BY DAN

In his first public comment on the issue for some time, Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has finally put to bed the question of who replaces departing halfback Jamal Fogarty. The answer, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, is Ethan Sanders.

In Stuart’s words:

Ethan Sanders is going to get first crack, given he has a good off-season. He’s done his apprenticeship under Jamal over the last 12 months.

This is largely unsurprising given the paucity of other options. Canberra have looked everywhere to find competition for Sanders, part of Stuart’s long–heralded desire for competition at every position as a critical driver of improvement. But they’ve come up empty handed, and even lost their previous backup to the Super League.

They currently have one specialist halfback in the top 30, and the Herald article suggests back ups to be Daine Laurie and Kaeo Weekes. Neither of those would be an ideal solution. Moving Weekes from a fullback position he only just established himself in would weaken a strength. Moving Laurie into a position he doesn’t really play would put huge amounts of stress on Ethan Strange and the hookers (good band name?). So while it’s portrayed as an endorsement, it’s equally a statement of fact. If not him, then who? Default is still the two sweetest words in the English language.

As a statement it isn’t exactly resounding, and one might be inclined to raise an eyebrow at that. Saying Sanders is going to get first crack as long as he has a good off-season and stays healthy can be interpreted as both warning and support. Combined with the club’s wandering eye over the last three or four months, it’s possible to see it as more cautious endorsement than singing it from the tree-tops.

Stuart provided further context to the Herald, which dished out praise and perspective in equal parts.

Unlike a lot of young blokes who don’t want to do the apprenticeship and want to go straight into first grade, Ethan’s actually bided his time and shown real professionalism towards his future in the game. I respect that he’s taken the courageous line and accepted that you have to fight for a position. He’s a young half and still learning, but he’s earned his chance, given he has a good off-season and stays healthy.

It’s an intriguing comment from the boss. It acknowledges that Sanders has shown patience and a good work ethic. It also states that he still has far to go. That itself is an obvious statement of fact, but also an attempt to ensure expectations remain realistic. The last thing new half needs is to be portrayed as a saviour. It also gives a gee-up to Sanders, a reminder that while the position is his by both default and preference, that can change quickly in professional sport.

But parsing the language like this is overkill. At a broader level it’s good to see Stuart provide backing to Sanders. It’s been a chaotic little period, in which he would have felt like his time was coming, to having it stripped away, and suddenly back in favour, all without playing a game. With the Daly Cherry-Evans signing at Easts, it may have been about to kick off again if the Milk got into the Hugo Savala stakes. But the club has said they won’t play that game, and have instead backed Sanders. That’s better than continued speculation.

The upshot is that Sanders gets to enter pre-season with a clear mandate to make the role his own. A role like halfback inherently requires leadership, and that can only succeed when you have the backing of the organisation. This mightn’t be perfect but it does give him that.

For the club it doesn’t alter their predicament. While they have an endorsed starter in Sanders, they still need more halfbacks in the roster. They cannot enter the season with Daine Laurie as their backup half. Finding a spare seven is beyond a difficult task at this point, but waiting for something to fall out from the DCE/Savala shenanigans may be their best option. As noted above they’re evidently waiting a bit further downstream, but somewhere along the line someone is hopefully forced out of a job that gives the Raiders at least a NSW Cup option. Because forget the competition philosophy, right now the Milk just need bodies.

That’s all worst case scenario and a problem for the season that needs to be solved before Christmas. This endorsement of Sanders is good to see. But that doesn’t mean the discussion about Canberra halfbacks is about to end.

All of our distribution pathways are closing down so sign up to the email below before we disappear from your feed altogether. Or you can like the page on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or share this on social media. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.