BY DAN

Canberra found a way on Saturday.

With a roster that looked like a five-year old’s reinterpretation of my many hours of painstaking Lego construction, they played smart, disciplined football, predicated on holding the ball, tackling with enthusiasm (if not precision) and attacking with their talented backs through the left corridor.

It’s not sophisticated, and more of a baseline foundation than an Oceans 11 style plan to heist the Winfield Cup. And more importantly, it bought them time as they try and get all the king’s horses and some hefty fellas to put their season back together again.

Find a way is their only option right now, because that patchwork roster may well continue. In the post-match press conference when asked about players to return Coach Stuart only referred to Hudson Young’s return from suspension. That meant the notable absences of Ethan Strange and Zac Hosking may well continue.

In Hosking’s case that gels with some reporting during the week that he could miss two games. Concussion isn’t something to mess with, and with a bye after it makes sense to not rush him back. That also applies to Strange. You’d think the fact he pulled out late would make him more likely to be available for next week but boy howdy I want to make sure he’s fit. Even better if it keeps him out of Origin (for us, obviously, not for him. I don’t care about the Blues’ needs).

It put a slight pall on a worthy victory. Joe Roddy left just before half time with what was reported on the coverage as a broken arm. If you’d told me before the season that I would have been gutted that Joey two-tries would be out for a long time and I would have asked why I was so invested in the success of the Cup team, but here we are. Roddy, in his limited minutes on the edge against the Tigers and the Titans was perfectly solid, which is all you can hope for from a rookie playing one of the toughest positions on the ground.

It does mean that Ata Mariota better get used to playing edge forward. He’s unlikely to ever start there, pending a further deepening of the injury crisis, but right now he’s the only depth beyond the unproven Jordan Uta. He did a fine job against the Titans, without really being tested. Given the Raiders have the Panthers, Cows and the Roosters in the coming future, any weakness on his part will be teased and torn at.

If there was an intriguing outcome it was the solidity of Jayden Brailey at 13. As we noted in the game review, he and Starling put their shoulders into the challenge of dominating a bigger pack and handled it with aplomb. That suggests a wider set of options in the team list than we, or Sticky, had really considered. We could see a team going forward that’s mostly made out of hookers. At least that will mean they’ll have a solution to manage the drain of the forward pack through the injury crisis, without dipping into Cup ranks.

It still leaves a really light bench however you cut it. Mariota, Brailey, Pattie, Chev Stewart, isn’t exactly how you would prefer to take on the Panthers. Hosking and Strange coming back after the bye would ameliorate that a fair bit, but it would still remain a patchwork tapestry with Laurie and Morgan Smithies alongside presumably Brailey and Ata.

Unfortunately further help isn’t coming until round 14 when Josh Papalii and Xavier Savage are due to return (according to the Raiders website), which is a long time. The challenge with this roster isn’t so much building brilliance through this period, but finding a way to muster enough effectiveness, enough grit, to steal enough wins, to keep themselves somewhere near the top eight while they wait for the rest of their roster to return.

The other outcome of that is more time into players like Ethan Sanders, Sav Tamale, and god forbid, Owen Pattie. Sanders has had ups and downs but the highs demonstrate why he’s so important to the club’s future. Tamale’s turnaround in the last few weeks has been remarkable. As handsome reader Harry S noted in the comments of our game review, it was wonderful to see Sav attack balls kicked to him with vigor. He’s back to his best, and not a moment too soon.

Pattie too showed why he could be such a big part of the side through this period. His near 40-20, something he’s been doing for fun in Cup footy, came at such an important period, getting the Milk down the other end of the field after a very tough exit set near the end of the game. The challenge for him right now is size – he’s not the defender Starling or Brailey is, and with the lack of middles to provide coverage for him, he is seemingly a luxury that Stick will only use sparingly.

But getting more reps into Sanders, Tamale, and Pattie, will only smooth the edges of their games, and as players come back later in the season, better position the Milk to put something together at the back end of the season. But they need to be within touch of the competition for that to be of value. That’s what made Saturday’s victory so remarkable.

It also showed that they can find a way to those victories. It’s not magic. There’s no one good play that will save them from the abyss. Just grit, determination and a bit of hard yakka. If they can find a way through the next month or so, they could position themselves for a little bit of fun at the end of the season.

The Sportress is transitioning away from Facebook and Twitter for distribution so sign up to the email below before we disappear from your feed altogether. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.