of being totally against any celebrations until the job was actually done.

I know because I was there.

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The date was Sunday, August 1, 1993, when a far slimmer me with more hair took up my customary position on the old Bruce Stadium hill to watch the Raiders take on the Balmain Tigers.

While the brutal attacking machine that was ’93 Canberra were scoring with relative ease against the Alan Jones-coached Tigers, their application in defence was appalling. They were falling off tackles left, right and centre.

It worried me. Just after the Raiders had scored another try on their inevitable march to victory, Ricky positioned himself on the sideline in front of where I was sitting for the upcoming kick-off. I took the opportunity to yell out to the side’s general, “Get them to tackle, Ricky!”

Ricky turned around and stared at me with a look of anger and contempt that only he and a few select others can accomplish.

(Editor’s note: Tim Gore has a foghorn for a voice, which makes all of this very understandable.)

Tim Brasher subsequently played out of his skin and the Tigers came back to draw the game 32-32.

Ricky’s next offering in the Canberra Chronicle was a pointed article telling me and every Raiders supporter that we were a polo crowd. That we had to yell, urge the players on, and tell them what we expected.

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On Sunday, September 18, 1994, at the SFS, I was at the northern end behind the sticks for the preliminary final.

In the final play of the game, the Bears were on the attack. A grubber was put into the in-goal and Ken Nagas and Brett Mullins watched it go dead right in front of me.

The Raiders had made the grand final. Nagas and Mullins jumped excitedly into each others’ arms, at which point I stood up and bellowed, “What are you celebrating for?! You’ve won nothing! One more game! One more game!”

Ricky heard me and pointed at me while yelling at Mullins and Nagas for being undisciplined puppies, who indeed should not have been celebrating anything.

The Raiders did celebrate a week later when they smashed the Bulldogs 36-12. That is the last celebration the club has had.

Now, 22 years later, Ricky is again making sure that every single member of his Canberra Raiders crew does not celebrate a damn thing.

Ricky’s siege mentality was on clear display at Monday night’s press conference:

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“We have been criticised and bashed and bagged for many years. We’ve got long memories. We’ll keep our heads down and just keep working hard.”

Any suggestion you might make to a member of the team, coaching staff or the Raiders admin staff that things are looking the best they have since 1995 you’ll get hit in return with a cliché that deflects any thought that the team is anything but an unfinished project.

“Mate, we’re just happy to get the two points.”

“We just need to stick to our game plan and the rest will sort itself out.”

All the talk after the win over the Storm was the about Canberra’s outstanding defence, missing 14 fewer tackles than the Storm. After a poor start to the season statistically, they are now second-best in the NRL for missed tackles, fifth-best for line breaks conceded, and fifth-best for metres conceded.

I tried to congratulate the architect of their defence, ex-Bulldog Dean Pay, after the game. His response?

“Long way to go yet.”

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He didn’t even smile. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile. I have no idea if he’s even got teeth.

The attack is going gangbusters. They are the leading try-scoring side so far this season with 95, to Cronulla with 91 in second. Third is daylight.

“There are still lots of things we need to improve.”

They are third-best for line breaks and fourth for metres gained. They have made 70 more tackle breaks than the next-best side, and 110 more than the third best.

“We haven’t achieved anything yet.”

Canberra also seem to have the favour of the referees this season, as the top-ranked team for penalties received.

“We aren’t kidding ourselves, things can change very quickly.”

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As opposed to previous years, the side has great depth. Their reserves side, the Mounties, have secured the minor premiership with proven first-grade players Sam Williams, Shaun Fensom, Paul Vaughn, Jeff Lima and Jarrad Kennedy playing.

Up-and-coming talents in Zac Santo, Nick Cotric, Kato Ottio and Zac Woolford wait in the wings for their chance.

“We are only concentrating on what we can control.”

Whereas in seasons past Raiders sides have featured more than a few weak links for oppositions to target, this season it is hard to point to any one player. Aidan Sezer’s 2.5 missed tackles a game are the side’s worst, but he has Josh Papalii as his protector, as Cooper Cronk twice discovered to his detriment.

“Nobody here is reading the press.”

Jack Wighton had a horror start to the season with errors, and he still leads the NRL with 31. However, his last seven rounds have only yielded six errors in total. He has become a deadly and confident part of the team in both attack and defence.

“We are keeping a lid on it.”

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The Raiders side are fifth for penalties conceded. In the last four years – with the exception of the Broncos last year – the grand finalists have all been in the top five for penalties conceded. Why wouldn’t they? It’s not like they’ll get sin binned.

“Grand finals aren’t won in August.”
(Well, excepting August 2000.)

Cameron Smith complained that many of the ten infringements Canberra were penalised for during the match last weekend were deliberately conceded in order to hold their line. When Steve Mascord put that allegation to Ricky after the match, he responded, “We learnt that from Cam.”

“Full credit to the boys for their effort today. Now we’ve got to put it behind us and concentrate on next week.”

They are averaging 19 points conceded a match, which is a bit high for a genuine contender. However, that figure is coming down fast. Over the last five games they are averaging just 12 points conceded.

“A lot of things can change in a short period.”

Sezer and Blake Austin are yet to click as a halves combination. Between them, they’ve only got 11 of the team’s 65 try assists and seven of 62 line break assists. But here’s the thing: Canberra are outscoring all of the other sides, and their halves haven’t got into their groove yet? What will happen when they do?

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“We are happy to fly under the radar.”

Lots of people are waiting for the side to fall back into its fading ways from recent seasons past. However, of the 28 players that Stuart had at his disposal for the 2014 season, just ten are still with the club and only seven are regular first-graders. The team that was no longer is.

“We won’t be resting on our laurels because we don’t have any.”

The team only has one Origin player, Papalii. Surely a side needs more stars if they are to win a premiership? Not necessarily.

In 2003 the Panthers only had Scott Sattler coming off the bench for Queensland in Game 2. In 2008, Brett Stewart was the Sea Eagles’ only representative in the showpiece series. And the Wests Tigers in 2005 didn’t have a single Origin player.

“We won’t be getting carried away.”

But it is hard for some not to get carried away. The crowd of almost 16,000 that turned out on Monday night was far from the biggest that I’ve seen at the stadium, but those fans who braved the cold were incredibly vocal in their support. I haven’t heard anything like it for years.

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I haven’t seen the Raiders line defended so well since Steve Walters and Brad Clyde were on it. I haven’t seen such a powerful and deadly back line since Ricky and Laurie Daley were running it.

But don’t try and get Ricky and his boys excited about the clear promise at hand. They won’t have a stinking bar of it.

“We won’t be congratulating ourselves for a job half done.”

No. No they won’t. And I guess that’s for the best.

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