BY DAN

The Canberra Raiders season reaches its first point of rest, and with that we breathe a sigh of relief. Not because it went well, but because it didn’t go as badly as it threatened to.

Canberra have suffered a horrendous injury situation. Not because of its width, but rather its depth. The calamitous subtraction of the Raiders backrowers – all five of them have spent significant time off the field – has been a sinkhole for the pack. Combined with the injury to Josh Papalii, and the way Vlandoball turned the ruck into a podcast at 2x speed, it’s sucked them down by their strength. A four-game losing streak resulted, and it looked for a moment like the season would be a disaster.

But the Raiders have managed to dust themselves off and find a way to keep touch with the league. In recent weeks they’ve shown a growing precision in their attacking movements. They’ve gone two whole weeks without being infuriatingly ill-disciplined. They didn’t give away an actual penalty in the game against the ‘Riff, which is something that I’m not sure what to do with. Is that real?

In addition to this, their nascent halves pairing is coming into their own. Ethan Strange looks like not so much a star in the making, as entering whatever phase of stellar development it’s called just before you become a red-giant (I was never any good at astrology). Stepping off both feet, carrying the ball in both hands, playing both sides of the ruck. I am more excited by him every game, and I was already a full Ron Burgundy when the season started.

Ethan Sanders kicking game improves each week, and he looks so comfortable and confident in the redzone. It’s funny that when the season started I was worried he might not have the hoof that Coby Black did. He’s got that, and more than that he’s shown impressive resolution in defence, and a willingness to take on the line in attack. He’s played both sides of the ruck with and without Strange, rejecting the binary that dominated early-season discourse.

There are so many more reasons to be positive about this side. Hudson Young remains elite. Simi Sasagi is having a career year – pending physicals. Joey Taps is still at the top of his game, and Corey Horsburgh has shed his early season struggles and looks back to his best. Sav Tamale has gotten over the yips, and looks as brutal as Heracles again. Even relegated Matt Timoko is back, and in POG form, and by that I mean throwing himself into defences in the same manner you would throw a POG.

A week off will do them no end of good. It should ensure Zac Hosking returns, and hopefully allows Simi Sasagi to recover from what appears to be an AC joint injury (scans pending). It means a week closer to Papa and Xavier Savage. A week closer to critical depth like Joe Roddy. A week more for combinations that have been stymied by unavailability to grow.

But there are challenges. 

The Raiders have a bye this weekend, and won’t have their second until round 18. That means if they lose players to the first two Origin games, they will definitely miss a game (the week before Origin), and potentially the week after. Both of the post-Origin games are on Sundays, which I presume would increase the chance of Origin-bound players playing, but it would still risk either absences or backing-up, which I don’t love.

Of course, there’s always the chance that Ethan Strange or Hudson Young (and maybe Corey Horsburgh?) don’t play Origin. It would reflect a potential brain parasite in the wider rugby league community, but you can’t rule it out as a possibility. Strange is also likely to be on a deep bench. That makes him a good shot to just have a really good view to watch the game from. That would obviously be shit for him, but would help in terms of backing up, if not fronting up before.

Missing these players for either two or three of four games in this period is made worse by a draw that’s tougher than it looks. The Raiders face the Phins, the Cows, the Roosters, the Eels, the good-again Storm, and the Dragons before the next bye. That the majority are home games – only the Eels and the Storm are away – offers some respite, and it’s not a murderers row. But with the competition as flat as this, dropping games here could be costly. Finding their way to four wins through this period is the platform they need for the back of the season.

But to enter the period in a place to launch from – on the ladder and in their style of play – is one that we are grateful for, especially given the mess of earlier in the year. This season hasn’t started as we’d anticipated, but the last month or so of footy has given us hope that maybe it can still end that way.

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