BY ROB

Canberra turned on a miserable, cold and grey afternoon for the first ever in-person meeting of all three of the Sportress personnel. Dan and Viv both made sizeable journeys to be here for a double-header that heralded the start of the NRLW campaign along with the NRL team’s incredible ascendance to 1st place.

And so the three of us sat in the southern end stand, surrounded by friends new and old, hoping that the NRLW side could get the day under way in the best style possible.

In the lead up to this game the three of us had slowly become unsettled about the Raiders preseason prep. Quinlan had moved on to the Bulldogs, our beloved Shak Tungiah had opted for time away from rugby league, Pasikala was injured and Matua is off in form wilderness.

Which means the Raiders team that took the field was almost a 2.0 version of the 17 that ran out two years ago against the Sharks. Cheyelle Robins-Reti at fullback, covering for young Elise Simpson. Georgia Thomas at six, partnering Zehara Temara. Leianne Tufuga and Isabella Waterman making their club debuts in the backline. Chloe Saunders first appearance in green as a starting prop. Jordyn Preston and Lili Boyle on the bench.

It took all of three minutes for the Dragons to find the Raiders edge weakness and pry it open. Tegan Berry skipped across the face of the Raiders left edge and offloaded to Indie Bostock who casually spun out of a half-hearted tackle and parted four Raiders defenders like she was Moses at the Red Sea. 80 metres later she planted the Steeden in the in-goal and got the visitors off to the best start possible.

Canberra hit back in the 12th minute after an amazing show of strength from Hollie Mae Dodd, half blinded by her headband falling onto her face, pushed through four defenders to plant the ball on the line.

But the Raiders couldn’t stay with their opponents. The Dragons were simply hungrier and faster, more determined to exploit every possible opportunity. Zali Hopkins scored their second in the 17th minute when she burrowed through the line under the crossbar, somehow managing to guide the ball to the ground despite three Raiders being under and around her.

Waterman demonstrated her defensive ability by absolutely folding her counterpart Bobbi Law in the 28th minute. Waterman showed good signs in her first outing as a Raider and this tackle is definitely one for the highlight reel.

With the halftime score 12-4 to the Dragons things liked grim but salvageable. Taufa offered hope with a barnstorming run early in the second half, but the Raiders couldn’t capitalise and moments later the Dragons launched another mid-range assault on Canberra’s shaky left edge, giving Bostock her second meat pie of the arvo.

The Raiders managed to wrest momentum back and finally found the rhythm out on the Dragons right edge, generating an overlap so Madi Bartlett could hop over in the corner to bag the Green Machine their second four pointer.

When Holyman crashed over under the posts with 16 minutes to go it looked like the Raiders might reel the Red V in. The Dragons had other ideas. Canberra didn’t score again.

Tegan Berry waltzed through numerous Raiders and then raced down field to score. Bostock thought she had her third only for the bunker to rule her teammate had erred while trying to bat the ball down for her. It didn’t matter.

Raecene McGregor danced through the Raiders middle defence on the try-line and scored an all-too-easy try. For their final try the Dragons shifted the ball from east to west, found the Raiders wanting on their left edge again and let Margot Vella do her thing.

Anything that could go wrong in this game for Canberra did. They threw the ball away at least once in prime try-scoring position, when Bartlett tried to pass to Wiki on her outside only for a defender to pluck the ball from air and turn the attacking tide (don’t ask me why a winger was passing to a centre outside her).

Isabella Waterman nearly had a try when she cleaned up a poor Dragons kick defusal, but the ball was awkwardly braced against her head and popped free when she dived to ground it. Robins-Reti thought she had one too, but it was quickly ruled an obstruction.

The Dragons roasted the Raiders left edge defence. At least three tries started from beyond or on the halfway line, and every one of them had that left side looking like a group of people who’d just met each other ten minutes before kickoff.

The Raiders lateral ability was appalling, whether it was sliding to cover a quick-shifting Dragons offence or individuals trying to shut down hot-stepping opponents.

2025 looks to be a long road for the NRLW Raiders, here’s hoping they find some joy as they travel it.

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