BY DAN Are you certain who’ll be starting in the Raiders centers and wings next season? You could go the ‘conservative’ option like me and assume it will be some mix of Croker, Rapa, Scott and Simonsson. You could look at the young talent and think Harley Smith-Shields or Matt Timoko is ready to rock. … More Outside the Box Part 1: Elijah Anderson
BY DAN As the annual jumble of players has settled like a boggle game, the eyes of the rugby league world have started to think about the ramifications. For most, including the good people at Fox Sports, this has been a focus on what potential lineups will look like. You don’t need actually need to … More The Backup Plan
BY DAN Recently John Bateman played his last* game for Canberra. *Maybe he’ll come back. We hope. Bateman has been a transformational player for the Raiders. He introduced a steel to the right edge, and his arrival coincided with the Green Machine’s defence improving to one of the best in the competition, conceding around 15 … More Filling a Bateman Sized Hole
BY DAN How good is next year? This one has been rubbish, so the promise (hope?) of a better one next year is something we’re holding on to rather tightly. So when the NRL draw came out today we were a bit guarded, wary of what might be offered our way after the Raiders were … More Key Things We Saw in the Draw
BY DAN The slightest ray of sunshine poked through the rain clouds of 2020 today, with the release of round one of the 2021 draw for the National Rugby League. Unlike this time last year, where the NRL, and the television companies, showed little interest in the people’s team, the Raiders have managed to score … More A Modicum of Respect
BY DAN It’s been a relatively quiet free agency period in Canberra. As teams around the league have been rushing to finalise their rosters in time to start pre-season, there’s been barely a whisper out of the Canberra Raiders. It’s not a typical situation. For many years the Raiders had been a preferred runoured landing … More Death of the Raider Raise?
BY DAN In an otherwise quiet offseason for God’s football team, the Canberra Raiders have been busily ensuring they set themselves up for the future. The latest step in this is becoming clearer, with Emre Guler set to re-sign with the Green Machine, and negotiations beginning with Hudson Young, as reported by David Polkinghorne in … More The Next Generation
BY TIM Yesterday Cricket Australia announced new rules to come into effect for the forthcoming BBL10 season. While they all have catchy names, they have all been trialled in or currently part of the first class cricket scene. In there most basic interpretation, they are: Power Surge – What is essentially a 2 over Power … More Cricket Australia and the Art of the Pander
BY DAN Hidden away in the recent squad announcements for 2021 was a little ray of hopeful sunshine for many Canberra Raiders fans: Sam Williams is still scheduled to be in green for 2021. Given the recent news about a possible shift to Wakefield this is good to hear. Sam’s net benefit to Canberra hopefully … More Hoping Sammy Stays
BY DAN We are well into the free agency period of rugby league’s offseason and a major matter still remains outstanding for the Canberra Raiders: the whereabouts of Jordan Rapana’s signature. Whether Rapana would stick around has been much discussed he returned from Japan in the Covid break. The Raiders almost immediately identified him as … More Outstanding Issue: Rapana’s Signature
