BY DAN

Well, it’s been a bit of a time, and if you’re feeling frazzled, just look at the Raiders team sheet. It won’t make you feel better, but it will certainly make you feel more stable.

Ok so let’s work it all out. No Huddo, no Noah, no Papa, no Hosko, no X…am I missing anyone? The point is that there’s a lot of people watching that the Raiders would prefer to be on the field. It’s been a precision strike on their depth so targeted it almost seems deliberate. 

The solution? Well, let’s take what is on paper at face value. Ata Mariota is starting in the backrow alongside Simi Sasagi. Jayden Brailey is starting at 13. Chevy Stewart is at 14, alongside Daine Laurie on the bench, with Morgan Smithies and Joe Roddy purportedly spelling the forwards. Owen Pattie and Jordan Uta are also in the 19.

Got it? 

Ok in terms of this lineup, Mariota at 11 and Brailey at 13 are the most notable. Mariota has played backrower before, though only three games, and not since 2024. He’s more agile than another middle option they could shift there, and he may be a surprise weapon running wide, but it’s hardly an ideal solution. I would expect he wouldn’t go the full 80 there.

At some point Joe Roddy would spell him, and perhaps for Ata to cycle back through the middle. It wouldn’t surprise me if Stick wanted to use Ata there for the first twenty as physical protection, then allowing the smaller Roddy to take over.

There’s a world in which Roddy and Uta manage an edge, allowing Mariota to play middle, and return some starch to the bench. Indeed the other approach to this may be to suck it and see with Stewart or Pattie or Uta, deploying beef, guile or style as needed. Hey we’ve got 19 now, you can’t play them all but you don’t have to play the people in 14 ahead of people in 18 or 19 (though we’ll wait and see if Uta is given a jersey presentation this week).

Brailey at 13 has a certain twisted logic. Starling and Brailey have played alongside each other before. They’re both better-than-their-size defenders. It’s a decent pairing to end games. But from the start? With Tino fe-fi-fo-ing his nose at the smell of two diminutive targets? Oh boy. And then add to that mix that Daine Laurie or Owen Pattie could well be playing alongside them at some point? Mouse in the house indeed.

Stewart’s use is more confusing. Normally I’d say he’s a protective option, an outside back that sits on the bench and watches unless injury comes. But with Laurie next to him, there’s already a solution for that, so I guess maybe he’s going to play another role? In Cup he’s played centre and fullback (and looked really good doing so this year). How does he get on the field? If it’s to play in the middle, why not use Pattie? If it’s as a back, is it so Seb Kris can play backrow? Is Jordan Uta there so Sasagi can play centre? 

I don’t know, and anyone saying they’re sure better be named Ricky and/or Jehovah. There’s every chance this Boggle of a team list is shaken up once more 90 minutes from game time. I won’t take you through every permutation of that, but heck, with three hookers, three fullbacks, three centres, zero backrowers and a partridge in a pear tree, anything is possible.

Look, it seems unfair to say ‘hey this team is unbalanced and could use one of the six or seven stars currently out for long term injuries’. This is what happens when you take a surgeon’s scalpel to the depth chart at one position. Canberra will be so superstitious about this they may remove the second row from their meeting theatre. Or put a second one in. Now that’s bench depth.

It’s a lot of pressure on the stable parts of the team. Ethan Strange and Ethan Sanders are being asked to build a partnership amongst chaos, trying to do pottery on a moving train. Sav Tamale was a key concern a week ago, and the idea was a week of quiet footy in Cup would cure what ailed him. Now he’s (maybe?) a ‘set and forget’? Matt Timoko, who has been fine but not great in his return to first grade, gets a third game in a row.  Owen Pattie could be a generational talent, and finally get a run this year. Can he do a backflip in a cowpat? We might get to see. 

Hold on Canberra fans. Any type of victory will be a miracle and hugely important. Next week is Panthers, and then a bye, and then they might be without Huddo and/or Strange and we’ll be mixing and matching all over again. Holy heck. It might be June before we see anything approaching normality again. Pray for mojo indeed. 

I’m trying to keep my faith. In moments like this the willingness to believe tends to be determined by the desperation of the situation. Well here I am, squinting, hoping, believing. If anyone can manufacture a victory, put a foot on the neck of the demon that has brought this curse to our shores, maybe it’s Stick. Sometimes the Raiders are too dumb, too unlucky, to realise they’re not meant to win. Well, this team has been plenty dumb and plenty unlucky this year. Time to put that to work.

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