BY DAN

This weekend is the biggest game of Rugby league’s international ‘season’ so far, and no Raider is in the Australian team.

As we wrote recently Hudson Young missing out was a bit of a downer, a reflection more on the club than his place in the hierarchy of backrowers around the competition. But it does unfortunately keep him in a class with a host of Raiders who’ve never represented the country. Last year we put this team together for the first time under the title of the Jarrod Croker all-stars, a recognition of a great man that was never given the greatest responsibility. Alas that man has now retired, and whatever hope we had of him cracking an international line-up disappeared like the the sun in Autumn.

Canberra likely won’t have a heap of internationals this year. Joey Taps and Matt Timoko (thankfully) made the New Zealand squad. Seb Kris “would have”, thanks Madge, meaning Peter V’Landys’ idiotic system for deducting international games from national suspensions continues it’s comically cooked reign. He’ll just join the rest of the squad taking a break (always well-earned, despite what happens in the season) this October.

It wasn’t always this way. Since the mid 80s the Milk have been stacked with internationals. And because of their wide and varied sources of players, they’ve had players represent a range of nations. We’ve rolled through these before, but our favourites were Scotland (Scott Logan), more Italians than a Scorcese film (Terry Campese, Luke Davico, Mark Corvo, Paul Vaughan), France (future immortal Demetri Pelo), Cook Islands (Jordan Rapana) and even the United States of America (Brandon Costin). Somehow Canberra even provided not one, but two different coaches for the America’s favourite rugby league team (Matthew Elliott and Sean Rutgerson). Only two coaches in Canberra history haven’t coached internationally, depending on how you feel about Andrew Dunneman. Far out even our assistant coach has a national team in his resume. A good one too.

So yeah, international football and the Canberra Raiders get along.

But international football is difficult to crack. The best of the best (theoretically). Plenty of good and even great players inexplicably miss out. Hudson Young is an origin forward but is missing out because Mal Meninga wants to play middles on the edge like its 1992. So is Jordan Rapana, presumably because he’s 34 and tired from carrying the Raiders’ attack. They’re hardly alone – you can barely throw a rock around Lake Burley Griffin without hitting a player with 100 games and no international recognition. Canberra is just different like that.

Perhaps most important to me on this list is Jarrod Croker. It’s not so much that he deserved to or didn’t. He was usually in the conversation but it never felt realistic that he’d get picked. There were bigger players, flashier players, higher status players (and probably better players) that got picked ahead of him. Even when he was reportedly in contention, something gross like injury would come along and ruin everything (Cam Smith’s shot to his knee in 2016 probably ruined his best chance). Add it to the list of things I wish Jarrod had, like a premiership and a hug from the most persistent blogger in Raiders history.

So sometimes good players miss out. Not because they’re not good enough. Just because the twists of fate or timing of their form meets with other talents. Sometimes they played origin but not international. Sometimes they played neither but should have played both. Sometimes they were just good footy players in the best competition in the world. And that is enough.

So let’s not forget the others. Those that toiled away below the radar. Those that earned our love and respect even if they never got their name read out by the Coach of Australia. Without further adieu I give you the Jarrod Croker All-Stars. The update.

Before we get going a bit of housekeeping. This is mostly done off memory and a bit of googling. Playing internationals means for anyone, so Scott Logan’s six tests for Scotland (they named the whole country after him?) and Brandon Costin’s USA Hawks career matter just the same as Mal Meninga’s FORTY SIX TESTS for Australia. If I missed someone obvious it’s because I’m an idiot and you can have your money back.

Fullback: Clinton Schifcofske

Belcher. Mullins. Dugan. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad. Clinton Schifcofske. Seb Kris. I’d argue that these were the greatest fullbacks to ever put on the lime green (ok maybe not Seb). Everyone played for their country except Clinton. He squinted his way through plenty good times, including origin, but despite being the Raiders best player and about 46 per cent of their entire offence for a five year period, he is the only one of this group to never play internationally. Perhaps that’s why he shifted to Union.

Wingers: Adam Mogg and Matthew Wood

Raiders’ wingers have played a lot of internationals. Jordan Rapana was a mainstay of the Kiwi side for a while (though I’m glad he’s either retired, or been retired from international footy. His body needs a break to make it through one more year). Sean Hoppe probably played more games for the Kiwis than he did for the Raiders (no he didn’t 39 for Canberra, 35 for the NZ – but it’s closer than you’d think!). Nic Cotric played two tests for Australia in 2019. Back in the day Chicka Ferguson played three in 1985 which feels unfair in hindsight. Noa Nadruku obviously played for Fiji. Kenny Nagas played Super League tests.

Adam Mogg famously played Origin. I say famously because those two games he played are about as simultaneously magnificent and unexpected as you can get at that level. If I never thought he was going to play origin, it would have been a whole other level of surprise for him to don the green and gold. Still. He was rad.

One day I’m going to corner Matthew Wood and ask him how he kept his head straight walking amongst legends. The backline he played in was stars and club heroes at every position. And then there was Matty Woods, finishing off the most inventive and brilliant rugby league the world had seen to that point. A man could get lost in amongst the stars. He never did.

Centres: Jarrod Croker and Phil Graham

Jarrod Croker spent the best part of a decade being the Canberran’s and contrarian’s pitch for representative spots, both at origin and international level. Wayne Bennett pitched him for origin in 2016. Later that year Mal Meninga said he (and BJ Leilua) missed out on the end-of-season Four Nations tour because of injury (*shakes fist in Cam Smith’s direction*). But despite always being in the conversation for higher honours, he never cracked the side. We’ll give him this listicle. It’s almost as good right?

Thankfully we got to remove Matt Timoko from this list. The mental gymnastics that Madge went to over the last 18 months to not include him was proven a fools errand when Timoko turned last year’s World Cup finalists into his personal plaything. He had had as many tackle breaks as runs on the weekend (11), two line breaks, three line-break assists and two try-assists (which would have been three if Mulitalo’s left arm was a bit more elevated). He showed skills he hasn’t yet shown for the Milk (probably just through the sheer absence of opportunity). In short he was as brilliant as we all assumed he’d be.

Finding a replacement in our fictitious side is a bit of a challenge. Colin Best had like 12 weeks of sheer dominance for the Milk, a beneficiary of the Terry Campese evolution (band name? Let’s do it). Mark Bell’s light didn’t shine as bright, but he was a consummate clubman, a big part of the 1989, 1990 and 19991 squads, only missing out on playing the first two grand finals because Laurie Daley and Mal Meninga existed. My memory isn’t what it used to be, but my takeaway of Bell was that he used to run fast, and run angry. Who doesn’t love that?

But let’s give it to Phil ‘the turnstile’ Graham. Dude could light it up. Electric with the ball, not really a tackler though. Meh, it was a different time.

Five-eighth: Chris O’Sullivan

Two time premiership winner. Two time Mal Meninga medalist. When he retired it was as the most capped Raider on 202 games. Owner of the most important field goal in Canberra Raiders history, as well as the most important bomb. Scored the Milk’s only try in the ’87 decider. He’s a club legend who sometimes gets forgotten in the mess of the golden years.

Halfback: Aidan Sezer

The Raiders signing George Williams is quite the sliding doors moment. It meant Aidan – who had been a critical part of the 2019 grand final – was pushed out the door. It meant he left the NRL, despite at the time being better than probably half the starting 7s in the competition. He never fully flourished with the Milk, but I’ll always be sad he left. The closest he got to rep honours was when Joey Johns (bless his heart) called for him and Blake Austin to be the Blues halves after one game in 2016. Good times Joey. Good times.

Now he’s back, another ‘ex’ of the Raiders’ brethren coming back to haunt us with the Wests Tigers. Chances are he’s about as successful as Bateman was this year. Again it won’t be his fault, just his departure from Canberra wasn’t. Either way he won’t be playing international football anytime soon, unless you count heading back to the Super League (that seems like a dig. It is not meant to be a dig).

Note: Reader Tim last year pointed out last year that Aidan was in the squad for Turkey with Emre Guler in the Emerging Nations Champs in 2018 but as far as we can tell never played.

Props: Josh Miller and Todd Payten

You could make an entire article on the amazing props that have played for Canberra. There’s a long list of players that have been quality, and have never even sniffed rep footy, not even for a Tier 2 country.

Josh Miller gets in because he was made of cement (head to toe). Back in the day we used to joke that his favourite hobby was running into things. He snagged two Mal Meninga medals by being a human battering ram: if there was something to hit he smashed it. If there was somewhere to run he wasn’t interested in gaps or space. He wanted contact. If he played these days they’d name the Head Injury Protocol after him. Instead they just made him a contact coach. Perfect.

Todd Payten was the opposite. A thinking man’s prop. He was famously a halfback carrying an extra 25 kilograms. What a pair he and Miller would make.

Hooker: Simon Woolford

Germ is very much the predecessor to Jarrod Croker in this regard. He played quality football for 15 years in the NRL and outside of a bit of Country football, never really looked like cracking a representative side. He’ll have to settle for club captain, legend, and father of a future Raiders’ premiership winner (I presume).

Backrowers: Joel Thompson and Hudson Young

There was a time where I was convinced that Joel Thompson, Joe Picker and Shaun Fensom would form a triumvirate in the Canberra back row that would bring us back to the promised land. All three were excellent footballers but you know, maybe I got a bit carried away. Thompson had a top career, bringing pace and good defence to the edge.

Hudson Young really shouldn’t be on this list.

Lock: Alan Tongue

Honestly I could have put Shaun Fensom here and been just as happy. Or Dean Lance. Alan was all effort; half man half pain threshold, and was the person that convinced me that work ethic, determination and will to push yourself were a skill as important as passing or tackling. People loved to say that if he was from Queensland he would have played 20 origins. Well maybe the Queenslanders on the Australian selection panel could have picked him for the ‘Roos…jerks…I guess he’ll have to settle for being a captain and legend of the Milk.

Bench: Dean Lance, Shaun Fensom, Corey Horsbrugh, Brett Hetherington

If Dean Lance got hit by a truck he wouldn’t notice. In fact the truck wouldn’t have hit him, he’d have laid it out like he did Steve Roach in ’89.

I saw Fensom at Croker’s 300th game and it made me genuinely happy.

Like Timoko and Young, Horsburgh shouldn’t be on this list for long.

Brett Hetherington played in the Super League 9s. And made a child that turned into a loose unit that plays for the Knights. Information presented without favour or comment.

Coach: David Furner

It was him or Neil Henry. Wait, can I choose Craig Bellamy?

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