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Celebrating 100 years of establishment is not the only reason that Canberra folks are gleaming with a sense of town pride this year.
The riveting performances of the Raiders in the last two weeks adding an extra reason for residents of the national capital to add a gleaming smile to their faces.
For a decade the Raiders have thrived of the underdog tag, written off before a game has been played before producing riveting strings of wins at the end of the season, yet all attempts being dismantled in the second week of September.
Yet continuity has been a struggle for the Raiders as they failed to field promising seasons back to back.
Yet is the 2013 season one in which the Raiders establish a form of successful continuity and become the first Raiders team since the 1994 premiership team to progress past the second week of the finals series?
Critics would say that the loss of Josh Dugan would make this impossible, de-railing the club and producing yet another season in which the continuity of building success was unable to be achieved.
Yet I believe that this is the wake-up call the club needed, as the departure of Dugan saw with him the departure of off-field issues that marred the club since the loss of Todd Carney. The club can now focus on what it does best, playing vibrant and exhilarating football.
Blake Ferguson has shown in the past two weeks that when his mind is on football he is a superstar in the making and Reece Robinson has proven a more than adequate replacement for Dugan at the back of the field.
While Terry Campese showed no signs of greatness in his return from a knee injury, he can only improve when it comes to September.
With the help of representative forwards David Shillington, Tom Learoyd Lars and Brett White, Canberra now have the personnel to be reckoned with.
The demolition of Newcastle and the gritty defeat of Melbourne in Melbourne showed that the Canberra have the goods with this year and that this time they have gotten their act together early, no need to rely on a late season resurgence.
It is winter and Bruce Stadium is now a freezing fortress. The opposition now knows that a victory in Canberra must be hardly earned.
The only question that remains for Canberra is asserting their dominance in Sydney and ensuring that they can break their second week finals hoodoo that has haunted them ever since their last grand final win. If that can be satisfied, then 2013 could truly be the year of the Raider.
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