BY DAN

Ricky Stuart has always been clear about his disdain for pre-season footy, and in their 48-6 loss to the Cronulla Sharks the Canberra Raiders embodied that lack of enthusiasm wholeheartedly. The played unintelligent, ineffective, and – most concerningly – slow football, and were swallowed by a Sharks team that were playing prelim footy in February.

It’s not a ‘canary in the coal mine’ situation. Stuart approaches trial games like a 5pm meeting, and it’s not hard to see that level of enthusiasm permeating the squad. It’s also fair to say Canberra will welcome back the host of first-string players that missed this game in round one. All of them would have made a difference in this game. There’s a big gap between Cup and first grade, and given the relative importance of the players, and the positions they played, this was always going to be a difficult task.

The major concern was the pace of play of the two sides. The Sharks routinely took 60 odd metres on sets, against ‘first’ and second string packs. They did that by playing fast through the ruck, and pinging the ball two and three passes wide in order to isolate young halves on defence. Sometimes it resulted in line breaks, tries, or general chaos, but even when it *just* resulted in a tackle, it was usually one in which such an advantage was gifted to the Sharks that something awful came from almost the next tackle.

The Sharks would punch twice against the edge. Once to get the backrower or the centre in the tackle, and then another to attack whichever young middle, or young half, was left gawking at the terror enveloping them on the next play. The Raiders middle did their best to cover inside out, and their edges did their best to clean up the mess. The structural facade would hold for a second, but the longer the game went, the more players were gasping and grasping for air, and 48 points came to the bad.

So many of them were frustrating, in which Canberra’s defence seemed to dispel an initial raid, only to fail almost immediately after. One try came when Kris made a good tackle on a shift, and between him, Jordan Uta and Jalen Afamasaga, only for the next play to target the exact spot he would have been as he desperately tried to retreat. Another came after Ethan Alaia made a good covering tackle, only to fail on the dummy-half run the next play. Jalen Afamasaga made a good read to force an error on one lead runner. The next time he stood off Brayden Trindall and let him make a choice like he was front of line at the bakery. He chose the meat pie (fuckn zing!).

It wasn’t a structural weakness because the Milk kept getting into the right spots on the initial movement. It felt like a pace and replace issue, an ability to go with the Sharks in what seemed uncomfortable conditions. It looked like the Raiders playing against Vlando ball in 2021. Gone was the pace and power of 2025; back was the watching the ball zip across the park.

This was driven by heat, maybe lack of interest, and personnel. Young backs were struggling to take down first graders when isolated. Inexperienced middles were struggling to keep up with pace. For every Owen Pattie or Joe Roddy that seemed to make every goddamn tackle that occurred when they were on the field, there was another player struggling to keep up. Addin Fonua-Blake is a lot to handle for other stars. It’s a whole other thing for the mix of players the Milk had out. It only got harder as Stick withdrew what first stringers that were out there as early as ten minutes when Jordan Uta replaced Matty Nicholson due to a shoulder injury.

It wasn’t helped by the attack. The Raiders dropped more ball than Times Square on New Years. 13 is the official number but boy did it feel more. And this can’t be blamed on the kids. Xavier Savage, Simi Sasagi, Savelio Tamale, Noah Martin, Jayden Brailey and Owen Pattie all made or contributed to errors. When you’re being stretched, manipulated and exhausted in defence, giving the opposition more ball seems a flawed plan. When they did get through a set the last tackle options were anodyne and inept, and on the odd occasion they did get a good hoof down the field, their compressed chase was easily got around by a Sharks attack willing to test with width. So many sets started with Cronulla already on the advantage and the Milk scrambling.

This was driven by a young and bit-part spine trying to hold it all together. They couldn’t get a shift going in good ball, and despite 25 first half tackles in the red zone, often caught close to the ruck as the lack of cohesion of major ball players became obvious. So often the ball got to the second receiver and that was it. Rarely did an outside back get a clean run at the defensive line, let alone the try line.

Jalen Afamasaga caught the ball at first receiver too often, meaning he was moving the ball sideways, a cog in the chain rather than being put in a position to take on the line and make defenders make decisions. Partly this was driven by the Raiders playing Zac Hosking as the only passing middle. His skill set is suited to short passes at the line, not the key link-man passing that Corey Horsburgh and even Joe Tapine are very good at.

It brought Afamasaga closer to the ruck, and made it easier for the Sharks to identify key fulcrums and get there before the ball did. Ethan Alaia is a player that thrives on space to dance his dance at the line, but he didn’t get any opportunities to do that. Daine Laurie similarly was working in a phone-booth. Only Noah Martin, running off Afamasaga’s shoulder, seemed a realistic threat.

On another day Jayden Brailey may have taken more of a role in the red zone, but he seemed content to let the young players learn tough lessons, only really taking the ball in his own hands when running against broken rucks early in sets – that’s Vlandoball to a ‘T’. But it meant that in the red zone the Raiders looked stunted as Afamasaga and Alaia were faced with calculus when they are still mastering multiplication.

On occasion he jumped out from nine having spotted something, and looked desperately for a runner to play to advantage. But none came and he ended up grubbering into legs. It spoke to the challenge that both he and Pattie had of playing with inexperienced players. Creative players can only create if there are moving bodies for them to utilise. But the Raiders did so much chasing in defence that they simply didn’t have those.

This point was only reinforced by the only success the Raiders had in the game, mostly behind Pattie in the ruck. He created the Raiders only try because Shaun Packer – playing alongside him – saw the same thing he did and ran over a isolated, tying in defender. The other near try came from a set in which Pattie orchestrated the play down the field, neatly putting Canberra into a three-on-three on the shortside. Mark Tualii’s flick pass was brilliant, and Jed Stuart should have done better on the grounding. But it was pleasing to see a glimpse of such talent, both from Pattie and Tualii.

These weren’t the only positives. Vena Patuki-Case again looked good enough for more time and bigger moments. Noah Martin again looked perfectly at home against quality opposition. Laurie looked safe at the back, and made a brilliant try-saver in addition. Joe Roddy played with a ferocity that will make him a long-term first grader. Sav Tamale looked strong on several runs, and Ata Mariota was quality in limited moments.

These isolated performances did not obscure the obvious. Canberra were, and it was not pretty. It doesn’t matter. Because it’s a trial, because their best players weren’t playing, and because the gap between their second-string talent and one of the competition favourites was to be expected. But it was jarring to see them so physically off-the mark, to see experienced players make rookie errors, and to see yet another game where, when disadvantage hit, they were unable to interrupt it. Pace and resilience change between now and March if they are serious about this season.

If there was any complacency about what will be necessary this year, this will evaporated by this event. In a sense that’s a benefit; a wakeup call with no actual impact on the season. But any pretense that this season is the same as last was blown away by the trial. The test was real, and they failed. There are bigger to come. Hopefully they’ll be better prepared for the next one.

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