BY ROB

An event 15 years in the making. 299 NRL games, plus games in NSWcup. City vs Country. Indigenous/World All-stars. Membership in the inaugural NYC champion side. Injuries. Triumphs. Heartbreak. Records and awards.

“Toots” is the epitome of the quiet achiever. He is currently third on the NRL all-time points scorer ladder on 2316*. He’s also the Raiders all-time points and try scoring leader, with a current try-scoring record of 134. He holds the club record for most points in a season – 296 in 2016. He won the Dally M Captain of the year award in 2016 and the Provan-Summons medal. Quite the haul for a boy from Goulburn.

Croker has been the ultimate clubman. He’s put his body on the line time after time, often marking up against bigger, stronger opponents. He’s never been suspended once in his 15 years of top flight footy. He’s been the model of a gracious sportsman.

For the Raiders and their fans this is one of the most important events in the last twenty years, up there with the home pre-lim victory in 2019 and the ultimately unfortunate grand final appearance. Croker’s career is inexorably tied to these moments.

For the Warriors however this is just another chance to stay in the 8. They’ll be keenly aware of the hype around this game, but we should be under no illusions that they’ll be forgiving for 80 minutes on Friday night.

I’ve been at home games before where the spirit of the crowd has literally willed the Green Machine to victory (or at least I like to think we did). The Raiders will need every ounce of support we can give them so they can in turn give us the thing we crave so badly – a milestone win for “Toots”.

Team List Thoughts

Elliott Whitehead makes a surprise return from suspension injury to rejoin his teammates for the big game. Seb Kris resumes his duties as fullback. Nick Cotric moves to the bench while Ata Mariota drops back to NSW Cup after some consistently impressive outings in the first grade. This is arguably the Raiders full strength 17 now (if you ignore the odd bench formation).

The Warriors will also be at maximum optimisation, and this time they have former Canberra talisman Charnze Nikoll-Klokstad with them.

Match-ups

Jarrod Croker vs Adam Pompey. Canberra’s man of the moment vs the guy who cost the Warriors dearly against the Broncos the other weekend. If there’s ever a game where Croker leaves it all on the field it’s this one. Pompey’s brain-snap jumper grab ruined his team’s grandstand finish against the Broncos a few rounds back.

Seb Kris vs Charnze Nikoll-Klokstad. The Raiders makeshift custodian against the guy who had the job locked down until a certain Kikau tried to break his neck tackle him imperfectly. Kris’ enthusiasm has strengthened with each game but he’s still working on areas that CNK already has mastery over, particularly positional defence.

Predictions

The Raiders simply have to win. This game needs to become a highlight, a thing to show your kids when they’re old enough to comprehend. Victory would also strengthen their claim to a top 8 spot, and to be honest a healthy winning margin would be nice (we really need to chip away at that -49 differential).

Dan and I will be there, yelling our heads off and trying not to accidentally poke people with our flags.

Raiders by 18!

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