BY DAN

Canberra have given their all in recent weeks and just been left with questions. How did they do it? Are they insane? Why didn’t they do it earlier?

More importantly, what do they do now? Courtesy of other results on the weekend, they would have to win by 8000 against the Dragons and hope several meteorites render other teams incapable of finishing their seasons. Even then I’m not sure they’d play finals. So with all but 80 minutes of the pain season left, what is there to test and learn?

First of all let’s acknowledge there will be no Jordan Rapana or Elliott Whitehead. The future comes early to Canberra. Both have been taken out by a cruel twist of fate. Jordy copped a head to the face and for once succumbed to injury. Smell got himself suspended for a hip drop. He’ll challenge it but I suspect he’ll have a hard time winning. So how will Canberra fill these two critical spots?

For starters let’s climb down off a few hobby horses. I am at stage five of the grieving process for Hohepa Puru. I now almost fully accept that not only won’t play first grade this year but perhaps never again for the Milk. He’s now coming off the bench in Cup; not even the captain. What a gut-punch. Similarly I assume Chevy Stewart won’t be given a chance to test his improvement, and Michael Asomua’s injury has kept him off the field for too long now.

That means that for now the most obvious change is that Kaeo Weekes reprises his role from the weekend at fullback. This is almost certainly his best position, particularly as Chevy Stewart develops the game (and the physique) that will allow him to play first grade. He wasn’t as involved in attack as we may have wanted on the weekend but bruh we didn’t have the ball. What else could be expected?

I would hope Ethan Strange this means comes back, and at five-eighth While it may feel pointless to bring him back this late in the dance, the difference between him and being a superstar is reps as a five-eighth. The last full game he played there was in July and it’s now September. Get him out there and let him play with the wind at his back and some trust in his game. Any lessons learned can be banked for next year.

In the inverse I wouldn’t risk Jamal Fogarty on a meaningless game unless 100 per cent certain about his health. Hamstrings are notoriously re-injurable (technical term). While I’m sure Jamal is still learning things at age 30, it could be put in an email rather than risk further disintegration of his ageing ham-bone. I mean being a cheap version of Fogarty is why you have Adam Cook, so just role with that hey.

Simi Sasagi had his best game for the Raiders on the weekend. I’m not certain he’s quite got the defensive chops as a backrower, but it can’t hurt to have a further look at him. You’ve always got the option of putting Ata Mariota in front of whichever steam train of Jayden Sua or Luciano Leilua lines up opposite.

More than personnel decisions it would be nice to see if removing the shackles of finals can allow Canberra a more expansive football style. The last few weeks have been beyond remarkable in what has been achieved without the ball. They’ve spent two weeks wandering into hell on a dare, picking up some smouldering sulfur and wandering back out for the fun of it. Maybe they could do something a little less dramatic but perhaps more aesthetically pleasing?

There are limitations to this. They’ll always lack for width while Morgan Smithies and Tom Starling/Danny Levi manage the middle passing. And they’ll hardly become the ’94 Raiders because the pressure cooker sung it’s favourite tune over the weekend. But it would be good to see how players like Strange, Weekes, Matt Timoko and Xavier Savage can operate given more opportunities to play a bit of footy. These are the players that should be the focus of the attack in 2025. It would be good to see them given a chance to test the edges of their capability.

But mostly what can be taken from the coming week is a celebration of their furious railing against the dying of the light. There’s something profoundly satisfying about sticking it to the world just because. They’ve shown they can do it just because. Now what if they can it by design? This Raiders team has, like so many of us, been burning those candles in search of victory. Under Coach Stuart they run hot all the time. Being built to play with emotion and energy has led to variability in output. Sometimes, like the last two games, they can overcome all kinds of difficulty because they refuse to give up. Other weeks they’ve wilted, lower-energy than Jeb Bush on holidays.

The jig is up so to speak for this season but for the future Canberra have to find a way to win that doesn’t rest on moving heaven and hell. Under Stuart I don’t think they’ll ever be a team of cold-blooded terminators. But the more they can lean into the non-emotional aspects of the game, the more they can use emotion as the cherry-on-the-top rather than their foundation stone. The next premiership will be built on more than hot-blood and courage. Let’s hope they starting building that now.

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