BY DAN

The Canberra Raiders season has been a tough one so far. Two nail-biting wins and a host of disheartening losses is not what most of us had hoped for. Instead of a continuation of 2025, we find ourselves in a (sorta) surprising transition year, producing new combinations, new experiences, and a new struggle for the young squad. People are still learning.

Coach Stuart was keen to point that out in the press conference after their victory over the Bunnies Saturday afternoon. As he put it, the players are so young, and still learning how to battle through the bumps of an NRL season.

People don’t understand or see it that because we’ve got so many younger players…They’ve never been in this position before – Rick in the post game presser.

Stick meant in the context of struggling, but I think it can be pushed wider. Ethan Sanders is getting his first experience pushing a star-studded line-up around the field at the highest level. In his post-game interview on Fox he was keen to point out how grateful he is just to be there. It was a humble and notable sentiment, but it also reflected that getting to this level is half the battle. Excelling once you’re there is a whole other problem.

He’s struggled with his kicking, both short and long. Bombs are not getting the depth needed; not when they are ‘defensive’, kicked from halfway in an attempt to catch the opposition in the corner, and not when they are attacking and hopefully to be an opportunity to score. He’s been fine in other areas of the game, but the additional pressure of being the only noted kicker in the spine means that he’s trying to do his job with zero time or space to operate.

He’s not the only one in this space. Noah Martin played games off the bench last year, and has a future in the game that could go anywhere. But being thrust into a massive role while trying to keep names like Fifita, Kikau, and Halasima in check would be a step up from rampaging through Cup, as he did last year. And in an attack that hasn’t exactly flourished, just making fifty plus tackles a game and barely experiencing footy joy otherwise would take its toll.

But even Simi Sasagi, who by most accounts has been a revelation, is somewhat new to his role. He barely got a game in his previous stop at Newcastle, came to Canberra to play second row, found his spot on the bench as a utility covering every spot from the centres inwards. Now he’s a strike centre, and while his attacking impact has been unquestionably brilliant, he’s still learning the challenges of arguably the hardest place to defend on the field.

These players are still learning their games, and how to succeed in an environment where anything less than perfect creates an opening for the opposition. Coming off last year’s success it makes it hard to wear the difference between winning and losing. As the variations from previous season, it’s hard to stop them from taking on the emotional weight of the change.

But for those that were last year, it can also be an adjustment, going from the high life, to a struggle, and not being able to seemingly fill the gap yourself. As Stuart said:

The boys who were playing last year they’ve only been winning. It’s been a fine balance in regards to the human behaviour the emotions that kids are feeling when they’re lacking a bit of confidence.

Nowhere is this better seen than with Savelio Tamale. Let’s be clear about a few things. He’s a brilliant footballer. His yardage is second to none in the competition. He’s a weapon when used, and he should be a representative footballer at some stage. But right now high kicks are testing his mind as much as his skillset. And it’s permeating to other bits of his game.

He’s had 11 handling errors in five games this season, which is up from the 1.3 per game he had in 2025. He’s seemingly searching for contact on every run, as if by initiating it himself he can find a way to make it advantageous and avoid the threat to the ball that is omnipresent for him at the moment. In high ball situations he’s getting himself into atrocious positions when he doesn’t need to – turning his body to jump, not finding a stable base to move up to the ball from, not even just keeping his feet and doing it easy.

His other numbers aren’t down on last year (he’s up on metres and tackle breaks, and about the same ratio on line-breaks), but you can see the impact the catching, and handling issues, are having. No better was this shown than his unwillingness to score a try after a break on Saturday, and the conversation with Coach Stuart afterwards.

That conversation didn’t seem combative. But rather a quiet reminder of responsibilities and hopefully an (albeit unsuccessful) restoration of confidence and mindset. It’s something that Stuart said he’d been focused on:

That’s why I try to create less pressure, we haven’t changed anything in regards to our training, we’ve been very solid in regards to a preparation but just not getting it done.

We’ve seen this in a range of ways. From the minimal changes to the squad over the losing streak, to the maintenance of combinations. That seemed to give way a little on Saturday. Before the game there was a change to the middle rotation, a decision purportedly to put more experience into the middle forty minutes of the game.

There was also changes mid game, such as the conga-line of players that shifted to the right edge, and the double-trouble of rakes to end the game. Some of these changes may have even been about comfort. As reader Christopher N handsomely pointed out, shifting Noah Martin to the left may have been as much about his connection with Ethan Sanders as any castigation for failing to keep out Latrell Mitchell, Cody Walker et al on the right.

But while Stuart is willing to make some adjustments, there’s one most of us have been asking for that will be unlikely to come. Owen Pattie, who’s kicking game and creativity around the ruck will take so much pressure off Sanders, is likely to still be on the sideline (well, the first-grade sideline) in the upcoming rounds.

Stuart is trading certainty here, a point we’ve made for a long time. He knows what Jayden Brailey and Tom Starling will offer, and it will make Sanders’ role clearer. Perhaps when Sanders has more confidence of what he’s doing, there will be space to negotiate for possessions with the more ball-dominant Pattie. But that balancing act is being left for later in the year.

In the meantime the team is still learning, and perhaps we should be as patient as Stuart. This may be a struggle for sometime, and then coalesce later this year, or next year. It’s a game that Stuart’s job security allows him to play. He can nurture, coax, even coddle players in order to create an environment that (hopefully) allows them to succeed.

It may not lead to immediate success, but as Stuart points out the key right now is not getting lost in the clouds of the mind.

I’ve been giving them credit all week about the spirit they’ve still got in them and the energy they’ve still got in them after a four game losing streak.

The only problem with this is that in their next game they face a team that has also rarely experienced four losses on the trot, not because of their inexperience, but because of their consistent excellence. Instead of being guided around the ground but a few kids and a some flawed elders, they roll out a host of Origin players, Premiership winners and arguably the greatest coach of the NRL era. They won’t need to know what to do to right the ship.

The battle rages once more, and Canberra must find a way to put something approaching 80 minutes of footy together. Shit i’d take 70 at this point. One thing Rick is sure of though:

They’ll keep fighting for the jumper and for one another.

They’ll need to.

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