BY DAN

The Canberra Raiders ongoing mission to test the hearts and minds of their fanbase had another successful operation. This time the frustrated loser was the Gold Coast Titans, defeated 26-22, in a battle with multiple parts and parties, chasing the same dream: managing the mayhem of the Green Machine.

The win itself was so important. Like last week’s game against the Roosters it was instrumental in putting a gap between the Milk and a top 8 challenger. The Titans were in form (as much as our northern cousins in mania can be). They had the strengths to target the Milk’s weaknesses. The capacity to mitigate Canberra’s strengths. It was a worse matchup than most thought and yet somehow we’re writing about the 10th win of the season, all by single digits. I feel like Ricky Bobby being interviewed for the first time. What even is this team?

The Titans game plan was pretty straightforward. Smash the middle, then test the Raiders right edge defence. Almost every set involved some mix of hit up followed by multiple set movements testing Matt Timoko, Jamal Fogarty and Elliott Whitehead. To combat this Canberra needed to be robust in both spots, in the middle to slow down the roll of the Titans and limit their chances to shift, and then on the edge to hang and hope that David Fifita didn’t ruin the day.

Canberra’s effort to limit their opposition’s dominance was tenacious as it was forlorn. The Titans made metres hand over fist, outgaining the Milk by 300 plus metres over the game. It was a huge workload for Joe Tapine (44 tackles) and Corey Horsburgh (55 tackles), only made worse by Pasami Saulo (who had been excellent in defence) being ruled out before halftime after a head clash. Not only were they asked to hold in check three of the most in-form forwards in the game, their discipline and effort was constantly tested by Titan shifts coming back inside, asking them to prove that they could cover inside-out repeatedly. That most of the Gold Coast’s points came outside them is a testament to their effectiveness and work-rate. They were helped by their opposition’s profligate handling. They would have been helped if there was an additional forward on the bench to take some of Saulo’s minutes in the second half.

The edges too just held on. Gold Coast didn’t hide their intent. From the get go they targeted the right edge, and kept coming back, forcing effort after effort. It’s one thing to bring down David Fifita when you’re not David Fifita. It’s another thing to recover from his quick play the ball, take down shifty attackers, and then back up on Fifita again. And it did come unstuck. Fifita scored once off a kick because Seb Kris had to fill in on the defensive line after mutiple hits on a blind side, nearly did again in a similar situation (offside and correctly ruled to have thrown Fogarty out of the way) and also created another try when both Timoko and Fifita stopped him, only for him to just kinda stand there and throw a 15 metre pass in contact because he’s one of the most talented people in the competition.

But in between all this the edges held on. The Titans used this middle/right edge attack to make metres on sets easily, but Canberra held on at the goal line. Call it the old bend-not-break defence. After 65 minutes the Titans had managed seven full sets in the Green Machine’s red-zone (42 tackles) to just 15 for the Milk, but it was three tries a piece. Fogarty in particularly looked strong on the right, and Coach Stuart singled out Elliott Whitehead on that side. The left side defence was tested less and was more robust, to the extent that when the Titans scored there to start the second half it was surprising in how it happened (though not surprising that it did happen. Any Raiders fan was already at stage four of grief [depression] before the ball was even outside the winger).

This struggle to gain any semblance of dominance in the middle meant the game was overwhelmingly played in the Raiders’ half, and made the efforts of various players more impressive as they tried to move the game back onto the Titan’s side of hakfway. Tapine (17 carries for 177m, 68 post contact, 6 tackle breaks) and Horsburgh (13 for 136m, 62 post contact) got through plenty of excellent work. Hudson Young (14 for 127m, 44 post contact, 6 tackle breaks) also had so many important carries that got Canberra out of bad sets and into good ball. Ata Mariota (14 for 120m, 42 post contact) also showed that the club’s faith in him was not wasted. Canberra had the same amount of post contact metres across the game as the Titans, indicative of the battle they faced with defenders constantly in their faces, as well as their impressive ability to manage that.

They were, again, supported by Albert Hopoate (15 for 162m) whose voracious appetite for work resembles me feasting on the fried chicken that awaits me when I finish this. He put Jarrod Croker into space on one such hard carry, and if Canberra could have put the ball through the hands a try would have resulted. Alas a Rapana pass was behind Fogarty and the opportunity was wasted. But the lesson – that Hopoate is already a critical part of this team, and has more gears to his game to explore – was well learned and demonstrated.

Given their limited opportunities, and that they scored one of their four from one of the weirdest length-of-the-field tries you will ever see, most would think that Canberra’s attack was insipid as it has been at time this season. And there were moments it was. There were multiple attacking sets where they never got to throw anything in anger at the opposition and instead got stuck looking for a quick play the ball or a crash play for too long. Their kicking was generally pretty terrible – four 7 tackle sets is not good stuff. And they still are myopic in their attacking movements, unable to get Timoko good ball consistently, despite him creating one break on his own, and generally treating their right-side attack like most families treat intergenerational trauma.

But there were moments it all looked not only slick but actually quite adventurous. The Raiders shifted Wighton along the backline, having him chime in at different points on shifts to generally torment a defence insistent on finding him. They used a myriad of set plays (or more likely a couple of set plays with a myriad of options) to test and traumatise the opposition defence. Outside of the first set of the game the defence held, but what Canberra threw at them was more sophisticated than they’ve managed before this point of the season. It’s a good sign that they’re finding a way to build on their attack. Because they can’t keep relying on out-jumping fullbacks, crash balls (as well read, targeted, and executed as the Hudson Young try was) and whatever the Timoko try was, for points.

Yet again it was enough. I shouldn’t complain. Would you prefer to win 10 games by single digits in a year or lose? Call me a typical talking head in search of controversy to drive clicks but I consider winning better than losing. Canberra clearly do, no matter how challenging they make it. While the manner in which they get into these scraps is infuriating, it appears to be part of their make up. They lead games for the vast majority, and always seem *just* about to kick away. But the nagging feeling at the back of the head always comes that they’ll let the opposition back into the game.

They did it multiple times in this game. When up 12-0 they had the Titans four tackles into a set and stuck in their own 20. Emre Guler gave away a penalty and a try came at the back of it. Up 10 with moments to go Matt Timoko gave away an escort penalty on the kick-off, and the defence lasted one run from Fifita (which required half the team as well as Bay 66 to defend it), meaning Guler was faced one-on-one with a far too agile Tino Fa’asuamale. Then with the game thankfully in hand a third time, with a good ball scrum and 30 seconds to go, the Raiders somehow gave away a scrum penalty on their own feed (How do you get fired on your day off?), and around the nation sphincters tightened again. In amongst this is an unending list of moments in which Canberra turned success into (near) failure.

The good thing is the club seems aware of the glaring weaknesses the Titans targeted and Canberra covered for. They are aware and seeking to fix those fragilities They seem clued in to the fact they can’t keep doing it like *this*. Sticky, Young and Elliott all repeated the same mantra after the game. We need to improve. We make it too hard for ourselves. If we want to have a shake in September this isn’t it. This is all true. And it’s good they know it.

But it’s also worth embracing the chaos and applauding the tenacity with which they approach the impossible tasks they create for themselves. This isn’t a smart team. This isn’t beautiful. This is an elegant beast. A well mannered monster. A charming barbarian (my sincerest apologies to Amir Sulaiman). This team will never be the slickest, the most spellbinding, bewitching us with its cohesion and creation. At some point it is what it is: both compelling and courageous. Flawed and ferocious. The embodiment of its creator.

That doesn’t necessarily need to change but it would be nice if it cleaned up a bit. In all likelihood it won’t be enough this year to really shake the finals. The team wants to change for the better and that’s admirable. One should hope they do. If there was some way to mix their stubborn courage with some heady play then amazing things could happen. The battle with itself may be one it can’t win. But at least it keeps beating the opposition.

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