Before we start worrying about meaningless things like footy, we’d like to start by acknowledging the terrible scenes we saw tonight. Corey Harawira-Naera reportedly had a seizure on the field (and it certainly looked like it from the footage we saw). We hope Corey is ok. Nothing matters more than his health right now. If you don’t want to read about the footy – which is pretty understandable – I recommend not reading on.

BY DAN

On a night where football seemed small the Raiders played big. They turned monsters in the middle and battered and bruised their opposition. They stood tall while patching together a side with pieces of men, and then having to do it all again when injuries created more chaos. They even saw a mate lay in what can only be described as horrific circumstances, made sure he was right, and then managed to turn their minds to something as pointless as a game of football. It was an immense performance and significant victory for their season.

The Raiders didn’t come into this game needing a victory so much as proof. Confirmation that last week’s insipid effort was the outlier rather than the weeks that had preceded it. A strong performance against one of the best teams in the competition would be a good benchmark moment: verification that they don’t necessarily need to be whole to be good, that what has been built (and let’s be honest, is still in the process of being constructed) was a stable enough structure to face up to the mud that fortune throws. A victory isn’t evidence that they’re a force – god knows the MASH unit masquerading as their bench will have a say in that. But it’s proof the parts are there.

There were a lot of causes of victory but one cannot talk about that game without starting with the astounding play of the Raiders pack. It’s hardly a surprise – this has always been a critical part of Canberra success, but this season it seems even more important. You could call this old fashioned footy, building a victory inside out, but it devalues what they did, especially through the first half. This was more dynamic. Josh Papalii (18 for 216, 66 post contact, 4 tackle breaks) was dynamic. He set up one try by basically creating a break from nothing, offloading to Pasami Saulo, before the ball ended up with Big Red, stepping off his right to school the Souths fullback to score. The passage of play went fifty odd metres for a try, and it touched one non-forward pair of hands in that time.

Joe Tapine (18 for 221, 99 post contact and 68 desperately needed minutes) was also stunning. His powerful runs were critical and constant, always turning any idea that the opposition might get their hands on the Canberra middle on its head, and the good guys would keep rolling. He too played a big role in try-scoring, putting on a beautiful short ball that Papa crashed on to. Papa found Horsburgh again, who found Taps backing up. He nearly scored. The Raiders did on the next play. Two tries, two long-range tries, set up without nary the involvement of anyone outside the literal biggest Big 3 in history. What a weapon. Or should I say armoury.

Of course, they weren’t the only people involved. Pasami Saulo (9 for 103m) had some terrific carries, and his work cleaning up defensive lapses in the middle should be more valued than it is. That he did it after leaving the game in the 25th minute with what seemed like a painful groin injury is even more impressive (although I hope he didn’t need the Ricky Stuart memorial needle in the pelvis to keep going). Ata Mariota and Emre Guler had strong runs in their support rotation. And it’s no shock that Albert Hopoate (20 of the grimiest carries you will see for 209m), Matt Timoko (10 for 146m) and Jordan Rapana (15 for 149m) were all highly involved in making sure not only that the middles could get a break, but that the Milk maintained their dominance through the middle.

The work these players did through the middle meant that the Raiders halves were constantly playing with an acre of space and time. It’s no surprise that Jack Wighton thrived in this environment. He terrified the the Bunnies on the left edge, playing an important role in two first half tries. But what he did in the second half was even more impressive. Canberra’s last two tries were created by his brilliance, first to throw a perfect ball to put captain Jarrod Croker into space, who luckily found Tom Starling on the inside. Then later, with the game in the balance he broke the line, offloaded to Jordan Rapana and it ended with an Hopoate hat-trick and victory.

It was an easier environment in which to throw some attacking shape, but still pleasing to see the Raiders shifts look so fluid. It’s no surprise that Zac Woolford was at the helm of this, and Jamal Fogarty had two poor kicks but played his role too. But it was more structural than individual. Each part of the of the engine was working together to move things in the right direction. Shifting in both directions they looked comfortable. Timoko looked great with early ball but going left they looked downright coordinated. The moves for Hopoate’s first try were borderline slick. It had perfect injections from both Seb Kris and Jarrod Croker – the kind of touch-pass situations that always seem to find their way out to the ground when not inch perfect. The move for Starling’s was the kind of brilliance, both in identification of a short line, and of execution that good attacks can offer. That wasn’t the only movement – four tries came through variations on a theme, and more could have come if Croker had gotten low or found a pass.

With all the good times and dominance being flung around Canberra still found themselves in a battle primarily because despite everything their edge defence was atrocious. It’s a long term problem and also the function of a shit situation. The Raiders were in over their heads because of injuries. It was fun to watch Horsburgh gallop in space with the ball, but he was on a hiding to nothing trying to keep Cody Walker close in defence. Two tries came when Walker got outside Ata Mariota defending on the right edge on attacking shifts and chaos ensued. On both Fogarty was forced to push in to help Mariota with Walker. This put Timoko in an impossible situation.

But it wasn’t just the presence of middles on the edge that caused this problem. Jed Cartwright’s early try was just the Raiders left edge not being cohesive (and also missing Hudson Young, defensive clean-up artist). The Bunnies were relentless in targeting Timoko and Croker’s inside shoulders in search of quick rucks or more. Neither are good enough defenders to solve the problems that get created around them. Canberra tried to hide their weakness through aggressive jamming, and through powerful middle defence. This was mixed in its success. They gave away a heap of penalties – some frustratingly late in sets – trying to make sure that if Souths were going to attack their edges it wasn’t going to be with a head of steam. But when they didn’t win the middle (and I don’t mean compete, I mean out-and-out win) the Bunnies were able to take advantage.

It’s an ongoing issue, and the Raiders need a solution. This is a good chunk of the difference between them being good, and a legit competition contender. Good sides can always find points against them even if they’re defending well. Canberra only missed four first half tackles, but it was enough for the Bunnies to score twice. This kind of structural deficiency means that every victory comes with a degree of difficulty, and goes a long way to explain why their points differential is so poor. The Green Machine can dominate games, and all opposition teams need is a bit of sustained footy to even up. They need to keep working on a solution, but given it’s unclear who is going to be playing at left centre and right backrow next week, god knows how they’ll build it.

This weakness was compounded by the chaos of the game. Seb Kris’ injury forced Rapa to the back and Cotric to the wing, meaning the Raiders had no options to cover for any other injuries. When Saulo went down, and when Harawira-Naera suffered his horrific event, they had no other options. Late in the game Canberra had props defending at both edge backrower positions. When Rapana left to an HIA situation suffered in setting up the last try, they had a hooker defending at left centre. It’s amazing they managed to keep anything approaching a defensive structure in this situation. Every player had a new job by the end of the game.

In this circumstance it’s even more amazing how the Milk held on. This team of lunatics will never cease to amaze me (good and bad). One week after looking hapless they were so desperate to win you could feel it. That they played with such poise, such courage, such dogmatic single-mindedness in the pursuit of victory, given everything that happened in this game is such a good sign. That they mixed this with such dynamism, and repeatable, cohesive and sometimes even polished attacking movements is enough to make an old man smile (it’s me. I’m the old man).

Given everything that happened this evening the victory may have more impact in the long-term than right now. After this game the focus is rightly on Corey Harawira-Naera, and the hope that what we saw was just a moment and not something worse. I can’t stress this enough: there is nothing that matters more than him being healthy. But beyond that, the impact of his absence, what may come from Seb Kris’ injury, Jarrod Croker’s 300th game ‘preparation’, Jordan Rapana’s potential Head Injury Assessment issues, and any other nicks and cuts picked up by players in this game, will mean that there’s no time to bask in the glow. Canberra will be full-steam ahead just making sure it can name a functional 17 for next Friday’s game at Campbelltown.

But in the longer term victories like can be important evidence of capability. The Raiders took it to one of the best teams in the competition and looked not just at home, but often dominant. They played to their strengths and continued to show that they can play good footy when they put their minds to it. If they can fix their edge defence they could put a lot of pressure on good sides. Maybe they even could be a good side. It’s almost like a game plan, an identity, a way of winning can be built from what they showed in this game.

That would be big.

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