BY DAN

Well here it is. There’s no hiding, and the whole (rugby league) world will be watching.

Canberra are in the finals. They earned that spot. There are no default positions. They won 13 games this year, which is more than anyone not playing finals. Normally a fifty-fifty record will get you into the bottom of the playoffs. It wasn’t enough this year, and the Raiders were on the right side of the scales of (footy) justice. They had luck this year but more in the sense of dancing that tight-rope of fate and making it to the other side. They may have looked less sure than most that made it but they’re still on the other side.

The Green Machine aren’t exactly humming on all cylinders. Sixty minutes of grind against Cronulla doesn’t forgive months of staid water. Before Sunday’s fiasco it was nothing but chaos and pain since the third bye. It has seemed like Stuart recognised that the footy they were playing wasn’t up to the standard he wanted. From the outside all we have seen is the complaints about the referees, and the increasingly confusing team lists. I’m sure there has been more going on behind closed doors; I’d love to know how much of that was an arm over the shoulder, and how much was an invective hurled like a pitcher. As things got dire he has surrounded himself by the players he trusted, best positions be damned. Seb Kris, Jarrod Croker, Jack Wighton, Matt Frawley. None of these players have been in positions that suited them, and some frankly misplaced in the 17 at all. But this seemed the rub of it for Stuart. Simple things weren’t being done, and he is sick of hoping players would do them.

That has made the occasional cycling in of young players simultaneously understandable (young players make errors) and more confusing (they need experience). Limited minutes and opportunities meant that it was never clear if people like Trey Mooney, Adrian Trevilyan, Ethan Strange or Hohepa Puru were ready for the level of football they’ll dominate in years to come. A better idea of depth charts and roles would have made sense. More time rather than moments would have a better use of this year to develop players to make them ready to fill the roles the club is now fumbling to. Instead they were put in weird positions with ill-defined roles or unclear pathways.

It matters because all season Canberra could have been preparing for the time where they don’t have their first options. It has reflected a mind-set that was pervasive across the entire team. Instead their cold start, and then hot streak, has led to them rev the engine because that’s what it took. It’ was’s been a double-edged sword. It allowed them to claw their way into the finals (or butt-slide, choose your preferred metaphor), but it’s left them ill-prepared to succeed there.

It wasn’t just in the team list we’ve seen this phenomenon. A more sophisticated attack could have been developed but the stilted, near-enough, approach was favoured as other spot-fires were put out. Better, more consistent defensive combinations could have been persevered with, but instead they were thrown out in search of a silver bullet. Jack defending at centre has turned out to be more an alloy-based material. Smarter footy could have….well, look, let’s be realistic.

Making the finals has become the aim instead of giving the finals a shake. It’s an important distinction. Too must trust has been put in the ‘get there and work it out’ approach, instead of doing their due diligence to remove the impact of matters like effort and fate. They have instead embraced that, genuflecting at the alter of hope and the bouncing ball. Able to compete and even win, unless fate didn’t swoon in their direction, or their opposition cared and raged as much as they did.

And well, in the finals everyone is up. Everyone is raging. You can’t out-hustle your opposition in September. To go far you need to have trust in your players, effective systems and a hard-nosed belief that you’re better than the person standing opposite you. Faith and hard yakka are a given. What else do you have?

There are positives. As our most handsome reader Ben pointed out there will be more finals experience for young players. Trey Mooney, Hohepa Puru and either Albert Hopoate or James Schiller will probably get their first finals game. Matt Timoko, Zac Woolford, and Jamal Fogarty all get their second finals series, Tommy-gun his third, Huddo his fourth(!). You don’t get good at playing at the most difficult times of the year by watching. They’ll be doing it in an incredibly hostile environment, and if any club is suited to being obstinate enough to do the exact opposite of what we would think it’s these lunatics playing in front of a frothing crowd (and probably some of their friends given Huddo and Starling’s history with the region).

Good news of building for the future is nice because the present is fleeting. There’s a battle to win, and the Raiders are limping towards the dark knight dragging their sword behind them with their shield long gone. Is there one last miracle left? Call it the final hope.

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