BY DAN

Ricky Stuart has long been a proponent of a competition philosophy. An idea that places in the top grade are earned and fighting for your position is what makes individuals and teams great.

At times though it’s felt like he hasn’t held that principle as high as his rhetoric would suggest. Some players have felt like favourites, sacred cows so to speak, ensconced in their position and given every opportunity to prove themselves. Others have put together exemplary performances outside first grade only to whither on the line, ignored and unloved by the big dog. Before this season Stuart spoke of having the most depth he’d had in his time at the club. This was always going to reveal just how committed he was to this ideal.

In the team list this weekend Stuart has shown an intriguing willingness to embrace that principle fulsomely. In naming James Schiller and Ata Mariota at the expense of Nic Cotric and Emre Guler the coach has shown he’s willing to embrace on-field performance and top-side potential as the key criteria of selection. In these decisions Stuart has proven he is capable of embracing competition both in principle and in outcome.

Mariota’s entrance for Guler is simultaneously a reward for the emerging player’s form in limited opportunities in first grade and a stellar performance in Cup on the weekend (13 for 189m, 65 post contact, 4 tackle breaks, a line break, zero missed tackles and a fruit eating partridge). It’s also recognition that the (slightly) elder statesman’s performance had been missing at critical junctures in both the Warriors and the Knights game. Handing errors, defensive misreads and penalties haven’t always been enough for a (more) senior player to find themselves on the outer. Perhaps this year they are.

Giving a young player with ceiling worthy of Michelangelo’s attention a run ahead of an older player with more humble potential and equally patchy performance seem obvious. But in recent years Sticky has stuck fast to Guler even when it’s been unclear to our untrained eye just what the appeal was. We’d all but written off any chance that he’d try Mariota (or Mooney, or Puru etc) ahead of Guler. It would be heartening to other players cracking the door down in Cup (Hi Trey!). Perhaps there is a pathway from the periphery.

Stuart’s decision to include James Schiller makes the same point doubly strong. In Schiller he’s basically backing the hot hand. He has been dominant in reserve grade through three games this season, and notably in the pre-season trials. Two games, 175m per, five tries, nine tackle breaks, five line breaks. It’s a borderline video-game stat line. The young Young man has somehow looked faster, stronger and more dynamic than any point in his career before now. He’s also looked surer in his decision making, reflecting a player reaching a new level of professional maturity.

The only reason he hadn’t made the top line yet had been the otherwise adequate performance of people ahead of him in the depth chart. Albert Hopoate had been preferred, and hasn’t shirked his task in his efforts so far this season. He’s out with a burn (Bert why do you always have the weirdest reasons to be out?). Instead of going back to the known quantity with almost the same performance profile as Guler in Nic Cotric, Sticky has gone again with the player that has proven themselves on the field. Sadly this feels like Cotric’s time in Canberra might be coming to a close. But for Schiller the sun is rising.

It seems like an obvious set of decisions but also Raiders’ fans everywhere will be pleased to see Stuart take them. It’s not just that he’s put truth to what had previously just been a hope. It’s also that he went away from the players that he has lent on in the past. I’m not saying this is a new era; I’ve been hurt before. Stuart is not a cold-blooded fantasy football manager. There’s always factors taken into account that we can’t see, a willingness to embrace intangible not immediately obvious to those of us beyond the parapet. This is a strength of his and should be subject to analysis.

Maybe it’s a moment. Maybe Sticky is growing and changing. Maybe all the youth around him is bringing out a new side in Stick and this weekend he’ll be doing the Ted Lasso dance or quoting K-Dot lyrics (motherf*ck the big teams, there’s just big me!). Whatever it is, it speaks to the multitudes of his character and a step in the right direction, if not quite the evolution of a man.

Whatever it’s cause it seems that in this circumstance a commitment to competition and the heart to follow through has outweighed other interests. Let’s hope it’s repaid on Sunday.

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