BY DAN

Hello and welcome to the second mini-season.

Canberra unquestionably succeeded in their first iteration of this. They needed to manufacture a couple of victories against quality sides without critical players. Origin added to the pressure, but they stood tall, and walked away with two victories by five total points, three heart attacks and one strop by an opposition coach (Rick to Wayne: those are rookie numbers. You gotta get them up).

In theory the sequel should be an easier time. They get the ‘mercurial’ (code for consistently disappointing) Cowboys in Canberra. Nothing like 6pm in June the nation’s capital if you’re used to mid-20s and not having an at-best laissez faire commitment to defence. Then after that is the Tigers at Campbelltown. They are busy falling apart (again), and gave up somewhere near 4000000 points in one half against a Dragons team who, while fun, aren’t exactly the ’01 Eels. They completed four sets in an entire half. There’s a Storm game in Melbourne after (live footy for Dan!) which *gulp*, but then a home game against the Knights. They were handled earlier in the year at their home ground with Kalyn Ponga. They’re a good shot without him.

These are eminently winnable game. Pessimists like us get pretty down about how the Raiders go when people expect them to win, but in recent years that ‘problem’ hasn’t been as pronounced as the past. That’s not to say it doesn’t exist, and without a cool head like Jamal Fogarty it’s a risk that a young team might not handle well. But they’ve shown in recent weeks that regardless of whether their execution is up to scratch, they’re not going to take any outcome for granted.

They’ve continued to train through the bye, which was an interesting little nugget that came through the media last week. Some players had reduced loads, but given the proximity of this bye week to the other bye weeks the team has trained through. Trey Mooney even played Cup footy. A bit of extra time might result in some fancy little additions to the repertoire, like their scrum base move against the ‘Phins. At the very least it might offer a chance for a bit more cohesion across a team that has been chopping and changing.

On the plus side they get some reinforcements. Corey Horsburgh didn’t return through returned through Cup this weekend as anticipated but he can’t be far off. His return will simultaneously reduce the workload of Morgan Smithies, hopefully increase the effectiveness of passing across the middle third, potentially strengthen the middle defence and maybe, just maybe, give the Milk an alternative to rolling Emre Guler out. Imagine Taps/Horse/Smithies, with Papa/Mooney/Ata coming off the bench. Nice.

They may also get the benefit of keeping Hudson Young for the Tigers game. He seems a likely scapegoat for the Blues’ loss in Origin one, despite the actual fault lying at the feet of a young Roosters back and an attack that looked remarkably similar to Canberra’s, with all the clunk but none of the random pizzazz. Liam Martin is injured, but latest reporting seems to be suggesting he’ll be ready for Origin, and if you like people that love histrionics that achieve fuck all then he’s your guy (and boy do NSW love that). If Young doesn’t play it means the people’s team will have no representatives in Origin, which is upsetting for them but a blessing for the NRL campaign. It’ll be the closest they’ve been to full strength in months, with more help in the pipeline.

Canberra could get two wins and can eek three. Then they get more troops back and oh boy oh boy oh boy. But there’s a more immediate test. Keep picking up wins and learning lessons, serving two horizons through putting themselves into a position to compete (and maybe more) this season while also preparing for a brighter tomorrow. Ahead of them is another chance to prove just how far they’ve come.

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