The NRL’s opening fixture on home soil to kick off the 2024 season was not necessarily a clash of the titans but Newcastle and Canberra served up an intense contest more representative of the competition’s weekly grind than the glamour of Las Vegas.
While the Knights were rusty, the written-off Raiders were fired up to prove their many critics wrong that they could still be finals contenders despite the departure of former Dally M Medal winner Jack Wighton.
And the Green Machine continued the tipster’s nightmare start to the year when they peeled off the third straight upset in as many matches on the back of Manly beating Souths and the Roosters rolling Brisbane in Vegas.
There was nothing flashy about this 28-12 triumph. With Corey Horsburgh suspended, Josh Papalii and Joseph Tapine laid the groundwork through the middle, Jamal Fogarty directed the team where they needed to be in attack and the Raiders gritted their way to a first-up victory.
Wooden spoon talk spurs Raiders on
Canberra have been widely predicted to be among the also-rans, even wooden spooners this year, despite making the playoffs last season and nearly advancing to the second round before being beaten in a controversial thriller against the Knights in Newcastle.
In a perverse way, their coach Ricky Stuart will be happy with his team being panned by the so-called experts because it will add further fuel to the fire of his eternal rage.
“It’s only game one,” Stuart said. “It’s been a fun off-season. All the younger players have rejuvenated life and energy and when the senior boys came back after their rep commitments, they took the training to another standard.
“I’ve got to credit the buy-in from the whole group.”
Zac Hosking is tackled. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
New five-eighth Ethan Strange had a few eye-catching moments and the 19-year-old playmaker, who represented NSW in the under-19 Origin ranks last year, is clearly a player of the future.
“I think people will see we’ve got something to work with,” Stuart said when asked about his young pivot. “It’s only going to get better.”
Knights never in the contest
Newcastle, after being one of the form teams for the second half of 2023, are expected to again be playoff contenders and potential top-four threats.
But they will just be making up the numbers if they play too often like their opening performance.
Of course this was just one game and they are hoping to have influential hooker Jayden Brailey back from a hamstring injury next Saturday when they head north to the tropics to face the Cowboys.
Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien stuck by incumbent duo Jackson Hastings and Tyson Gamble as his starting halves ahead of off-season recruits Jack Cogger and Will Pryce so he has options if he would like to shake up his line-up early in the season.
“I thought we started OK, especially defensively,” O’Brien said.
“Our game lacked any sort of grit. We were impatient. It felt like we wanted the highlight reel. The other mob, they scored four tries on the last play, they were scrappy tries but that’s what they wanted.
“They came here wanting to get into a scrap and I don’t reckon we did and we got a lesson on what wins the first month of footy, that’s high completions and working hard all the way through to the back end of the set and not looking for the easy way out.”
O’Brien was not concerned about a contentious disallowed try to Tyson Frizell and said they had much bigger problems than whingeing about the refs.
Young shoulders on Ponga’s head
Newcastle looked like a team short of a gallop in the early stages, kicking out on the full twice and coming up with some basic handling errors.
They conceded a crusher tackle penalty on their line for Canberra to open the scoring and Jamal Fogarty also kicked accurately for Zac Hosking to fly high in his first match as a Raider for an 8-0 lead after 26 minutes.
The Green Machine managed to power over the line despite being down to 12 after Hudson Young was marched for 10 minutes.
Knights star Kalyn Ponga cut through the defence in the middle of the field to send Tyson Gamble away for a try which was called back due to an obstruction.
Young had time to pull out of the hit on Ponga after he passed to Gamble and although the raucous McDonald Jones Stadium crowd of 22,378 were calling for him to be sent off after sending their fullback flying, the sin bin was the right call.
“If we’re going to start sin-binning people for that, we’re going to be playing a lot of games with 12,” Stuart said. “If that is a sin bin offence and then that is a week off (suspended), it’s got to be consistent every week, every game. But it won’t be.”
Young will at worst cop a minor charge from the match review committee, Knights prop Leo Thompson should be right for his early crusher tackle but Raiders forward Emre Guler is likely to get a week or two for a hi-drop tackle.
Newcastle cashed in on their advantage just before Young returned to the fray when Frizell crashed through the stretched edge defence where his opposing second-rower would have been.
Canberra regained the momentum eight minutes into the second half when Danny Levi scooted over from dummy-half to give the visitors a thoroughly deserved 14-6 advantage.
Time and again the Knights had a chance to hit back but let themselves down with poor options and worse handling.
The Raiders all but sealed their boilover result in the 64th minute when a Fogarty bomb was claimed by Matt Timoko while three Knights stood idly by and the centre offloaded for Xavier Savage to touch down in the corner for a 14-point lead.
There was no way back for the Knights 10 minutes from full-time when an Adam Elliott knock-on led to Strange and Timoko combining well to give Jordan Rapana a saloon passage to the stripe.
A consolation try to Hastings in the closing stages reduced the margin but did little to restore sheen to the Knights’ lacklustre display as Young barged over in the final minute to heap more misery on the home side.
Cam
Roar Rookie
Hard to know until those blokes come back, but there has been plenty of talk that Horsburgh will go into the prop rotation. Both Hudson Young and Hoskin are 80 minute edge forwards. Maybe Smithies, Whitehead and the Horse share minutes at 13, with Horsburgh also rotating through prop (which is kind of the same role ). Levi looked good and will hold his spot, Starling also have them punch off the bench, so maybe a Starling, Horsburgh/Smithies, Whitehead and Mariota/Guler bench. I thought Papalii turned the clock back and was good to see him offloading again.
Hard Yards
Roar Rookie
Strange has a very bright future in my humble opinion.
Andrew01
Roar Rookie
100% on Ponga. I commented at home (before he made that line break) that he seemed really up and heavily involved. The line break was impressive and then he got hit by Hudson Young and I really thought he would be sent for an HIA the way he looked on the ground. But he wasn't the same after that hit.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
I wanted to see how they would start after last season. There are a lot of similarities between the 09 Eels & the 23 Knights. A fullback who catches fire for 3 months, drags along mediocre halves who are mistakenly overvalued. Magical mystery finals run but don’t actually win anything. They don’t really know how it happened but just assume it will continue. But now no one underestimates them, and they struggle. I have them finishing 11th.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
The Knights looked rusty and riddled with errors against a pretty decent Raiders side. O’Brien won’t want too many games like that early in the season or he might test the patience of a very loyal crowd
jammel
Roar Rookie
That was my prediction before last night!
jammel
Roar Rookie
I'm keen to see how Ricky uses Big Red this year. He could be an 80m #13, or play more as a prop. Depends on how much we use Smithies. We certainly have a powerful pack!! (with depth). I reckon our best forwards are: Papa Levi to start Tapine Huddo Young Hosking Big Red with a bench of: Mariota Mooney (or Guler/Saulo) Smithies (or Whitehead) Starling
jammel
Roar Rookie
Having Xavier Savage starting anywhere on the field helps us. He offers some electricity/x-factor. I thought Zac H, Huddo, Smithies, Savage, JF and most of the other fwds were pretty good! Not surprised - I tipped the Raiders actually by 12.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Apparently went with Hook to the Mary's School of Extensions....
Bonza
Roar Rookie
He must've stuck with Hastings/Gamble as loyalty to last year. With Cogger waiting in the wings can't see that combo lasting much longer if they don't impro
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
Fair enough. I suspect Ricky has told Fogarty to pull the reins for the halves for now now - and given his strength is his kicking game its a different approach. I love what Cody brings in terms of his reading of the play and setting team mates up. Maybe Ethan Strange can show this sort of ability in time as he gains confidence.
SSTID
Roar Rookie
I always liked Rapana, he is a great finisher and solid in defence. Strange sounded like a good young kid in his post match interview and hopefully he develops into a good player. Agree that the others are quick. But none of these are what I consider match winners who you can bank on to pull something out of the bag and give you the advantage. They need someone who has the smarts to put players into holes or see weakness in defence and exploit it. For me Cody Walker is this type of player, without him Souths are a very average team and they would struggle to get above 10th without him playing well. Your forward pack is solid and your backs are dependable, but you need one "star" back to raise your team up to the next level.
Cam
Roar Rookie
The Raiders roster looks like they are working with half the salary cap of the other clubs. They finished 2023 in front of teams with some absolute superstar squads (Rabbitohs, Eels, Cowboys, Manly) and I reckon they will be equally competitive this season. Last night they were missing two of their better forwards in Corey Horsburgh and Elliott Whitehead, but still rolled a full-strength Knights team at home. I take your point though, imagine what the Raiders could do if you dropped the Storm's spine into their team.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
I suspect the Knights thought they just had to turn up to win - every so called expert had picked them to win - so maybe they were a bit complacent. In contrast the Raiders looked hungry and determined. The Knights will really miss Dom Young this season but still have most of the cattle from last year - so you would expect them to be competing hard for the 8. They are very dependent on Ponga though and the Raiders were pretty effective in shutting him down last night. I thought Fogarty's kicking game was very good with the Knights having to fight there way out of the back corners for a lot of the night.
andrew
Roar Rookie
I thought it was a good game. Smithies, the Raiders UK import played well. I noticed he played the ball super league style. Looking like AOB will have the heat on him sooner than expected.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I think it has to be the previous sin bin. It was a classic hip drop with Guler leaving the ground and swinging his legs around and over Lucas Can you imagine Sticky if Guler went as well…? :laughing: Good tough win last night mate
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
The Raiders have Xavier Savage on the wing who has some pace. And Seb Kris to come back who is also quick. Expecting them both to have big seasons. And Jordan Rapana while slowing down a bit has some play making ability at full back. Also expecting Ethan Strange to exert more influence at 6 as he develops.
Robbo
Roar Rookie
"Hoodson Yoong" played well
Robbo
Roar Rookie
Sin bin any day of the week Ricky
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
I was surprised by the non sending off of Guler for a hip drop. Has the NRL changed their stance on this? Would have been an immediate binning in the last couple of years. You could be right that the on field ref took a softer approach given Young had already been sent.