BY DAN

The Canberra Raiders overcame their circumstances to beat the Sydney Roosters 26-24. Along the way they proved that what they’re building this year is robust, for this season and next. This victory was more than just proof they’re a good thing this year – thought it was no doubt that. This team showed something about themselves. There are no excuses. They will not panic. They will not look for an easy way out. This team is special.

Canberra built from the middle out. It’s who they are, and how they’ve succeeded this year. They outgained their opposition by 300 metres (though a lot of that was to do with having 58 per cent of the ball across the game). Five of the six players that played minutes as part of the middle rotation cracked 100 metres. Pick your favourite, but they were all effective, and more importantly, it was relentless across the 80 minutes.

Yet again Canberra elevated when other teams crater. Ata Mariota (132m, 46 post contact) was again astounding, and alongside Josh Papalii his effectiveness through the middle of the game allowed longer breaks for Joe Tapine and Corey Horsburgh, with greater intensity in their last stint the result. They also got a gift from a back five that continues to astound with their workrate. Sav Tamale had 25 runs. Matty Timoko had 21. This is a weapon in the in-game rest it gives to the middles, reinforcing that commitment to 80 minutes of brutality.

This was reinforced throughout the game by strong contact through the middle and hustle from the edges in defence. All did their jobs. Middle defenders forced error after error through sheer collision. Edges like Simi Sasagi came on and covered such massive spaces it confounded a Roosters team that is used to easier pathways to the line. Sasagi continues to be a revelation – his capability in defence, wherever he’s put, allows such flexibility to the line up. Hudson Young was also irrepressible, and can always be trusted to be the inside out cover. As a defensive unit they withstood what last week was an electric attack, through cutting down space and making easy movements hard.

It meant that to score points the Roosters too had to be perfect. So the tries that came were almost undefendable. Mark Nawaqanitawase jumped higher than Sav Tamale will ever get in his life. The Teddy try before half time had an error and chaos and still took a miracle pass-and-catch to result in points. Only the try to Tupou was an out-and-out defensive error, with Matty Timoko helping in when he should have trusted Simi on Teddy. And you could make the case that there were enough bodies to bring down Robert Toia, but that they got so many players there after all that was a win in itself.

On another night this combination of metres in attack and effectiveness in defence would have resulted in a more comfortable game. But for thirty minutes Canberra couldn’t find points. A combination of new players (Ethan Sanders and Danny Levi in for the injured Jamal Fogarty and the suspended Tom Starling) and new spaces (Sanders inhabited the left mostly, with Strange shifting to the right) meant that an overwhelming amount of ball in the first thirty minutes led to bupkus. The shifts didn’t feel clean, the moments not seized. Clunky is the word people tend to use but rather it was imprecise. A pass from the ruck just good instead of perfect, a step not quite in sync, an imperfect decision and suddenly Canberra’s red zone attack became a work in progress again.

Another Canberra team might have panicked. This team didn’t, and after Owen Pattie came on the attack went from being nonthreatening to effective. He kicked a 40/20, set up a try for Joe Tapine. But that’s the fun stuff. His deception, and creative and precise passing from the ruck opened up the Raiders attack. The hard running suddenly was all advantage. Sets were always finding a way to end up over half way. It looked so fast. It looked easier. It wasn’t perfect – the Raiders didn’t suddenly turn into the ’94 version. But if scoring looked impossible for the first 30, it looked inevitable after.

Sure it wasn’t always sublime rugby league. But it showed that through the constant terror that the Raiders pack and back five create for opposition middles will result in points. All it takes is a little more rigour. Minutes before Canberra’s first try Ethan Strange had played short when he should have played long, and Matt Timoko hit a line when he needed to shift the ball. Given a second chance Strange and Timoko both made pin-point passes with no time or space, and Xavier Savage finished the job (and did more work than he’ll be given credit for). Learning as we’re going? This new drug is addictive.

This improvement and near perfection was needed on the other tries. Sanders’ kick for Sasagi was almost as perfect as the Pattie 40/20 that got them there. Pattie and Tapine could have done the Kid ‘N’ Play Dance before one of them put the ball down, such was the complete befuddlement that his grubber for the captain caused. Even when what seemed like a perfect shift got swallowed, Tamale was able to use his power to flip a ball back and Young was there. He’s always there.

None of it was easy. Everything required a degree of perfection, a degree of difficulty to work. And even when they had to execute beyond the moment, Canberra were up to the task. So when Kaeo Weekes ran through a staggered kick chase and Strange got an easy run to the line, it felt like the whisky at the end of a hard day. Well earned.

This combination of skill, athleticism and tenacity should be lauded. But it was not the only part of this story. This game is also about how Canberra overcame their circumstances. When James Tedesco scored at half time the Raiders of previous years would have given up.

After having their try taken off them after a glaring penalty was hand-waived, after having that much ball, after there being such an obvious error in the lead up to the movement. A 12 point turnaround on half time in a game they’d wasted the best part of the first half unable to find the line? The old Canberra wouldn’t have been able to handle that.

The Raiders of old would have tried to get it all back at once. They would have looked for a big hit, an offload, a shortcut, something to change the momentum back. They’d come out after half time and drop a cut-out pass in space, or miss a bomb recovery, or just a defensive assignment. It would be piss and vinegar and nothingness.

Canberra didn’t drop their bundle. They kept their head when they had every reason to say ‘no, this just isn’t our week. They did not panic, they did not lose their minds to arguing with the referee. They stayed on task. Kept the faith. Worked even harder.

This team. This fucking team didn’t even flinch. They didn’t abandon the game plan. They didn’t forget their strengths. They tightened up, buckled down, and kept on working. They took the opportunities that came, safe in the knowledge that 12-4 and 18-8 were barely a scratch. That they fought that fight with a demeanour more calm than the circumstances offered is astounding. I was tweeting conspiracy theories. They were busy winning games. That they did that with four 20-somethings in the spine looked beyond capable, and sometimes electric, means this might be more than temporary.

In a season littered with victories to hold dear, this may be the most special. These games are the days where you can believe things you shouldn’t and hope for things you’ve spent your entire adult life holding back from. These are the days when the spirit of 17 grown men chasing a white ball around a green field seem to hold a meaning that they probably shouldn’t, but they do. My heart is full tonight. My soul feels there is something more to all this. Something worth preserving. Something worth fighting for. I am going to change the world tomorrow and I believe that because 17 men showed me anything is possible, no matter how hard it seems.

The journey has taken us to places that history can no longer break us. The collective wherewithal of this side is bigger than the wind, braver than circumstance. Heartier than the callous insults slung by cowards and charlatans. The Canberra Raiders can lose but this game showed they will no longer be complicit in that. You want to beat the Raiders? Tear it from their fucking hands and deal with the claws that will tear into your flesh and demand it back.

Any pretense about this being a ‘nice to have season’ is long gone. This is the real deal. Anything but a top four finish will be a disappointment. Canberra keep proving they’re ready.

It’s time we start believing them.

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