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You might have heard the Canberra Raiders are officially the first NRL club back in training. Yes indeed, they were assembled by coach Ricky Stuart last Monday. And I swear I heard a few sniggers from league-land.
Foolish people.
I’m confidently tipping the Green Machine will be back in the black next year and the more time they have together, the better combinations they will form.
Season 2015 was essentially a good one for a club in a serious and much-needed rebuilding phase.
They finished 10th but when you look back, there were too many close losses – especially at home – that decided their fate.
Some could label them losers, but it was all part of a learning process for a young team heading for exciting times in 2016 and beyond.
Take a good look at the Raiders’ roster now that the likes of Aidan Sezer, Adam Clydsdale and Jeff Lima have been included. It’s better than solid. It is downright dangerous.
Pitch these players in alongside Jack Wighton, Josh Papalii, Jarrod Croker, Blake Austin, Josh Hodgson, Shaun Fensom, Shannon Boyd, Paul Vaughan and Jarrad Kennedy and you’ve got one heck of a roster.
Hodgson was as good as any No. 9 in the comp last year and Vaughan is looking more like a State of Origin footballer at every outing. Yes, it’s a good roster, so good in my view that ‘unfashionable’ Canberra can climb to number five or even higher in the coming season.
There are quality players in the national capital I haven’t even mentioned. Sam Williams, for example, went really well at halfback this past season and mightn’t even be a starter in the early games of 2016.
Sezer, the former Gold Coast star, will prove to be a mighty asset and one would think that Stuart will be trying to pair him with the brilliant Austin, a popular choice as the Dally M five-eighth of the year.
That leaves the gifted Williams on the outer, but he says he is more than ready for a fight and Canberra can be the only winner.
Raiders’ fans should be highly excited about their team’s prospects.
There are a number of state and Test-standard players in the mix for 2016 and then there is the Raiders’ famed junior nursery which has half a dozen or so gun prospects itching for a shot at the NRL.
Winning games on home soil was a trademark of the champion Canberra teams of the 1980s and ’90s. If the Raiders can rectify this problem for 2016, they’ll be right in contention come September and October.
If you can snaffle some decent odds on a Canberra Raiders run – get on now. The jolly green jigsaw puzzle is taking shape fast.
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