BY DAN

Good teams beat bad teams even whey have off days. Good teams take challenging circumstances – long road trips, imperfect match-ups, environmental conditions – and adapt, acclimatise and overcome. They find opposition weaknesses and ruthlessly exploit them, fitting that mercilessness into their team structure. They leave their own failures behind like the relationships past. In their 30-20 victory over the Gold Coast Titans, the Canberra Raiders did enough.

This wasn’t the Sunday arvo snoozer most thought it would be. The 16-0 hole Canberra found themselves after twenty minutes was indicative of the challenge they faced. Three tries from three kicks, each preceded by ill-discipline and errors from the Raiders. Their defence hadn’t collapsed, but three fifty-fifty moments had fallen in the same direction. Indeed while the Titans did have some moments where they tested the Raiders like, they all came from chaos and broken play. In structured footy they were largely unable to shake the Milk. Kicks and kick returns were their best, and for the most part, only way forward.

But if Canberra’s defence was maintaining its integrity, what was more problematic was how often they were putting the Titans in a position for such opportunities. Players were throwing passes they shouldn’t. They weren’t holding ball they should. They were lying in the ruck when the referee was really of the view they shouldn’t be doing that. In game in which the middle battle was balanced this was giving their opposition a hand-up they didn’t need or deserve.

The Titans weren’t dominant at 16-0, but it was a problem. Normally Canberra overcome problems like this by overwhelming their opposition in the middle of the ground. Punching them in the face and smirking as they fall. But that didn’t happen. The Titans were willing and able, fighting for their season and led by a middle that was worthy of the battle. Canberra weren’t winning the middle in any consistent fashion. Total metres and post contact metres basically ended even.

Joe Tapine had the most metres over any Canberra middle (130, 55 post contact), and Ata Mariota (111m) was probably the next best performer of the pack despite only playing thirty minutes through the middle of the game. The only times they ever felt like they were taking easy metres it was when Sav Tamale (216m, 7 tackle busts and a try) continued his brilliant yardage work of recent weeks, or they headed wider. In return of serve the Titans had periods were their middle was rolling with the ball. It’s no surprise that behind this stilted pack, Tom Starling did his best work in defence.

It meant Canberra had to look elsewhere for dominance. They shifted with more alacrity and regularity, and it looked best going left. That was deliberate. With no David Fifita and no Jayden Campbell there was new combinations and new people to test. In something we’re not used to, that’s precisely what they did. All five tries came down this edge, three with interesting and varied uses of ball-runners, all designed to make new defenders make hard decisions.

The first was a combination of forwards, with Morgan Smithies and Corey Horsburgh’s combination, and Jamal Fogarty’s sweep behind them creating the overlap that Ethan Strange perfectly read. The second was a similar movement, instead Horsburgh hit a face ball as the defence watched behind. Hudson Young ran through arms tackles to score. A third try just before half time evened the scores, and was marked by Ethan Strange and Huddo running double unders lines. The defence went to Huddo, and Strange took advantage.

It was such intelligent attack. Each try built on the last. Every try made the defence worried about a different runner, a fact supported by some bollocking running from Hudson Young. The first made the Titans worried about having numbers wide. Then when they looked out the back Canberra played to the front. Then when they looked to Huddo they gave it to Strange. It’s not every day the Raiders play intelligent football. It’s even less often they do it when the stakes are high.

It wasn’t always intelligent. Around that they dropped a frustrating amount of ball. After they took the lead early in the second half they followed it with periods of scrappy and frustrating play. The Titans final try, one that actually came from a well-worked shift where the Raiders just ran out of numbers, came after Matt Timoko gave them an attacking set that was survived, only for Xavier Savage to gift the ball back immediately. They followed that up with a host of penalties that offered field position like it was a pleasantry. It wasn’t until Young saw a retreating fullback at A defender that the game was iced.

It was a test of everything Canberra haven’t been in the recent past. Favoured against a struggling competitor sans their best players and in warm weather? A team with a pack that the Milk couldn’t dominate, requiring new and different paths to victory were found? High variance game moments all falling in the one direction like a series of dominoes leading falling towards a big blaring lights that shined “not your day”. More often that not the Canberra Raiders accept their fate. Wilt in the heat. It was by no means a good day or a good performance but they did what was necessary. Like a good team would.

Now let’s keep it in our pants. That doesn’t mean they’re a great team. That’s another step. But right now each week sets a unique test that Canberra keeps passing. In this game they faced their own hype train and wandering mind, their opposition’s fearlessness, the heat, and a middle they couldn’t beat up for fun. And for the most part they passed the test.

Victory is never promised. In any competitive environment it is something that must be taken. It’s what makes upsets possible. Complacency, lethargy, the sheer mindfuck of having to climb the mountain again, all when you thought you proved the truth the week previous. It requires a degree of resilience, a certain mindset, to fight that battle each week. To hold those standards. To succeed so regularly that you expect it, thus creating the most beautiful self-perpetuating cycle. That’s what good teams do. Today, if you squinted in between the dropped ball or mind-numbing ill-discipline, the Raiders looked like a good team taking care of business.

Does this mean they’re good? I won’t pretend to know the mind of god. I’m an atheist. I write these stories because I don’t know how to pray. But I hope they are. I also know the next three weeks will tell us plenty about this team. Today told us there’s resilience, intelligence and eve a little panache. Tomorrow will have different questions. They may not be able to answer them.

But I know they’re ready to have a crack.

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