BY DAN

Our off-season series this year will be on the key problems that the Raiders must address now and into the future in order for the 2024 season, and those beyond. If you missed Part I on the hooking situation you can read it here. Part II on the number of touches Jamal Fogarty needs to succeed can be found here. Part III on the middle rotation can be found here. Part IV on retention can be found here.

All eyes in the upcoming trial games will be on how the Canberra spine meshes.

Change has come. It is here. There’s a good chance that the Raiders start the season with only Jamal Fogarty in the same position as he finished last year. After that your guess is as good as mine. Danny Levi at hooker? Definite possibility. Kaeo Weekes probably at six? Or so the reports have said. Seb Kris Chevy Stewart Thurgood Jenkins Xavier Savage at one? Why not, who really knows.

This isn’t how you make immediate success. That is built from cohesion and clarity in the spine and the rolls of people within it. As we wrote before the 2019 season:

It’s a truism if Rugby League that the key to success is the skill and stability of the spine. The forwards lay the platform, the backs provide the excitement, but the spine is named as such because it connects all the parts. Talent is critical at these positions; but talent still needs time to build familiarity and relationships.

Like 2019 the Raiders are replacing multiple positions in the spine. Then it was Jack moving to six and the search for a fullback (we suggested Nic Cotric, proving our genius). But they had incumbents at 7 and 9, making the transition of new talent easier to manage. Now the task is that much harder.

There’s good signs with a lot of contenders. Rugby League Writers pulled together a great analysis of playing styles that you should really read. Here it is. Go read it. I’ll practice juggling.

The ‘too lazy to click the link’ version is that each of the emerging young stars has shown first grade level skills of various sorts. Weekes in his awareness, support play, and pace making him an intriguing mix of proven fullback and possible five-eight. Stewart’s ability to offer that protoypical fullback creativity, making that short/long decision as second-man on sweeping movements, and executing, gorgeously. Strange’s ability to bounce and bop and break tackles, while providing the running ying to Fogarty’s organising yang. Savage’s pace. They each offer something, and it’s something potentially elite. I mean just look at this (unashamedly stolen from the above piece).

There’s been plenty of good signs from each of them that they’re prepared to play a bigger role on the biggest stage. Chevy Stewart has said he’s ready if Stick is ready to give him a shot. Stuart already said Ethan Strange is. The club has stopped Zac Woolford from going elsewhere, seemingly recognising that they should keep their hands on their best hooker. Even Xavier Savage, long time passive-aggressive punching-bag, got a wrap recently from Mick Crawley:

Xavier has always been a wonderful athlete. But he’s back this year, he’s very big, he’s strong. He’s got some good combinations at training…Xavier looks like a first grader, he looks like he belongs. In the past he’s been a little up and down. He dropped out of games and concentration levels were hard for him.. But at the moment he’s doing a really good job and giving himself a chance to be part of the team.

Mick Crawley to the Big Sports Breakfast

While it would be best if Stick had settled on a spine by now, it’s fairly understandable that we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the trials before we know how this lands. How they train is one thing, but given that however you land 1 and 6 you’ll have an inexperienced duo, you can’t really decide on what you have until you see it under the fires of competition. At least it’ll make something we sometimes we watch more like we eat a kebab at 4am (think you’re better than me?).

In the end (of the year, of the road, of the process, you choose) I think it’s Stewart and Strange as the long term future in the Raiders spine (though, that doesn’t mean Savage in particular won’t be involved). There’s simply too much talent there. Managed right it will come good. But for now it’s a double bind. Canberra need more info and need to build partnerships to allow young players to thrive. Outside of a dream scenario players and positions will change – development not being linear and all that but also reliant on physical development not necessarily matching the demands. But keeping that change to a minimum, being patient with young players, and creating simple roles and reasonable goals seems crucial to providing the pathway to success for this array of young men.

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