BY DAN

Every Canberra Raiders fan has a corner of their mind where they harbour they hope that they follow a regular functional footy team. That ideal team was going to use Friday night to bring back it’s injured leader, mash the button marked ‘LFG’ and basically get right. The circumstances we all there – an out of form opposition, suffering multiple further injuries, on a night so characteristically Canberran it even had a lack of density at the game.

But even the most perfect circumstances in which to be normal and good and functional are not enough for this team. Everything must be hard. St Jerome would be proud. Unfortunately making things hard has the Raiders prospects, at least in 2024, teetering like Jenga, just a few dud returns away from total collapse.

Friday was a magic eye of a performance. On the surface it looked like the mess of the last few months. Too many errors. Too many penalties. Wasting opportunities in hand, gifting them the opposition. But staring through the mist (see, you gotta look beyond the picture – I could never do it) there were moments that were like a dopamine injection for that dark corner of your mind. The early tries based on sharp shift movements, bodies in motion. Huddo hitting lines. Starlo hitting holes and making tackles. The belly-bombs tormenting an otherwise capable back three. The hard yakka in the middle, and a back five running with an anger that minor injuries were evidently holding them back from before the bye (particularly Seb Kris but particularly Matt Timoko, who looked back to his powerful best).

The ingredients were there, it’s just the team almost seemed to get distracted almost as quickly as they realised they were there. A good ten minutes (we’re so back) became a middling first half (oh no) became a trash second half (oh *they’re* back) became the kind of victory you don’t even enjoy. It’s like football equivalent of the chorus from My Happiness.

It seems an age since we’ve seen this team play to its potential and there’s a host of reasons for that. The tasting we got Friday was enough to keep that dark spark of hope alive. But as noted in the Review, if there wasn’t time to mess around before, there’s even less now. Souths await, in better form that the Warriors, with more talent and as many reasons to win. Playing Jack Wighton in Canberra has all the hallmarks of a milestone game. Canberra can ill-afford such emotional distractions. And after that it’s pain, in this show played exclusively other top eight teams, or contenders for the same spot the Raiders are going for. It’s a helluva run in right now.

All Friday did was push out the ‘must win:must turnaround’ status of the season out another week. A good performance may have given hope that they could win the required five games in their last seven. Victories are the baseline. Improvement is required. The parts are there but putting them together is the problem. The number of errors that plague this team should be fixable but the Raiders are seduced by the siren song of doing something dumb. If only there was another way (there is).

The season continues to teeter and our hope may be the only thing holding it up right now. The Jenga blocks are sparse now: hold the breath, squint the eyes, plead to the old gods (Mal) and new (Papa). Let’s pray they can build something more sustainable.

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