BY DAN

Before the 2025 season, the Canberra Raiders were at a crossroads. When Danny Walker decided against coming down under, there didn’t seem to be a pathway forward. Twelve months later, their rotation is stocked and the options plentiful. Now all that’s left is deploying them well.

Do you remember how you felt when it emerged Danny Walker wasn’t coming? Among other things we said:

It’s not a good outcome, right now at least. Light a candle and mutter some sweet nothings to your favourite deity because the Raiders will need all the help they can get. We’ve moved beyond expecting a new rake to come to town. Right now we’re leaning on hope.

Things felt hopeless. Dark but without hope of finding a light. Behind a pack that wasn’t going anywhere Tommy Starling ran headfirst into the limits of his ability in 2024. Danny Levi seemed preferred by the club, but was also an imperfect rake. Zac Woolford was not preferred, for reasons we didn’t really agree with. Canberra had essentially stood pat since Josh Hodgson had left the club. Everything felt so….limited.

Though not the world’s greatest hooker, Danny Walker was a chance to bust out of that constraint. To play more creatively and energetically through the middle of the park. Walker was one of several possibilities that emerged in the off-season, alongside Reece Robson and Brandon Smith. Jayden Brailey was rumoured to be coming as far back as then, and Corey Paix also consistently came up in discussion.

But Canberra came up with bupkus from all these discussions. They said they were leaning in to being Owen Pattie truthers. We didn’t believe them. How could you know what you were getting from a kid who had only just progressed to playing Cup footy? We’ve been wrong before, but this was the best kind of wrong.

But at the time it felt like a highly risky response to not actually finding a proper path to success. Pointing at a kid and saying “don’t worry, he’ll be great” felt the ultimate in subterfuge, an attempt to distract our frustration by offering what was in the box. It could even be a starting hooker. It felt like going into a season with Tom Starling and Danny Levi – again – was effectively putting a lid on the team they could never get off.

Instead the lid was off from the get go. Starling had a career year, not so much overcoming his limited passing abilities as outright ignoring them. Owen Pattie proved he was beyond ready, a weapon who could turn games, showing enough promise that the Raiders turning down the chance to get in the Reece Robson sweepstakes didn’t seem so silly.

It provides two useful thoughts for what comes next. Firstly for the halves search, which enters its sixth month of searching with no success. Walker, Robson, Smith, Brailey, Paix could well be Clifford, Pezet, Smith, Ilias, Hastings. There’s no Tom Starling to fill the gap currently, though Ethan Sanders is expected to be more (at least in playing time) than Pattie was in 2025. It’s not an equal comparison, but it is a useful reminder to not write cheques in November to cash in March (kids, a cheque was a fancy IOU that the bank would let you write). To paraphrase Azazel, time is on our side.

It also raises questions about what this unit should be seeking to achieve in 2026. Jayden Brailey joins the squad in Danny Levi’s place, a player with more pedigree and proven ability than the man he’s replacing. He figures to be a big brother in the position meetings, providing guidance to Pattie and advice to Starling. The majority of the first grade playing minutes should still go to Starling, though that proportion will hopefully shift to give Pattie more time running the ship.

That will need to be managed. Pattie is still learning when to insert himself into a dominant role. In 2025 he took on the visage of youth, eager to solve every problem in sight while he was on the field. It led to him on occasion doing too much, taking options that were good in junior footy, but that the superior athletes of first grade close down once their taken (you may remember in the qualifying final…actually no. It’s still too painful).

There’s a world in which Stuart wants to let Brailey play ahead of Pattie to let Sanders get more consistent service on his way into first grade. Starling and Brailey would provide service and space for Sanders to do his job. This would allow Pattie more minutes on the field too in Cup, more space to grow, and less pressure. I don’t love this scenario. Pattie’s issue isn’t getting better skills, it’s learning where the gaps are in between the best athletes in the world, and where his talents can poke and prod. Hopefully this is Stuart’s read too.

Having these questions, and what to do in the lower grades with players like Mitch Brophy, Shaun Packer and Xavier Cacciotti, shows just how far the Raiders hooking situation has come. Twelve months ago we were worried where the light was. Now we’re bathing in sunshine.

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