BY DAN

Let me have this every year.

The Canberra Raiders won 22 to 18 over the Newcastle Knights. They did it without either of their starting backrowers. Without their boom rookie. Away, on a wet night in Newcastle. They eked out another victory, their sixth in a row, and ended the night in top spot on the ladder. And yet such is the raised bar of 2025 that this was a profoundly frustrating performance.

It’s such a weird world. The Raiders came in running five on the trot but the last outing looked lethargic. The Knights had looked as good as they can over the last month, had recently added Dom Young, and were suddenly feeling dangerous. The game brought with it an ethereal anxiety. This was exactly the kind of game any Canberra team of the last twenty years would lose. They didn’t. That should be celebrated. Yet here I am, exasperated like it’s 2024, or 2021, or 2018.

The good came from where it always does with this team. The starting middle rotation were dominant. Despite a spirited start by the opposition pack, Taps, Horse and Papa wrestled the game from them over the opening thirty minutes. It was done through hard carries and dexterous feet. Tapine had 90 of his 140m total metres through this period. Horse 130 of this 190 odd metres too. Papa 60 of his 105 total. It was typical dancing rhino stuff. Bigger dudes using a mix of brute strength and agility to ruin their opposition.

Last week in the absence of Savelio Tamale, we’d noticed this platform felt incomplete. This week this workload was notably supported not just by the back three, but by impressive work by Matt Timoko (17 for 200m, 76 post contact), Seb Kris (14 for 140m, 57 post contact) and Simi Sasagi (16 for 164m) in exit sets. I lost count of the number of times either Seb or Timoko took the first carry post kick return. It worked wonders, and may be the way they adjust for life without Tamale.

This platform allowed them the space to attack their opposition’s edges. In shifts that came from outside the red zone they used Kaeo Weekes in particular, but also Matt Timoko, to torment the Knights outside backs. Their first try started with a powerful exit set run from Sasagi, was followed up by huge metres on a shift to Timoko, before Sasagi caught Ethan Strange’s chip to score.

In good ball they narrowed the focus, using the backrowers to attack the inside shoulder of the Knights hard-jamming centres. Zac Hosking and Simi Sasagi both set up tries with near identical plays on opposite sides of the field. Hit a line hard on the centres inside shoulder, pop a pass to waiting colleague and the Raiders scored. It was breathtaking to watch, and Sasagi in particularly was astounding. He’s come so far this year. It’s beyond exciting to see what he’s achieving, but also the depth and flexibility it brings the team.

To be honest it could have been more. Hosking poked through that same hole on at least three other occasions. He just couldn’t quite find the line, or the pass. Weekes looked terrifying throughout. On another night the torment he wrought on the Knights’ defence (three line breaks and 200 plus metres) would have resulted in more than just the aforementioned points. Like Sasagi, it’s really pleasing to see him start to touch the edges of his potential. Attack with this pace is not something Canberra has had since….I dunno. When Zip Zip had knees?

That was supported by an initially stubborn defence. The Knights had zero interest in attacking the middle of the field for the most part. They shifted edge to edge, trying to both hit Canberra’s weaknesses on the right, but also tire the middles. Through the first forty the Raiders’ pack were up to the challenge, shutting down the space the Knights had to work in. Even if they got to those shifts they were usually going nowhere. The Novacastrians had multiple periods of multi-set stays on the Milk’s line. They never really looked like scoring.

But that was that was all the good stuff and it didn’t last. There were a multitude of reasons for that. Canberra couldn’t get out of their own way. Newcastle scored three tries in the second half and all of them required the Raiders’ help. See if you can spot a pattern.

On the first the Knights got down the ground on the back of one of the four seven-tackle sets Jamal Fogarty gave away. They got extra time down there after Xavier Savage knocked down a pass (rightly). On the ensuing set they scored. The second try began with a handling error from the otherwise brilliant Sasagi. This happened early in an attacking set for the second consecutive set. An additional set was granted by Kaeo Weekes being unable to take a contested kick. And then Jed Stuart was too tall to get low enough to keep Jermain McEwen out from dummy-half.

The third try was a greatest hits. It started with Owen Pattie turning over possession early in a set on an obstruction call. Then Weekes and Stuart unable to diffuse a bomb. It ended with the Knights getting around the Raiders right edge. It’s beyond obvious that Canberra can’t expect to beat good teams if they not only invite them up the field. But also make them a cuppa and start rubbing their feet when they get down there? Sheesh. That’s exactly what they did.

It’s important to recognise that it was not just poor discipline and execution that got them into this mess. Perhaps because of the extra work they’d had to put in chasing a ball pinging around like Kalyn Ponga post cubicle session, but Canberra’s line speed died in the second half, particularly through the middle. The Knights were able to shift without any threat from the defence. Given the conditions that was a remarkable accommodation by the visitors. Two hit ups, a shift to the Raiders’ left, simply to open up a line to shift at the right. That was enough to create five line breaks in the second half.

This manifested where we all saw, with Ponga, Best and Schiller tormenting Timoko, Fogarty and Savage. One might be tempted to put the blame solely on them. But there isn’t a defence in the competition that would find it easy handing that edge with the time and space to wind up and choose the gap they wanted to hit.

For the second week in a row Canberra was forced to hold on, rather than throttle their opponents into submission. This mixture of problems which were largely present last week, remained unaddressed. The same lethargy in the middle. The same wasted opportunities in attack. The same tendency to compound errors. These are not habits they should want to build.

Both the Tigers and Knights now have had too much time, space, possession and, consequently, opportunities. These are not good teams, and neither are good offences. But Canberra made both of them look stellar because of their lethargy. Good teams will not be so profligate.

This may change with the return of Hudson Young or Matty ‘Nice’ Nicholson. Using Zac Hosking and Simi Sasagi as pace and space players through the middle forty of the game. Off the bench Hosking has played a massive role in ensuring that the defence remains aggressive. Simi has mirrored that when he’s taken on that job. They’ve also had a similar ‘nitrous’ effect in attack. That has been missed and can’t be solved until help returns.

But it would be better if that solution was not personnel dependent. Canberra needs to stop giving ball away with impatient offence, and instead trust what they’ve built in attack over this year. They desperately need to find a way to consistently handle contested kicks. They also need to kick better themselves (four seven tackle sets is too many).

But for all this complaining we should remain circumspect. The flaws were obvious in the second half but so were the strengths in the first. In any other year this performance would be if not lauded then at least well received. The Raiders have achieved so much this year and deserve all the plaudits they get for how far they’ve come.

But call me greedy. I want more. The good stuff is well within their grasp. Perhaps that’s what makes it so emotive. We know that this team has the goods to make a real run. They also have clear and obvious flaws that they have the capacity to address. We know they are better than this. We just want to see it again. It’s so much harder when salvation is in your grasp.

The good news is that they’ve built such a buffer into the season that they’re not chasing the competition. In fact it’s the opposite. The Raiders sit on top, with obvious flaws, in full knowledge that they have time to fix them and the returning personnel to help. It’s a privileged position and one that we should be grateful for.

But there’s still plenty of work to do.

Do us a solid and like our page on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or share this on social media and I’ll tell you five albums by Australian artists released this year you should be listening to. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.