BY DAN

Dear Canberra Raiders

Your boy Dan here. Long time fan and keyboard warrior. I am writing to implore you to not waste this.

Saturday night was one of your most courageous performances. I don’t mean recently. I mean like, ever. Without Jack Wighton. Without Joe Tapine. Without a host of other players missing through injury. Away, at Suncorp of all places, where you’d last won when Dave Furner was still coach, Daniel Vidot was still a footballer and Sam Williams wasn’t yet first grader. Against a Broncos side that was as hot as a carolina reaper. After picking yourself up, not from the dirt and dust but out of some muck and mud that had that smell that mud has when you work out it’s not mud.

This. This is the attitude needed. It wasn’t perfect. No one will ever claim that. There were moments where you forgot that holding the ball is better than not holding the ball. That showing a bit of attacking pizzazz was worth the risk of not taking throwing another crash ball. You took the painful, painful lessons of the last few weeks, ate them like Rambo biting the pin out of a grenade, and turned this mess around. To say it was inspiring seems cliche. I’m not ready to run through a wall. I’m ready to take up an apprenticeship as a brickie just to learn how to make a wall so I can run it through it. That’s how Saturday made me feel.

But here’s the thing. I felt pretty good after the Sharks victory too. Maybe not “I’m about to get out my manuscript and start penning a song to Corey Horsburgh” good, but it was nice. With the Knights on the horizon there was a chance to make good on a shithouse start to the season. And then well, speaking of shithouse, that’s where the Raiders spent the second half of that game, as well as the second half of the Panthers game. What was Sticky feeding them at half time?

Let’s be frank. God’s football team wasted an opportunity. The collapses against those two sides plummeted the side down the ladder and put them in a hole that it seemed impossible to dig oneself out of. Somehow against the Broncos they took their goddamn hands and dragged the mud away and crawled through all kinds of foulness just to have that sweet rain of victory falling on their face. Andy Dufresne would be proud.

So now they are faced with the same situation as a few weeks ago, only the pay off is that much higher. A win here and then a bye, and holy shit is the season back on track? Maybe. But a loss wouldn’t just have ramifications for ladder position. It would undermine everything achieved in Brisbane. Please don’t ruin Brisbane for me. For us. All of us, you included.

The cool thing about second chances is that they exist. And Canberra won’t be away at Newy where they inexplicably struggle no matter how good (or bad) the Knights are. They’ll be home, with 8 days rest and a bye on the other side the game. The Dragons are a weird team, capable of springing an upset, but no one would accuse them of being premiership contenders. There are no excuses to not go all out and scrounge and scrap a victory again. And then that’s two in a row and awfully close to me busting out the Lou Brown quotes. I don’t care if it’s 1-0. Just find a way. Please.

I know you want to. I saw Huddo and Big Red take turns running down Cobbo and Reynolds. I saw Papa and Saulo careening into halves that dared hold the ball a second too long. I saw Tom Starling take Payne Haas down one-on-one like he wasn’t giving away fotry kilograms and thirty centimetres. I saw the ageing bones of Jarrod Croker slam into Kotoni Staggs again and again like the Bronco stole his youth and tackling would get it back. Canberra want to do good. That’s half the battle fought.

I am begging you not to waste this. Please do not do that thing where they do the exact opposite of what you should, like you did on Saturday only in a bad way. Please don’t turn this outburst of resolve in the face of a hurricane into a footnote on a dark season. Please, for the love of god, Big Mal, JC (Jarrod Croker) and all things holy turn this Easter Miracle in the foundations of something bigger.

Your faithful idiot.

Dan

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can however like the page on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or share this on social media. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not