BY DAN

Ethan Strange is missing, presumed injured. Kaeo Weekes successful stint at fullback has come to an end. Adam Cook is out. Bert Hopoate is in. Emre Guler….continues.

Rick Stuart is confused.

Let’s start with a caveat. We trust that Ethan Strange is actually injured. Never ascribe to conspiracy what can be explained by incompetence. If it’s some resting thing then it remains a missed opportunity, as we have continually yelled to the clouds, neighbourhood cats, and that kid that knocked on our door asking for donations (don’t worry, we gave him a fiver), Strange needs minutes to get good. It’s a shame an injury got in the way.

Moving Kaeo Weekes is an odd choice as solution for Strange’s injury. A week after failing because (among other things) the Raiders weakened a strength to strengthen a weakness, Stick is back at it again. Along with Hudson Young Weekes has been the only bright spot in recent weeks, and has started to make the fullback position feel more his than not. When you’re having problems stringing together anything approaching cohesive attack, shifting players around every week like your the Mad Hatter is just counterproductive. Weekes may be good at six. But like Strange would be better at six, Weekes would be better at 1.

Weekes’ hard work on defence, safety under the high ball, and critical pace he adds to second-man position on shifts is now going to be deployed a five-eighth, where he’ll have less space to use his space, and more demands on his defensive improvements. Canberra will likely be slower on shifts and while Rapana offers a series of charms, I’m not sure his tendency to take over at 1 is going to make the attack all that much better. In the prism of keeping an eye on next year, it also moves both from their best positions for 2025. I’m honestly not sure of the point. Unless Stick thinks Kaeo is a six, at which point I dunno man. The whole thing makes the initial decision to move Strange to centre to play Adam Cook at six more confounding.

That doesn’t end the fascinating decisions. I presume that Bert Hopoate has been reinstated to introduce some more robust yardage work (as might be Rapa’s most appealing trait as a fullback). I presume Emre Guler has kept out Trey Mooney for defensive reasons. I note Josh Papalii is starting again, though we’ll wait for Saturday to see if that holds. Simi Sasagi is there to allow Elliott Whitehead to shift into the middle rotation. Defending against the well-oiled and coordinated Panthers team will be a test for him.

And holy hell, the Panthers. Taking on the ‘Riff at the best of times is a challenge. Playing fast and/or loose with the set up of the team, fostering new combinations (or at least, new for recent times) just in time to try and hold it all together against the best team of its generation is an unusual approach.

But as much as there’s new pairings and new combinations through the scaffolding of the team, it also somehow feels like a set of old ideas that have already been proven to not work. Rapa at fullback felt like it temporary solution earlier. Smithies, Guler, Levi, Sasagi – these don’t feel like the pieces that can hold out the Panthers relentless attack. Don’t get me started on Puru missing out again. Elliott Whitehead seems tired man. Someone give him a foot massage. The game plan again seems to be somehow win 16-12. Given this team has let in 4000 points in the last few weeks it just doesn’t seem like an approach relevant to a carbon-based universe.

In another world there’d be pressure on the Coach, rightly or wrongly. This isn’t so much a season coming to a quite close as opposed bar staff trying to pick up glass and clean blood off the floor while bouncers evict the patrons that lost their minds. The bright lights are laying bare just how big the mess is. Somehow it feels chaotic and meek at the same time. Somehow it feels panicked and stubborn. Certainly it feels confused.

Do me a favour and like the page on Facebook,  follow me on Twitter, or share this on social media and I dunno man. What the hell are we doing here? Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.