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Canberra rode their luck to just do enough to put away the Wests Tigers 22-18 at GIO Stadium on Sunday afternoon but the Green Machine still needs to go up another couple of gears to prove their title credentials.
Beating the team coming last is never going to prove you can mix it with the big guns but even though they are fifth heading into the final month of the season, only the most green-eyed Raiders fan thinks this team can do damage in the playoffs.
Their task of cracking a top-four berth will be made harder with Seb Kris, one of their most impactful players in 2023, limping off with a hamstring injury.
The luckless Wests Tigers can feel hard done by after a crucial try to Kris in the 46th minute came via a pass that Billy Slater described in Nine commentary as “a metre and a half forward” with Jack Wighton and Hudson Young rushing the ball wide.
Such is their poor for-and-against record (the only team with a negative differential among the top 10) Canberra’s hopes of snaring a top-four spot hinge on next Sunday’s trip to AAMI Park where they could leapfrog the Storm, but they won’t go close if they perform like they did against the Tigers.
Tigers coach Tim Sheens was rightfully annoyed at the way the Raiders got the rub of the green when it came to contentious calls from the match officials.
He thought there was a forward pass in the lead-up to the first try and could not comprehend how Kris’ four-pointer was allowed.
“I was pretty disappointed with a few of the decisions. I’ve got to congratulate Rick for coaching a side that didn’t give away one extra set of six, according to our statistician, so very good coaching,” he said in a sly jab at the officials via his former premiership-winning protege Ricky Stuart.
“That first try, the lead-up pass, I was pretty unhappy with that. That’s something I’ll take up with the referees, which I do every week.
“The ball bounced their way tonight and we had the opportunity to win it and didn’t right up to that last set.”
Sheens said they’ve had “one of two major hiccups” but they’re competing most weeks and improving as the season has worn on.
Ricky Stuart looked like the coach of a team that had just copped a flogging when he fronted up to the media after the game.
“Our biggest enemy is us. You’re not going to get to your standard when you’re four out of 10, that’s what our completion rate was,” he said, although it could also be their marks for their performance.
“The opportunity that was there for us, we just didn’t nail the execution.”
Stuart found a silver lining in the fact their defence was fairly strong despite Kris, Elliott Whitehead (head knock) and Nick Cotric failing to finish the game.
“That’s the only thing that got us over the line tonight, our toughness,” he added. “We played some really dumb footy in the second half where we could have shut down that game a lot sooner than what we did.”
The first 20 minutes is supposed to be the traditional softening-up period in rugby league.
But the first quarter of the match in Canberra was a stuffing-up period with both teams blowing golden scoring opportunities.
Canberra centre Matt Timoko was first to make the lowlights reel with a dud pass with the line beckoning and then teammate Albert Hopoate fumbled over the line in a tackle from Jahream Bula.
The Tigers fullback returned serve when he botched one of his own when he made a blatant double movement off a high kick and Wighton made a mess of a pass to Hopoate which went over his hands into touch when the first try looked like finally happening.
“For a player of his calibre, that’s a poor pass,” said Fox League analyst Cooper Cronk.
Wests winger Charlie Staines continued the comedy of errors when he won the race to a Luke Brooks kick but ended up kneeing it over the dead-ball line.
Joseph Tapine. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
It took an ounce of luck in the 26th minute the scoreboard attendant to make a move.
A Wighton kick bounced away from Bula and David Nofoaluma for Kris to break the drought in the 25th minute.
Young touched down and could have had another one but Kris opted not to pass inside to him on a break, putting in a wobbly kick ahead instead which bounced over the sideline.
Just when you thought putting points was beyond them, the Tigers produced a pearler.
Nofoaluma plucked an intercept close to his line and when the cover defence caught up to him, the veteran winger flung a spiral pass infield to Brooks who found Staines speeding to the opposite corner post.
The 10-6 half-time advantage became a 10-point lead for the Raiders when Kris criss-crossed past four defenders on a long-range run after collecting the dubious Wighton pass, which Young appeared to brush even further forward, on the bounce.
His eventful match ended early soon after when he limped off with a hamstring injury.
Nofoaluma notched his 100th try for the Wests Tigers midway through the second stanza when a Brooks bomb was batted back and Koroisau kicked cleverly for his unmarked winger.
Timoko made it 22-12 but again the Tigers clawed their way back into the contest when Brooks sped onto a Koroisau grubber to cut the gap to four heading into the final 10 minutes.
But their last-ditch attacking forays kept falling short due to pushed passes and poor handling, and the Raiders hung on to record the ugliest of wins in the national capital.
The Tigers’ luck could be summed up by a desperation last-minute play – a cross-kick from Brooks bounced unfavourably for Nofoaluma, who was then smashed into touch by Wighton after he had to wait to regather it.
Wests then got a penalty and launched a couple more Hail Mary kicks on their bonus play after the siren but Canberra scrambled from one side of the field to the other to snuff them out.