BY DAN

After the draw announcement last week there was noise about the Raiders travel itinerary for next year. The first twelve weeks will be hell, with the Milk heading 50,000 kilometres around the world in the space of three months. It’s created a tension point. True to form, Coach Stuart seems intent on exploiting that.

To be fair a good chunk of the drama was self-driven, both in terms of the travel and the reaction. The Raiders publicly campaigned for a chance to attend Vegas next year, a clear attempt to get their sponsors product (or at least advertising) in front of the many eyes that come with being the first game of the season. A good chunk of the near 50,000km of travel next year will come from that trip alone.

But as Coach Stuart put it, he’s not so much worried about that travel as what we follow after:

I find it inconceivable that someone could think it’s fair to ask our players to travel to Sydney, Townsville, Darwin, Gold Coast and Brisbane in the space of six weeks. Then we’re off to Auckland soon after and you can add a trip to Mudgee (against Penrith) later in the season also. It’s the most imbalanced draw that I’ve had since I started coaching

This travel is substantial in the early going. The issue isn’t kilometres, at least not directly. Rather it’s the combination of locales and flight connections that actually are the problem. Townsville isn’t a direct flight from the nation’s capital. Neither is Darwin or Auckland for that matter. It often means losing a night, or a day to travel, assuming that flights aren’t delayed thanks to the Canberra fog. We’ve all seen social media footage of the Milk sitting in airports waiting. Most of this is happening in the opening half of the season, in a period in which Canberra doesn’t have a bye. In a league a closely fought as the NRL a wasted day can mean a lot.

Canberra’s response has been two fold. Complain and cajole. Sticky has gotten out in front of the issue with the aforementioned typically measured response. The smoothing of the situation was left to Donny Furns, as it usually is, who noted the club, and the NRL, would be working on solutions. The logistical solution, ex post facto, is pretty straight forward. The Raiders are trying to find ways to reduce the number of flights they take, either through increased use of charter flights, or minimizing the number of travel events. The problem here of course is cost, because charters and ad-hoc camps cost plenty. According to the Canberra Times they’ve made requests of the NRL to help out there. And hopefully they do.

I don’t think the travel management of the issue is the thing for Stuart. Or at least the only thing. Sure, getting the NRL to provide some support is a key goal. And the loudness of complaint was met with a suitably quiet response that solutions would be found.

But it has also given Stick the opportunity to complain to engender an attitude in his squad rather than get a better outcome. He clearly wants to create a mentality of us v them, a famous part of his style and personality as a player, coach, and person. It was notably evident in the ‘Fuck ’em’, prominently displayed on the walls of Canberra’s dressing room early in 2024. He wants to look his players in the eyes and say ‘they’re doing everything they can to make it hard for you. No one cares about us except the 30 men in this room. Now go out there and run through some walls to prove them wrong’.

It’s a balancing act. Making too much of this only risks fostering a culture of excuse rather than outcome. After already granting low expectations through the youth movement, this risks doubling down. That’s not to say the initial complaint didn’t need to be made. Rather it was a conversation that could have gone through private channel rather than public whinge.

You’d think at some point that utility of a ‘us v the world’ attitude would deliver diminishing returns. If it does Stuart clearly doesn’t think so. It feels like a permanent part of his philosophy, as enduring as his believe in position competition to drive the best in players. It’s hard to find a baseline to measure the success of it but the first twelve weeks of next year will be as good an indicator as any.

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