BY DAN

Heat beats down upon the street. Paradise is an hours drive. Fate will be written on the wall. We’re just waiting for deliverance and the world will give us a cut out pass.

It’s still summer but we made it baby. Sing the songs that wake the dead. Footy is back.

Trial season is satiation. The Ritz cracker our starving hearts have been thirsting for. It’s been literal months since we’ve seen a competitive game of football. We’ve spent the time watching cricket, parsing through club and player statements like we’re trying to navigate hieroglyphs. We’ve thought about what was, what might be, and who should do the be-ing. All of it is methodone for the pure heroin of rugby league.

And so we’re back. As we said yesterday none of this matters, at least in an outcomes sense. What might not matter, but boy will be looking at who, how, and why. Because that is what we will be looking at. Until this point positional battles, stylistic questions, ways of working, they’d all just been hypotheticals. This is where the rubber hits the road. So what are we hoping to see? What will be looking for?

Style

Before we even worry about who’s playing where, the first thing we’ll be looking for is stylistic. Will the Raiders routinely get beyond two passes wide of the ruck or will they be stuck in the middle like there’s jokers to the left. Some of that will come from who is hanging out one pass wide. Is it Corey? It is Morgan? Do other middles have the green light to shift the ball from first receiver? How much passing is Big Papa doing? He’s better at it than most realise.

It’s such a small thing, but Canberra’s attack has struggled so much with creating width in any consistent form. It’s not a solution to their problems – you can’t just go side to side and hope that turns everything around. But it is an indicator of how much space their middle is creating, how expansive their ideas are, and how effective and structured they are in shifts.

Growth

The early trials are always about the emerging players. But several of them have already shown themselves to be at, or something close to, first grade. Chevy Stewart showed last season there’s plenty to be excited about in his eventful few games in the top line. Ethan Sanders had a similar time playing top line for Parra, and all reports are that he’s brained the pre-season.

Pattie Cake

Of course Canberra have rakes that are somewhat challenged when it comes to getting the ball wide of the ruck. Danny Levi passes better than Tom Starling, but neither are exactly Michaelangelo in that regard (could pass better than he could paint).

Owen Pattie is the future at the position and certainly has a more well rounded passing game than either of the elder statemen. But is he ready? He played Cup footy last year, and I presume will start there this year. He’s one injury, or a good trial season, away from pushing his way into the 17. Is he ready? We’ll get an idea in the next few weeks.

Halves

For those of you that have been around for a while you know how we feel about Ethan Strange. As the club’s future five-eighth he should be playing five-eighth. He should be given every opportunity to learn the position. You can learn as much about being a half at centre as you can about horizontal dance partners on your favourite adult website. You’re just watching someone else do the work. It’s very different when you’re on the job.

Doing otherwise is Stuart abandoning the ‘future focus’ because of his desire to avoid a tough conversation with Jamal Fogarty. It holds up Strange’s development for another year, and we’re another year away from a premiership.

But we are just an idiot who got lost in the mall on the weekend. Stuart may decide Stuart otherwise. Hell this is the man that gave you “Matt Frawley, the world’s slowest five-eighth”, “Aidan Sezer, starting hooker”, and “Seb Kris, fullback.” He loves over-gaming the situation. What’s better than one organiser? Two! Shit why not three, Stick? Adam Cook isn’t busy. Let’s build the whole plane out of organising halves.

We’ve been really clear that we think Ethan Sanders is a rolled gold stud. So it’s not all downside. In the end I expect Sanders and Strange to both get plenty of opportunities in first grade. The trials will give us a hint as to where we start.

Hot Tamale

Strange probably won’t play in the first trial anyway. Standard operating is that the first string players generally miss the first week, and then come along for a short first 40-60 in the second game. It’s already been flagged that Savelio won’t be playing until week two, which suggests he’s in line to start (ahead of Michael Asomua and Jed Stuart) on the wing.

The club leads to work out if they think he’s a centre or a winger going forward. It’s not as urgent as the Strange six debate. There’s way more similarities between centre and winger than centre and six. But there’s a defensive role to learn at centre that requires experience. X, Seb Kris and Matt HIMoko are with the team for the long term. There’s a need to work out all that fits together. If the club sees him as a centre long term it may be wise to get him some reps there.

Fringe fun

There’s always one. Someone who shows us they’re ready before we realised. There’s plenty of possibilities, particularly in the forward pack. Each of the Martin triplets offers something the club needs. Noah could push for a spot on the edge or the middle. Jordan is a cinder block looking for a toe to smash. Myles might give us some of the passing through the middle we’ve been so desperate to see. Vanu Patuki-Case is really exciting because of the talent identified for the club has existed outside our TV-based eyes. It’s a ‘what’s in the box’ scenario.

But there’s even more possibilities than that. If Matty Nicholson shows he’s ready, then it means Zac Hosking might do some swapping between edge and middle. Maybe that means a scenario where Canberra are running a very mobile rotation for the first time….ever? That may impact the kind of footy they play, bringing us back to our original starting questions about style.

And that’s the beauty of the trial season. Right now anything is possible. We’re about to find out of what will happen.

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