The Canberra Raiders are a broken football team.

They are not without talent. They are not without effort. But they are living in their own heads, tormented by the ghosts of the past and a desperate desire to find absolution for 2025 through a short cut in 2026. But you can’t undo the pain of the past, and there’s no quick way back. You have to walk the whole path, and and do every bit of the work. If Canberra can’t focus on building block by block, then the darkness that has overwhelmed this team will poison them.

It may have already. Their 32-12 loss to the Newcastle Knights was one in which one team played smart, hard, and deliberate footy, and the other had a panic attack in public. Bereft of their best talent, the Knights played to the rules of Vlandoball, trying to traverse down the middle of the park and kick to the corners. Only in advantageous ball did they shoot to the edge. When nothing else worked, they hoped their opposition would make an error. The Raiders obliged.

The Canberra Raiders are playing in quicksand right now. To paraphrase Shane Falco, when one thing goes wrong, it’s always followed by another. And another. You try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink, until you can’t move, you can’t breathe. Because you’re in over your head. Every bad moment is followed by another, disguised as an attempt to drag the whole thing back in a moment, until they’re frazzled like an overtired toddler trying to understand why they can’t have a treat.

The Raiders could not have been more accommodating in this game. An opening twenty minutes in which they looked like they had a plan and the roster to implement it gave way to madness upon madness. It started small – they continuously failed to get to their kick on the last. Sometimes this was in the redzone, something that seems like a misguided ploy this year. Other times this was in less advantageous field position.

In the 18th minute Sanders swung to the right, stood alongside Ethan Strange, and Tom Starling passed the ball back to the left. Hudson Young chipped the ball to no advantage. It was a small moment, but indicative of a mindset where doing the little things right – punching a bomb into the corner to cap a decent set – was beyond them. A step into the quicksand.

Each error dragged them deeper. The next time they got the ball Sanders kicked it dead. Then he forced an impossible pass in contact to Young and an error resulted. A brief respite came when Strange kicked early and long, and then on the next set created a line break for Noah Martin. But he couldn’t find Savage on his outside, dropped the ball in contact, and the Raiders burned their review trying to drag back the error rather than just get back to work.

The Knights scored on their next set, after Sav Tamale was unable to get to a bomb. They stripped the scrambling defence for numbers on the other side. On the Raiders next possession they dropped a loose ball after a bomb, and Newcastle scored at the end of the next set when neither Savage nor Weekes went for an inoffensive bomb.

It was two tries, and Canberra were only down four points, but it was indicative of a mindset. Zero attention to detail, incapable of doing the basics right, trying to find miracles amongst mayhem. Instead of embracing the grind and overcoming the obstacles and errors of a misshapen side, they kept trying to find a short cut. Each week they learn such a thing doesn’t exist. But under fire they continue to lash out like a wounded animal. It’s not fighting back; it’s prayer masquerading as battle.

A lot of the blame will land at young half Ethan Sanders’ feet. It was certainly his worst game in the top line. His kicking game was poor, he had no solution to the Knights defence jamming on his second receiver. He was exposed in defence when Sav Tamale was sin-binned to start the second half, with two tries coming from the Knights effectively getting the ball to Dane Gagai and letting the vet cook him (though it is unfair to blame him for not being able to do someone else’s job).

But more than that he seemed harried; constantly chasing the game. So often the Raiders seemed to be looking for direction in attack and not getting it from him. But this is the prospect of a player with this much responsibility learning on the job. The game moves fast and their job is impossible.

What was disappointing was that while the young half continues to acclimatise to the madness, his teammates refuse to provide any help. Hudson Young is one of my favourite Raiders but he has lost his mind too many times this year. He did again, on the aforementioned chip, on a second half penalty to give the Knights for no reason when they already had a man advantage.

Ethan Strange did his best. With Joe Tapine (166m, 59 post contact metres, 4 tackle breaks) and Kaeo Weekes, he was far and away Canberra’s best. His kicking game was as good as Sanders’, if not better. He looked far more damaging with the ball, creating one try and setting up what should have been another. He did both on the right, proving the hand-wringing about him playing on that side over-stated.

On the Raiders first he took the ball at first receiver on the right, stepped off his right foot, something thought physically impossible, and found Simi Sasagi in support. The only problem was that he so rarely got the ball in that scenario – at first receiver, running direct at the attack. So often he was at second receiver, running at forty-five degrees, firing passes to other players running out of space. Justin Giteau needs to have words with everyone.

While Strange and Taps had some impact, other experienced players didn’t help. Tom Starling and Jayden Brailey are not providing strategic support for Sanders. If the idea of not playing Owen Pattie was that the guidance of an old head would make his job easier, it’s been proven to be misbegotten through five games. In particular, Brailey seems to be communicating with his half via cup-and-twine, and neither offer anything approaching creativity in the attacking twenty, leaving Sanders alone to solve the hardest task of a young half (attacking in close quarters).

Sav Tamale and Xavier Savage didn’t help either. They are petrified of kicks, unable to shake the mistakes that have come before. Tamale is a weapon on the ground, but as soon as the kick gets in the air he is lost. In the past a spell in Cup footy would put a player right, but with Savage leaving the game late with an injury, the Raiders may not be able to find two replacement wingers. It was notable how comfortable Seb Kris looked when he took a kick filling in at winger. Or Tapine taking a bomb late in the game.

It compounds the discipline issues at other ends of the field. Canberra are being forced into a multitude of tackles in a row. First with their inability to control the ruck cleanly, then with giving the ball right back to the opposition on too many occasions. And then as this craters in on them, the refereeing comes to play.

When things are going badly the fifty-fifty decisions go against you. They did in this game too, but they just highlighted the panicked nature of what Canberra were doing. You may never again see player sent to the bin like Tamale was to start the second half. But he’d already dropped an easy kick for being scared of the ball, and Young was no real chance of catching the ball, so why hold the arm? Weekes’ contact on Young after he passed was incidental, but was it necessary? Zac Hosking’s try may not have been called back for obstruction on another day, but that call came from the Raiders being completely at sixes and sevens in attack despite having the opposition on the rack.

These may have been wrong decisions, but Canberra earned every one of them, compounded them with more penalties, more errors, and more trying to turn the clock back in one swing. It’s a mindset thing. Instead of accepting the referees will not help them, they rant and rave and rail against misfortune, forgetting that while they are doing this a game continues behind them. You can win the game on the park, but you’ll never win it with a ref.

It’s a shame because for a moment, as they’ve had each week, they played good footy. Tight to the ruck, ploughing through the middle like a man with a dream and a snowplow truck. There’s pace in those hills, and they looked dominant while they were calm. But the quicksand came, and instead of breathing and finding a solution, they thrashed until the inevitable sucked them down.

From here there’s nought but hard work. There’s no quick way back. Canberra are not a contender. They’re not a finals team. People may harbour hopes this side will get one win and another and suddenly be ‘back’. That is possible, but that thinking is part of the problem. Canberra can’t be focused on outcomes. They need to break the game down more. Do the easy things right, one after another, and keep their heads when all about them people are losing theirs.

All is not lost. But all that is lost is at their hands. The dreams of last season are not just dead, but need to be buried to allow this team the clear air to start anew. A new season is upon them, and a new demon has imbued their collective soul. Exorcism comes with clean living, a calm heart and hard work. Ricky Stuart has to find a way to give these to his team, or it will stay this bad all year.

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