BY DAN

Hello and welcome to the 2026 season. Welcome to joy, pain, and the dreams of our ancestors. We walk the road again, hoping this time to get to our destination. It hasn’t happened for 30 plus years, but we keep walking.

The first step in our thousand-step journey has been taken, with the naming of the Raiders round one teamlist.

There’s more change than we’d like in this list. Some is driven by choice, some by game structure, and some by injury and fitness. We would have preferred a more settled side. Good sides aren’t usually searching for answers in round one. Alas circumstances, and Stick, chose otherwise.

Most of the change is in spots we’ve been keenly watching all summer. As expected, (though not necessarily welcomed), Jayden Brailey has gotten the job of rotation hooker ahead of Owen Pattie. As we’ve made clear over and over again, it’s not my preferred approach, but then again yesterday I got distracted by music I thought was the Ice Cream Truck, but it was actually just a kids toy.

Stuart is trading Pattie’s high ceiling made with long kicking, fast running, deception and exceptional passing against Brailey’s certainty and stability. This, we presume, is designed to make Ethan Sanders job easier, ensuring he doesn’t have to tussle with Pattie for the ball, and knows exactly what his rake is going to do.

I don’t like it. I think Pattie should be playing more minutes in first grade. Stick thinks the same, just not with the first grade bit, saying Pattie is the future and needs more minutes than he can give him in first grade. There’s an obvious solution Stick is missing. Let’s hope he’s right and we’re wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Daine Laurie, despite whatever you call yesterday’s reporting, is still in the 19. While many have been bemoaning the death of the utility with the expansion of the bench, I actually think this will make players like Laurie, who don’t need big minutes and can cover a multitude of positions (particularly in Vlando’s hyperball), and can turn a game faster than I can get a box of shapes (rapidly), more valuable. It’s a much better use of his time to sit on the bench watching than, per esempio, Coby Black.

Matty Nicholson hasn’t recovered from his shoulder subluxation. I presume the club is being suitably conservative with this. It’s a long season, and there’s no reason to play someone in round one when you have depth at the position and a long season ahead. Nicholson didn’t look great in his post-injury period at the end of last season, and I (alone) wasn’t impressed with his first trail outing. It’s better to put him on good footing before he tries to get moving again.

Noah Martin is starting, which is a reflection of how far he’s come and how much talent he has. We’re excited to see him get more game time. I’m sure Sea-Eagles defence is terrified.

That means that Zac Hosking back on the bench which I’m ecstatic about. Not because he can’t do the job on the edge – he plainly is very good – but because I’m desperate for him, Ata Mariota and Simi Sasagi to be reunited as a bench mob of the highest order. At full strength adding Noah Martin to that grouping only makes the prospect of Canberra turning the middle forty into a cavalry charge more salivating. This could not just be a comparative advantage but a genuine point-of-chaotic-difference for the Milk, something that other teams simply cannot match.

Alas, this unit is further delayed by Matt Timoko’s apparent lack of fitness. He was spotted in a moon-boot through the trial games. We’d hoped that was just a precaution, but reports are that it’s left him low on match reps. Putting Simi Sasagi at right centre is a safe option, but in combination with Matty Muffins’ absence, it renders that bench unit much weakened from its best version.

To be honest this amount of change is not ideal and will be a test of the depth we’ve claimed as a strength. Stability and continuity are also cornerstones of success and Canberra already appear to pulling out the gaffer tape and bulldog clips to piece this all together. Until they’re full strength – or at least Stuart’s approximation of it – they’ll have to find a way to muddle through.

It’s just week one, and a tough outing awaits and a long season after that. Rob will take you through all that later in the week. But it’s all getting closer now. We being again, one breath, one step, one week at a time. This team list won’t be the same in round 27 but as they say, start as you wish to continue. This gives us the first glimpse of who the Milk want to be. Maybe this is the year we walk into paradise.

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