BY DAN

The Canberra Raiders 28-12 victory over the Gold Coast Titans wasn’t perfect, or pretty, or even the kind of performance they could or should repeat. They found no miracle, no magic elixir. They took no short cuts. Instead they bent their backs and dragged their knuckles through the dirt. In a city built to celebrate glitz and glamour, the Raiders ignored that bullshit and instead won the game through courage and persistence.

Canberra were piecing together a side from bulldog clips and hope. Centres and middles playing as edges. Hookers playing as middles. They lost another backrower during the game, which was a surprise because they didn’t actually have any. A five-eighth who last week played three different positions across the park, and then needed to be replaced by the fullback late in the game due to cramp, meaning Canberra were on about their third-string five-eighth, their third-string fullback, and their sixth-string backrower.

They did it the only way they know how. They stood up, took a swig of Jameson’s and punched the first Titan they saw. There was no pretense, no grace to this game plan. Smash them with some power running and let God sort them out. It was a curious decision for a team lacking forwards, but where they lacked personnel, they instead had performers.

Winning in the middle means lots of things. When you don’t have your full rotation it means bigger minutes and bigger efforts for the middles. Corey Horsburgh, Morgan Smithies and Jayden Brailey all played sixty plus minutes in the engine room, made tackle after tackle after tackle. Joe Taps made tough runs for 55 minutes (and critical tackles in the redzone). The back five did work both hard and electric. It allowed Canberra to control field position for long periods of time. The Titans kept kicking from their own 40. The Raiders kept attacking their line.

There were so many good performances in the circumstances. Corey Horsburgh (159m, 49 post contact, 4 tackle break, 2 offloads, 36 tackles) played 65 of the best minutes he’s played this year. So often he took critical runs, finding spaces and ways to create quick rucks that others could take advantage of. So often he was the lone professional middle in a tackle, part of a hodge-podge crew of thieves and con-men that monstered the Titans pack into submission. Joey Taps was immense too.

Sav Tamale (219m) and Matt Timoko (326m) had well over 500 metres between them (not to mention near 200m post contact, 8 tackle busts, two line breaks and somehow only one try). They took 45 carries. The Raiders only had 42 sets. If there was work to be done, they did it, and it was rarely easy. Mokes had 127 post-contact metres. That alone would be a good days work for most people.

That work was critical in allowing the forwards rest, and given them the breather they needed to do the work in defence. And in that the work of Tom Starling and Jayden Brailey has to be noted. Both were targeted – Tino and Mo knew who was in front of them, and where to find them. But with shoulders crafted from granite they made more than a fifth of the Raiders total tackles. Add Horse and Morgs and that’s forty percent. Those four will be tackling in their sleep.

This middle dominance was critical to a simple game plan in attack. Smash a hole somewhere and flood through like they were Mehmed II taking Constantinople. You’d be forgiven if you thought Canberra would do that in the middle of the ground, and they did largely work within the scrum lines, but they were able to tire that defence by shifting between the points on the map, always coming back to relentless harassing the right-side Titans defence that just couldn’t handle the power being thrown at it.

The first try came from Ethan Sanders targeting the Titan’s right side edge defence, sending Simi Sasagi at the same hole twice in three tackles. The first time it held up. The second time it didn’t. The second try started with Timoko attacking from dummy-half against a retreating defence on that edge, taking sixty metres to get the Raiders into position. The Raiders shifted two passes to their own right side, but on the next tackle went three passes to Kaeo Weekes running at that same edge; the defence jammed but he spun-and-run, finding Sasagi for his second.

A third try came with Kaeo Weekes seeing that same edge retreating slowly, and switching to the short-sided. He took the ball at first receiver and accelerated like a pinball hit in the ass. All the Titans could do is make it a difficult kick. The final try started with a Joe Tapine offload, but ended with each of Jayden Brailey, Tom Starling and Ethan Sanders making the perfect read against a strung-out defence.

Look there’s a theme here, and Canberra were disciplined in their approach. They didn’t drop the ball much – primarily driven by not getting too creative outside of bashing at holes. They kept kicking to corners, or even running into them; a sign they were going to muscle the heck out of the Titans, an audacious and ambitious plan given their lack of meat in the middle. It was impressive to see them be disciplined in this way, but equally so, it was wonderful to see them find a weakness, and stick a knife in it to search for gold.

Much of that can come down to Ethan Sanders. You can see the kid learning each game. His kicking was immense in this game, finding corners and grass and allowing the Raiders to reinforce their territory dominance. But he was also excellent in attack. His pass for the Tamale try was a perfect read and weighted even better. His connection with Kaeo Weekes always looked threatening. He seemed calm, in charge, working to a plan that, for once, the Milk implemented with a beautiful discipline, utilising Simi and Kaeo (both excellent) to their great strengths.

He was probably aided by having Jayden Brailey and Tom Starling on the field together. Brailey was useful in his role as a connecting middle. He, and also Smithies and Horsburgh, and even Joey Taps, all played a critical role in connecting passes that allowed Canberra to get to their edges where their attacking strength was. It was Brailey’s best game for the club.

In the end it wasn’t perfect or pretty. At times the defence, so dominant, so physical, collapsed on itself if only for a second. Once the Titans stone-cold fumbled a try with the line in Sialetili Faeamani’s sights. Cooper Bai went right up the guts on the Milk, only for Kaeo Weekes’ to make his second try-saver in a matter of weeks.

But for once defended their errors. When Ethan Sanders try was called back, and the Titans got their first opportunity to attack in ages, other Canberra teams this season would have collapsed. Instead they defended their goal-line set, and Sav Tamale got out of the in-goal on a grubber through sheer power. It was just one example, and so often a rare Raiders’ error was followed by a quality defensive set, or a Titan error forced by hard contact.

From a tactical perspective it’s hardly something to build on. But from an attitude, a discipline, and willingness to stick to game plan and make it work, it was. It was hard-earned and honest. There was no pretense. Just sleeves rolled up, dust on their face and courage in their hearts. No one took a play off. No one looked to someone else to solve their problem. Seventeen blokes, working for each other. If you’ve had a week anything like mine, the sight of these boys just gutting it out, refusing to accept the situation they were handed by fate, made you proud. If they can do it in these circumstances, maybe we can all stick it out.

The reinforcements are coming in a sense. Huddo, Strange, and Hosking back next week will make a helluva a difference. It will allow more people to play in the actual positions they’re meant to. But it will mean the project of building new combinations and new ideas is pushed out another week. One day we’ll all be together once more. Maybe Peter Allen will get a run in the meantime.

I’ve no idea what will come of this year for Canberra. The tidal roll of the set-restart, the injury chaos, and the variable of the coming origin period make it hard to predict when the next game will be, let alone how it will go. But if something good does come of this season, we’ll look back at this day and know this was a day in which Canberra proved to themselves that they have a system that can work, no matter the personnel in the position. This is what good teams do. Maybe Canberra can be a good team, too.

And the sun rises tomorrow morning they will have not just achieved a victory against the odds. They will have kept touch with a competition. They will have given themselves another week to perfect a model that shows promise and frustration in equal measure, and poured a little more evidence into the idea that if they can just keep their heads, their shapes, and the ball in their hands, they can give this competition a real shake.

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