BY DAN

The Canberra Raider’s 41-8 demolition of the Parramatta Eels was the most exciting footy they’ve played in years. More than just winning a game in the same old way, they showed there’s an upside, a perspicacity, a possibility that this team is more than a bunch of hard-working chaotic lunatics. This game, and this footy, showed a capacity for brilliance, a good footy team playing electrifying rugby league and utilising the array of talent to its potential. There is more to this team. I cannot wait.

My mother said there’d be days like this. I’d stopped believing. Now here we are. It’s not so much that they won, or by this much. What this victory showed was a more thorough, a more complex and varied way of playing footy than Canberra have played in years. Yeah they smashed it in the middle. They ended up outgaining their opposition by 600 odd metres (though plenty of that came from the long-range tries they kept scoring).

Joey Tapine was Him as he always is (12 hit ups for 143m). Morgan Smithies played 80 minutes of lock-down defence through the middle of the ruck (42 tackles, zero misses), played a critical linking role through the middle third and casually added 15 for 153m and 55 post contact metres. Pasami Saulo probably had his best game as a Raider (10 for 139m, 51 post contact). Danny Levi was energetic in facilitating this.

Smash them in the middle. It’s a familiar story but it doesn’t tell this one. While they did a job of that by the end, for much of the match it was far more a battle than those numbers showed, at least in the engine rooms. At half-time the only difference in metres was basically the distance covered on the Raiders’ two tries. The Parramatta game plan was really clear. Bash bash bash. Even when they got to an edge they would often send a pass inside. They wanted to make the Canberra middles prove they were willing to make another effort, to push inside out. For a time the Eels kept coming. There were many times they ended a set with an attacking kick. Just as many the Milk kicked from inside their own half. But the Green Machine held them out, and wore them down.

But that’s how Canberra has won most of its games in recent times. Hard men doing tough things and smart kicking. You’ve seen that before. And it’s true they did that but it wasn’t the driving force. Instead it was the symptom. What was exciting was that while this mud-slinging was occurring in the big men, the cause was happening else as the Raiders’ outside backs were playing the most exhilarating football they’ve played in ages. They were able to take the intermittent advantages granted to them through the ruck and create carnage. Prometheus wept because it was born in his image.

Let’s start with Ethan Strange and admire the brilliance of his play. All night long he tested the Parramatta defenders with good decisions, strong runs (six tackle breaks), quick feet and a change of pace that would make a grown man grunt like a psychopath (speaking from experience) and people who know actual stuff about actual football impressed at the maturity of a teenager. The Raiders’ first try came from his hands (well, feet), a few slow steps switching to a fast patter like he was tango-ing his way through the line. The third came from a perfect pass to Seb Kris (and his even better pass) to Savage to put him into space outside his defender. Both tries nearly fell apart due to the shenanigans of others (Huddo wtf man) a warning that this is still a work in progress.

Those are the highlights but he was involved in so much more, and it proved that he keeps handling everything thrown in his direction. His ability to play fast and slow, to play early or at the line, to beat grown men (Ryan Matterson got palmed off by a teenager, call the cops) into submission improves each week. He made the perfect choice each time; to set up those tries, but even to play a critical but backseat role in others, like Xavier Savage’s virtuoso first try where a quick shuffle in recognition of the space available to his speedster (and my god what he did with that space may necessitate the morning-after pill). The more that is put on his plate, the more he eats. Let’s fill it up and get huge.

If Strange lead the charge, Matty Timoko didn’t so much end the Parramatta resistance but trample it like a bully through a sandcastle. We see this every week but it’s becoming increasingly clear he’s near impossible to tackle. His eight tackle breaks were brutal. Bodies strewn. Grown men scared. On the broadcast they said he’s not a big centre. Well fucked if I know but if he’s not big then he’s made out of titanium. His bones hurt other people just by existing. Fuck global warming. Just tap the grid into Matty T’s power and pump the heating. It’s clean, it’s consistent and it’s renewable.

Timoko was a nightmare on the right but almost like a microcosm of the Raiders’ play, it was what he did beyond expectations that impressed. Yeah he set up a try for Young tearing back against the grain, Mjolnir in search of Thor’s hand. And his ability to hold off Dylan Brown, twist and dunk the ball while somehow staying in was masterly. But more impressive was his continued ability to be a critical pass in shifting movements, rarely given more than a microsecond to tap-pass, and almost always getting it perfect. Once it was a try to him, another time to James Schiller.

Savage continued his brilliant start to the season too. His stunning try was something we knew he could do, and he’s so goddamn fast that he ran Danny Levi onside almost by accident on that grubber inside off the Strange pass. But I cheered just as hard for some of his yardage runs, some of his defensive moments and kick defusals. A try, try-assist, 235 metres on the ground, 62 post contact, 3 tackle breaks, 2 line breaks – it’s an impressive line. However what is more pleasing is to see him find a maturity, a role, and a home. He knows his game now.

This is all so exciting because it adds another level of possibility to what the Raiders’ ceiling is. Noting that Parramatta are not at their best right now, if Canberra are able to attack both edges with such ease it’s a whole other level to their game. Suddenly winning the middle isn’t a pre-condition for success. It means maybe completing at 90 plus percent isn’t a necessity (78 per cent in this game which is *fine*). It means maybe they can not just win but ask really fucking difficult questions. Questions like ‘what are you going to get your Dad, Matt Timoko, for Father’s Day?’ (a nice bottle of whisky, a sleep in, and the good fried chicken for dinner).

Another fun thing is that this dismantling occurred *despite* challenges. Jordan Rapana was injured early, meaning that Seb Kris moved to fullback, Simi Sasagi came on at centre, and Ata Mariota, who we’d all assumed would play twenty minutes on an edge, had to spend the whole game playing right backrow. He was perfect and even propped and popped an important offload that started a try-scoring movement. Corey Horsburgh went off with an abdominal injury and Morgan Smithies just kept playing (good god that better be Trey Mooney’s music). Canberra kept on, unperturbed. Resilience baby, it’s a helluva drug.

Partly that was because of the opposition. The Eels clearly wanted to play ‘tight’ through the middle and wear down the Canberra middles. It was almost like the 2024 Raiders playing the 2023 version. Just a series of hit ups and one shift before the kick. Even when they did play a bit of footy it invariably came unstuck due to poor handling. It meant that they never really tested Mariota’s lateral agility on the edge, or the combination and defensive connection of Sasagi and Xavier Savage in the first half. Better sides won’t let you get away with playing a prop at second row. Functional teams won’t let Timoko and Strange get away with only making 10 and 22 tackles respectively, if only to make sure they’re gassed when the ball is turned over.

But lord knows it was more than just that. This wasn’t just a destruction it was vindication. It was borderline spiritual. Proof that last week was the fluke and the first three weeks of the season are who this team is. Or perhaps, and hold me while I say this, but maybe just the start for this side. It was evidence that they can play with width, that they win in different ways, that they can be stone-cold exciting, and that they even be the smart team (since when were the Milk the team that took the field goal to get out by more than two tries at the end of the half?). This team was lost but maybe it’s over now. No more sputtering. No more hanging and hoping. Brilliance over basics. Belief over hope. Faith over doubt. Hope born again. Regenerative.

*deep breaths*

Look let’s not get carried away (well more than I plainly have). There’s still plenty to work on. While solving your red zone problems by simply scoring from over halfway is a novel approach, they will need to work out a red zone attack at some point. James Schiller was fun with ball in hand but had some defensive moments, caught out in position and contact. He can fix that. You can’t simply run around and through defences all the time…..right? Even when you play this well against proper footy teams they’ll test you more, and allow less favour. They have the Titans next, and with no rev-up and probably a whole bunch of gas up their collective lower digestion system, it’s the situation where the ‘old Raiders’ would do something silly. I don’t think this team will but this season has been weird enough to make me nervous.

But that’s Sticky and tomorrow’s problem. Tonight we celebrate and bask in the post-coital glow. It’s not just that they won easily. It’s not just they put 13 plus on a team, forty points on the track. This victory is invigorating, the sweet oxygen of belief, of possibility, of goddamn hope. This team has a foundation. A style. It’s expanding on that, and the youth around the experience is proving an intoxicating concoction. Breathe it in. It doesn’t get better than this.

At least for now.

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