BY DAN

In the commentary around our game certain players ascend to a status, deserved or otherwise that sees everything they do given a certain quality.

It’s a double edged sword. While it may not directly change how effective one is on the field it does impact the noise around you. Many a player has faced the noise from a frothing media and wilted. Many have benefited from the flowers thrown at their feet. It almost always ups the stakes.

On the rare occasion a Canberra player ascends to that status it means the commentariat becomes myopic in their focus on that player. After all, no one but Raiders fans watches Raiders games (well, actually, they rate their pants off on Fox, but I can only presume that doesn’t apply to most people paid to talk about the game). Jack Wighton was a case in point – even at his most arduous last season he was still given a status and an air not consistent with his performance.

Matt Timoko is a star, or at least he should be, but no one outside Canberra seems to know it.

This isn’t new. He’s been a one-man wrecking crew for years now. But even our love for him aside, it was clear that 2023 was his best year. Despite being the only running threat in a moribund attack disproportionally focused on putting the ball on the other side of the field, he still scored 11 tries (the most for the Raiders, and 11th among centres in the NRL) and assisted on five. He averaged 158 metres a game, and was 12th in the competition in tackle breaks, still had 14 line breaks, more than the rest of the Raiders combined (that last bit isn’t true but it’s revealing that you thought it was). He did this as Canberra’s only attack weapon, meaning he nearly always had the ball with two men’s eyes watching him (pervs). 2023 showed how he turned nothing into Something (in the way she moves) despite almost always operating in suboptimal environs. Despite it all he went mostly unnoticed by mainstream commentators.

He was finally acknowledged with representative selection, and he made New Zealand proud (and us, for what it’s worth). As part of a more functional offence he showed just how much damage he could do: the result was dominating the Australian team, being a big part of demolishing all comers and generally looking every bit the star we know him to be. What’s more he showed a passing game that had, for the most part, not been a part of his game for the Milk. That’s more likely to do with the team than his improvement, but you can’t work on the skill if you don’t have the opportunity. Hopefully the Raiders see there’s more to his game and let him cook.

But it’s hard to say that solidified his reputation in the mind of people beyond Canberra. For starters it wasn’t even clear the New Zealand coach wanted him there. Madge is on the record as saying he would have picked Seb Kris if available, and while that was probably more helpful than true, it wouldn’t have been the first time he’d done that. Secondly while a lot of us nuffies were watching him tear up the post-season tests it’s not like your favourite talking head was (I mean, most of them don’t watch games during the season, you want them to watch in November?). These games, even if entering discussions, are forgotten as quickly as they happen. From memory only 13k turned up for New Zealand’s demolishing of the ‘Roos. It was hardly capturing the world’s imagination. So it’s fair to say that while we all think Matt is god’s gift to right centres we are telling it to a rugby league world that is, as yet, ambivalent.

The world should have noticed but so far they haven’t. We’d love to say there was something Timoko could do about that. If that passing is indicative of a new skill unlocked then the completion of the skill-set with improved defence would play a big part in removing any reason to not acknowledge the man is a star. His 2023 numbers are not excellent – he led the team in try causes (an imperfect stat that reflects a structural, rather than personal weakness in my view). His ‘deficiency’ in this facet has always been heavily influenced by those inside him. Whether the combination of Elliott Whitehead and Zac Hosking can make his job easier remains to be seen. For his part any improvements he makes won’t be enough to overcome the problems created by those infield.

As much as we hate to admit it, because of location and the relative strength of this Raiders team, unless something dramatic changes there will be little to make the media take notice. If Canberra aren’t shaking the competition they won’t be looking for reasons for this. Add to this the fact that Timoko will never be part of Origin speculation which, given it’s nearly February, is surely about to kick off and it seems too many factors out of his control prevent him from ever cracking the nebulous status of ‘star’ in the eyes of Sydney folk.

But that’s ok. Star status is a double-edged sword. Timoko already has all his opponents eyes on him anytime the ball goes his way. The last thing he needs is the minds of gawking clowns in the press box. He’s busy being a star without their help.

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