BY DAN

It’s been a tough week for Raiders fans. The loss on Sunday felt like a moment where we all realised the desperation of the situation, or at least had it confirmed for us.

So what do we do now? Let’s get together and have us a big ol’ chat about what’s going on.

As always (well, for the second time) these are your questions. I’m sorry if I missed anyone. WordPress already couldn’t hack this many.

Dan, two part question. Why does this team hate me? And with that in mind, haven’t I suffered enough?

David on Twitter

What was that weird crushing feeling in the middle of our drinking session on Sunday?

Tim on Twitter

This season has been such a fascinatingly joyless experience, and Sunday was its daddy. To sit there in the stands, close enough to see Elliott say ‘f*ck me* as he followed a try-scorer over the line having tried, and failed, to cover for a defensive error made outside him for what seemed like the 6th time, was not fun. Tim was lucky enough to be sitting beside me as we muttered to ourselves, a small collective of frustration. We hadn’t started with much hope, and what we got was even less than we expected. What a day. At least it was sunny.

A friend pointed out to me recently that 99 per cent of the titles of the game reviews this season were some remix of ‘god that sucked’.

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2023 Canberra Raiders.

Hi Dan. Long time listener, first time caller. Should the Raiders be looking to big Pharma for future sponsorship opportunities? The alignment of heart medicine, blood pressure medicine, and anti-depressants could be beneficial to both camps one would assume.

Mitch on Twitter

See Mitch gets it. That’s called thinking outside the box. That lets us deal with the symptoms and make some cash to address the problems. Speaking of problems….

How do the Raiders dig themselves out of the poo they’re in now!?

Bill on Facebook

Well as the monkey in Madagascar said, if you have any poo, fling it now.

That may be the only solution available. It feels like if they were going to solve their various issues they would have done it by now. You’ll hear a lot about ‘the real Raiders’, pride in the jersey and and effort levels and such this week. I feel like that’s trying to outrun your demons rather than face them.

I feel like Jack Wighton has completely gone off his game. He hardly gets involved, he hardly contributes to any tries and has a lot of errors in our game. Do you feel he is the reason for our form slump?

Darren on Facebook

Why not move Jack to fullback where he can’t do too much harm?

Peter on Facebook

Your analysis and observations of the Raiders attack, or lack of, each week is on the money. Is it driven by poor coaching, poor execution or general lack of ability, or too much emphasis on getting JW involved?

John on Facebook

Why in the fuck do we let Jack kick set after set? Also where does starling fit into the club now and into the future

Brent on Twitter

This is where we’re at people. Jack has been so bad people are asking him to simply do no harm (not the first time Jack has heard that). Having said that, is he the cause? No. He’s more like that last shot of tequila you have before you speak to the porcelain god. It’s not the cause, but it sure as hell didn’t help.

The wheel has turned on Jack. The guy has always been a bit of a football enigma. He didn’t do the normal things right, but he solved so many other issues. We loved him and still stared at him like a dog driving a car. Now the car is up the kerb and we’re starting to ask questions about who gave the keys to the Husky.

Thinking about our main spine players this season… where would each of them rank individually for their position vs the rest of the NRL? I’d argue that Fog would be the only one that could be considered in the top 8 for his position this year

King Gilby of Gillard on Twitter

It’s depressing how uncontroversial I find this statement. Fog has definitely been the best, but only a crazy man would describe any other spine player as anything other than solid. And even when we do have one that threatens to be more than average, Stick then puts them back in Cup. Sigh.

Do you think this team ever has a plan b when the forwards can’t overpower the opposition? The outside backs look like lost boys when they get the ball nowadays!

Sean on Twitter

Sigh. No we don’t Sean. It’s the biggest problem we have. Our game plan currently goes:

Step one: The middle dominate

step two: ???

step three: profit

It’s quite the problem when you can’t even do the first step of a one step process right. It’s enough to make a man start wondering about the future.

Dan. What does the future hold. Are we in for a long couple of years?

T Mac on Twitter

Well timed question T Mac. It does feel like the end of an era. Jack is going, Jarrod with him. We’ve got a chance to re-introduce a bit of flair to our attack that disappeared when Wighton moved to six. In addition we’ve got some wonderful, if raw, new talent coming through (and to) the club. It’s actually a bit exciting, even if we’re unlikely to be a contender any time soon.

What does your starting 17 look like for 2024?

Brenton on Twitter

Brenton, king of men. This is one of those questions where you have to decide whether you want to go with what you’d do, or what you think Stick will do. Part of me thinks that Sticky will only change Jack for Frawls, and decide between Kris at one or three, and work it out from there. I do not enjoy that hypothetical.

So let’s play a game where I get to have Adrian Trevilyan in the team, and Ethan Strange at six. Let me have Hohepa Puru in the 17, sharing lock minutes with Corey Horsburgh and providing a bit more agility through the middle. Let me start Ata Mariota, with Big Papa coming off the bench to give that second unit a bit of ballast. You could also sell me on Strange at centre, Schneider in the halves (provided he comes back) and Kris at the back. In that scenario X is bringing his factor to the wing, as he’s been doing in Cup lately, as Kris provides transition until Chevy is heady, heavy and ready to play first grade.

Hi Dan. Watching the Challenge Cup final, Hull KR looked to have a quality young 5/8. Do you think Raiders might be interested in him to replace Wighton?

Ben on Twitter

Can we try and get Burton from the Dogs and they can have Luai?

Frederick on Facebook

Who is your preferred option at 5/8 for next season

Will on Facebook

Ok this was a vibe this week. I wrote about the pathways available to the Milk here. Is Schneider coming back? Only time will tell, though it’s worth noting Hull KR recently signed Tyrone May, potentially a sign that Brad is coming home. It’s the best news the Schneiderverse has got this year.

The interesting thing about that is Schneider might be a good fit with the coming star, Ethan Sanders, over the longer term. Brad prefers to station on the right, Ethan on the left. Of course, that then depends on whether you see Brad as a long-term prospect superior to Strange (who could still fit into that side at centre obviously).

As for Burton, that would be amazing. But he is probably the only player at the Dogs who will be there when Gus is done with the joint.

Who will be our captain/s Round 1 2024?

Keheritina til you see green on Twitter

I’m a long-time believer in Jamal Fogarty as a captain. He can share it with Joey Taps. Boom. Solved.

I have three questions: 1) We’ve upgraded several players, Croker is finishing this year and we missed out on Fifita. How much money do you think we have available in our salary cap to spend? 2) Who do you think we will target next to spend that money on? 3) With the addition of Ethan Sanders, starting Ethan Strange and several other players coming through various grades… Do you think the Raiders recruitment strategy has changed from immediate success to building a team for success in a couple of years time?

Chris on Facebook

Chris my dude I wish I knew how much cap space we have. But ultimately it may not matter. As shown by the Fifita and Wighton recruitment failures, more money isn’t the solution for us, at least not at the top level. For a period we’ve leveraged Stuart’s place in the game and Peter Mulholland’s brain to get talent others didn’t want. You’re right though, we have definitely seen a shift towards targeting young stars. Sanders, Stewart, Puru, Strange have all joined the club in the last 12-18 months and seem primed for big success. Let’s just hope it’s with the Raiders.

How long do we accept coaching mediocrity? Typically coaches don’t get such a long term without proven success. One GF and a significant slide since then isn’t doing it, surely?

Gibdabot on Twitter

A bit rude of you to say such things about Madge. I kid I kid!

Is Ricky Stuart under any real pressure to keep his job?

Jamahl on Facebook

Stuart, rightly, is copping a bit of flack from the fanbase lately. This primarily relates to the fact that we all saw this situation coming. Which means either he saw it coming too, and couldn’t solve it, or worse. This is no good whichever way you dance with it.

Does it mean he’s under pressure to keep his job? Rightly or wrongly, no. Unless something goes drastically wrong – like player revolt or a wooden spoon or both, he’ll be with the club through 2025 at the least.

Dear Dan. Will we ever get serious about winning competitions? Cheers Everyone.

Walter on Twitter

Ah, after 2025? I kid I kid. [insert Fozzie bear gif].

Does Ricky and Don start looking at fresh minds to bring into the team for coaching assistance?

Benjamin on Facebook

Despite how things ended; will Hodgson return as coach? And if so when may such a thing occur and what other things do you think would need to change to facilitate that?

Tobie on Twitter

Now he’s retired, do you think Jarrod Croker would make a good coach at The Milk? Either as a skills coach, assistant coach, lower grade coach, or even head coach (eventually)?

Andrew on Facebook

Assistant coaches in one place that change can be made. I’m a big fan of finding people with new ideas to give them opportunities. Sometimes that’s ex-stars, but too often that’s the only place we look. There’s plenty of amazing coaches who either never made it to first grade, or weren’t even players. There’s people in our system that I’m interested in (that Justin Giteau has the Cup team performing despite fairly constant change is impressive) and more people that we just don’t know.

If we are serious about winning competitions we need to find our comparative advantage. That won’t be in competing for the next Cameron Ciraldo (i.e. big name assistant that everyone throws money at). It’ll be finding people others just hadn’t looked at, and doing it on a better basis than they used to be stars.

Having said that, the word is Croker is going to take over from Sia Soliola as the club welfare officer and I love that. He’ll be such a wonderful calm voice for young fellas from the bush to hear. He’ll need to think about how he best reaches the young Pasifika players. They’re a massive part of the club and Sia has a more natural shared experience.

As for Hodgson I can’t see it happening while Stuart is at the club. As to whether he’d be a good coach, he definitely has the brain for it. But coaching is more than knowing the game. It’s about being able to get the best out of players, through communication, through strategy and a host of other things. I’d love for him to get experience somewhere, but that would also put him in another team’s spotlight. These are the risks you take.

How do the Raiders run the mental strength and conditioning side? A lot of noise is built off Faiders tags and the perception the players lack of belief in the win – how does the club train the brain?

Ivan on Facebook

The Raiders approach to mental conditioning has always been fascinating to me. At one stage they had a psychologist helping the team. I remember there being news articles about it, probably during the 2019 run. Then maybe because of COVID, they were gone, only to pop up again during another run. Which suggested it wasn’t a permanent position.

I have no idea if it is a football decision or a money decision but I would make that position permanent.

How close can the #NRLW team get to the big dance?

T Mac on Twitter

It’s hard to not get carried away with the NRLW team. They have been such a joy to watch, and it’s been so exciting to get to know a whole bunch of new players, particularly ones with such competitive talent. With how they’ve come together in such a short amount of time is enough to make your humble author get a bit carried away.

Normally this is where I temper expectations, and that would be the right thing to do. As we’ve seen in each of these games they mix together brilliance and bafflement in equal parts. I was furious after their victory over the Dragons – they should have won that game by 20 – and it speaks to the quality this team is already is capable of, and the frustration they can deliver. But the competition is flat, and they’ve proven they can beat anyone. The more they play together, the more time they get building professional level skills and combinations, the more consistent they’ll be. They can definitely win it all, and being able to say that right now feels like an achievement in itself. Carn.

What have been your top highlights/fave blogs you’ve done over the life of the Sportress? Is it bc of the writing, the events, both?

Viv on Twitter

Viv top question. This blog has been a lot of different things to me. It’s allowed me to do something I genuinely love in writing, as well as providing me a vessel to process difficult moments and occasionally provide a little insight. Along the way the words have occasionally come out right on a few pieces I’m really proud of. Some of these were about events (for example I really liked my review of the 2019 grand final). Some of them are about people (like my piece on Charnze leaving).

How do we honour Jarrod next game in the manner he deserves? I think we should name a stand in his honour at the very least. Thoughts?

Jen on Facebook

Jen I’ve never been really good at knowing how best to demonstrate thanks. Naming a stand is hard because the two at Bruce already have names. I’ve always been a fan of the statue concept, and they’re easier to move to a new stadium. But you’re right, Jarrod deserves something amazing. For what he’s done for the club and the community. I hope someone works out the best way.

Do us a solid and like our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or share this on social media to give me something to celebrate and I write one (1) article at your request. Everyone gets one. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.