BY DAN

It’s the best of Ricky and the worst of Ricky.

The Canberra Raiders 2024 season will start with a pick-and-mix team list. In a year where we’re expecting change, players to go up-and-down and back-and-forth (and twirling, always twirling), Stuart has named a side for Thursday night’s fixture with a little something for everyone.

For those keen on the youth moment Ricky has done a very un-Ricky thing and actually named Ethan Strange as the starting six for the Raiders first game against the Knights. Now we all need to be cool about how he goes – you can’t build a brewery out of one beer. It needs to be at least three times bigger. What I’m actually saying here is patience is a gift from the Raiders community to Ethan. Still a teenager he’s been given a near impossible task. Let’s hope he can deliver more often than not. And if he doesn’t, allow him the grace to go away and come back without fuss.

Speaking of coming back it’s good to see Xavier Savage in the top line again. An example of the bumpy road to the top, he’s been one of the most eye-raising performers this preseason. I think he’s earned his position on the wing and I hope he keeps it. This feels like home for X.

Similarly it’s exciting to see new recruit Morgan Smithies so highly rated by the club. I thought he did fine in the trial (in very limited time). He got through plenty of defence, a little bit of running and the occasionally bit of passing. That, combined with the implicit stamp of approval of him only playing with the starters (as well as the explicit approval of Mick Crawley and Joe Tapine), is heartening.

I’m also glad Ata Mariota and Pasami Saulo are on the bench. A optimistic-but-realistic projection for Mariota is to end this year as the Milk’s second-best prop. To do that he needs to playing bigger minutes with more consistent output. He’s got the talent, of that there is no doubt. I’m curious as to whether he starts and Papa comes off the bench. Would it be a Sticky team list without a change for game time?

Saulo looked powerful and agile in the trials. I know a lot of people will be concerned about his status as an obstacle for Trey Mooney but I think they have different roles (if not positions). I tend to see Mooney more in competition with Mariota and Papa than Saulo (who I see more as a “pair” with Morgan Smithies). Further, Saulo’s performance at the back end of last year and in the pre-season is exciting and worth rewarding.

Zac Hosking isn’t youth, but he does represent renewal. He is in for the apparently injured Elliott Whitehead. Anyone will tell you a calf injury is the old man’s burden. The juxtaposition couldn’t be more pronounced. Sunrise, sunset. Yes we have no bananas.

The most curious decision in the side is Albert Hopoate at centre. He’s always struck me as a solid yardage winger. When I’ve seen him defend in the centres, both for Canberra and before, he’s seemed a step slow and a moment late in the incredibly difficult job of defending there. Seb Kris will be back in a week, so it’s likely a good time not a long time.

It does make me wonder what the future is for ‘Bert in the side. Do they see him as a centre going forward? Is he ahead or behind Cotric and X on the wing if not for the hole at centre? What did they see in the trials that put him ahead of James Schiller? It’s a pure Stick decision – the kind where it just makes you scratch your head and wonder what you’re missing.

Zac Woolford missing out is also an intriguing, if saddening outcome. I’m at the point where I just have to accept the club’s preference for Danny Levi. But this decision does make the refusal to let Woolford leave in the offseason (after telling him to leave) seem more tied to Adrian Trevilyan’s health than anything keenness to keep Zac. I don’t think they’re right and I hope I’m wrong. Being randomly hot and cold on a player? Pure Stick.

But that’s a side story. Will this side be enough to beat a good Knights team? I’ll let Rob tell you that when he does the preview. After that it’s just 48 hours till we find out. Let’s go!

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