BY DAN

In our time as purveyors of artisanal Raiders takes we’ve had a few hobby horses. Josh Hodgson god amongst men obviously has been a prominent one. Many remember ‘signing David Fifita would be sick’ as another. More recently we’ve been focused on another, that Hohepa Puru needs to be playing first grade. Click a word in this sentence and you’ll find a different call for Puru to play NRL. We should probably get a new hobby.

The point is this isn’t a new idea, nor is it our own. My name is legion for we are many. Does this unit have a soul? Fuck yes it does, and it dreams of Raiders premierships.

Right now Canberra could use what Puru offers. If you’ve read any of the above links then goddamnit you know we do. Do we need passing and creativity through the middle third? Yes, and guess who offers it? Do you need more agility, more pace, and more dynamism from a middle forward. Yes, and you know who can do that. Do we have someone that gets through a mountain of work in defence and will still hit a carry at speed? You and I both know a guy. Do we need the cool head of leadership? What about the guy already identified by all and/or sundry (and the club) as a leader? It seems so painfully obvious that I’m looking for the twist.

Normally when someone demands a player gets a shot in first grade the relevant questions are ‘for who’ and ‘are they actually ready’. This is actually a pretty easy set of questions to answer. Canberra have multiple ways they could include Hohepa in first grade. You could start him at 13 instead of the obviously exhausted Morgan Smithies. You could put him at 17 in front of the probably leaving Emre Guler. You could even give him the 14 jersey because he can cover hooker minutes, and it gives you an additional way to insert him as well as an extra middle forward. Apart from the benefits of his playing style the extra flexibility seems an obvious win.

The ‘are they ready’ question is another big fat fucking affirmative. While I wasn’t sure, Sticky identified him as ready last year when he played his debut game for the club at the back end of the season. In 38 minutes against the Sharks he clocked 100 plus metres and 25 tackles. He got knocked out barely 100 seconds into his next game and the Raiders couldn’t keep the season alive beyond that. Admittedly this opportunity came as the Milk ran out of Horses (the red one notably suspended with ramifications into this season). But Puru did not look out of place.

This year he’s been only found in Cup. He’s averaging 133 metres a game (a career high), has scored a career high four tries, made a career best 94 per cent of his tackles and frankly looked above the competition (as Trey Mooney did before him, blessed be the pathways). On the weekend he scored a try hot-stepping through the middle of the ruck, looking every bit the hybrid 13 ball playing genius he is. His size in defence, the only thing that I could see holding him back in first grade, feels less and less of an issue each week. If he’s not ready for first grade then I would love the club to tell me why, and explain it to me like I’m five.

The only conceivable reason I can see to not play him in first grade is that he’s moving on at the end of the year and frankly I fucking hate that. Puru has a mutual option for 2025, which means he can sign a new deal any time to join another club. It doesn’t take a CSIRO-level genius to work out that he might want to go play footy with his brother Niwhai, currently with the Sharks. They’re obviously close, and wouldn’t be the first siblings keen to play footy together (though, admittedly more successful than me and brother’s partnership ever was).

Puru, being the upstanding guy he is, may have already told the club he’s looking elsewhere in 2025, and they’ve responded by saying ‘fine, we’ll give development opportunities to other forwards’. It would explain the reticence to give him a shot. It would explain the minutes to given to other candidates even while Corey, Corey and Pasami have struggled all season with injury, ill-health and a host of other maladies. Man I hate this idea like I hate fascism.

Let’s assume we’re wrong about that because I don’t want to be right. We’ve got a full week to work out if Stick is actually going to change things up. One man’s cajones is another’s panic stations, and Stuart has shown a predilection to being 100000 per cent sure that something is broken before attempting to fix it, and even in doing so, fixing it with the least impact to the body politic of the team as possible. He’d make a good surgeon I guess.

In all likelihood Stuart will wait to see if bringing back Fogarty and Hosking is enough to cure what ails you. Adding another ball-player beside Fogarty may be too much variable for Stuart to be comfortable with. One would also assume he trusts what he built in the first six weeks of the season.

But if ever he was to show a keenness for a gamble (do so responsibly) then now is the time. The Raiders can’t win doing what they’ve been doing, and what they did before may be too little too late. Playing Puru allows them to embrace what they need now as well as (hopefully) what they’ll need in the coming kingdom of Ethan. If only Stick was willing (or able) to take the leap.

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