BY ROB

The Raiders decided to top their round nine great escape against Manly by finding a different way to pull their poker from the fire against the Bulldogs. Rather than letting their opposition get to a dominant lead, Canberra this time decided to tough it out for seven minutes with one (proverbial) arm tied behind their back.

This week in Indigenous round such madness will neither be tolerated or rewarded. Going down to eleven players against the Roosters would likely guarantee a loss. Even with 13 on the field at all times the Raiders will have their work cut out for them.

The hope for the Green Machine is that the chooks of 2024 are not the hyper-efficient attacking side of the recent weeks. They pasted the Dragons, Broncos and Warriors in successive games before the loss to the Sharks. But they’ve also been subject to some surprising losses, going down to the Bulldogs and Manly earlier in the year.

There were good signs for Canberra towards the end of their last match, particularly when the ball was in the hands of one Ethan Strange. His ability to shape a pass whilst straightening his run caught the Dogs out twice and you can bet the Raiders will be looking for more dynamic play from him Saturday arvo.

Line speed will be a key factor for the Raiders in defence – if they can restrict the amount of ball making its way out to the likes of Sua’ali’i, Manu, Tupou and Young they’ll be able to corral the tri-colours edge attack.

Changes

Just the one switch for the Raiders this week, with Peter Hola joining the bench to cover for big Papa who’s out after taking an early guilty plea for his hip drop tackle in the Dogs game. Emre Guler has been given the nod as the starting prop alongside Tapine and we’ll be wanting to see a strong workload from him through the middle.

The Opposition

The Roosters may have gone down to the Sharks in Magic Round but they still put 30 points on a team Canberra put zero on. They’ve amassed 168 points in attack in their last four games, something which the Raiders need to put a stop to. Lots of traffic needs to be directed at Keary and Walker. If you can’t beat them at least tire them.

Match-ups

Jordan Rapana vs James Tedesco

Canberra’s hotheaded veteran up against the Roosters club elder. If Rapa can stay on the field for 80 minutes this week he’ll contribute a huge amount of work coming out of the Raiders danger zone, plus hopefully a bit of spark in attack, particularly around the ruck. Tedesco may be slowing down but he’s still capable of finding those line breaks – tired defenders beware.

Trey Mooney vs Spencer Leniu

The Raiders new flavour of enforcer squares off with the Roosters new boneheaded firebrand. Mooney may not be generating huge amounts of yardage at the moment, but stuff he does do is so quality it doesn’t really matter. His thick frame bends the line, dragging defenders in like he’s creating his own gravity. Leniu has demonstrated less than exemplary judgement this year, and will need to control both himself and his footy lest the Raiders provoke another outburst.

Rookie Radar

It’s quiet on this front (for now) so let’s all just take 30 seconds to think about those beautiful passes that Dr Strange had waiting for Huddo last week. Feel free to also daydream about X doing good work on the edge.

In Conclusion

Let’s be honest, the Raiders have skated through their last two games with a mix of braggadocio and unfiltered determination, punctuated by episodes of incompetence and brain failure. Against the high scoring Roosters they’ll need to deploy proper professional footy underpinned by an actual game plan. Having said that I’ll definitely settle for another win by way of chaos magic.

Raiders by 4!

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