BY DAN

Well, this is it.

Noah Martin should be available. Josh Papalii is going to be back. Matty Nicholson should be healthy too. Simi Sasagi is already back. Ethan Strange’s ankle will be fine, trust me. Hudson Young is a menace and will not rest until he’s tackled every person like a modern-day Terry Tate, which means he’ll back up from Origin.

Essentially this is it. Canberra have all their horses. All their men. It’s time to put humpty together again.

It’s a narrative we’ve leaned into for a long time. Canberra have been struck down by targeted missile that has blown-up the forward pack. It’s put them on the back foot in games that they don’t have the structure, the capability, and maybe even the talent to overcome. Until they have these players available, they’ll continue to play from a disadvantage.

Well, that’s part of the story. That doesn’t account for the tentativeness. It doesn’t account for the ill-discipline, the poor-handling, the middling kicking. The lack of precision, or pace, or power, in almost anything they do. The weaknesses caked into the outcomes by team selection, playing players out of position, and trusting players to do things that they either can’t do, or can’t do well enough. They’re second in the league in tackles made, which speaks as much

So when I say ‘this is it, everyone is back, let’s go streaking’, does it mean that Jayden Brailey will be starting at 13 still? Will Owen Pattie continue to get starting minutes at hooker? Will Zac Hosking be moved back into the middle to bring much needed pace? Will Noah Martin come back and play 80? Will the Raiders suddenly remember that they win playing outside in, not side-to-side? Will they punch between the scrum lines like the infected of 2025, or will they continue to amble up, in, and around, like they’re engaged in an orchestrated waltz in a period piece?

It’s hard to remember (and painful too!) but when Canberra lost four straight at the start of the season they had most of their horses and plenty of their men. Remember when the Warriors put 40 on them? Only Papa was missing. Remember when they scored 10 points against the Dogs? Oh, how we blamed the rain, as though a dry track would see them revert to form. The Knights put them to the sword. They didn’t have Kalyn Ponga. We weren’t missing anyone.

Then they were unable to keep pace with the hyper-speed that Peter V’Landys injected the game with. That’s disappeared as Vlando has got his headline figure, but the Raiders have still struggled to find a game plan, or even a theory of a plan, or even an idea of a theory, that could lead to consistent success. It’s not that 2025’s plan hasn’t worked. It’s that outside of a brief period in the first game of the season, and maybe moments in the Cows game, they’ve never even tried it.

Look I’m no sports genius. I don’t think you can right this ship. But Canberra needs to try. The end of this season presents an opportunity. Not to win big games or put their names in lights or even make the finals. That’s proven beyond this team. But a lack of directness, and decisiveness has been pervasive. They lead the league in tackle breaks, but are 14th in line breaks. How can they turn moments in structure, into consistency? Finding a game style that not only leans into talent but instead maximises it is important. It will allow the team to learn roles, and ways, and little margins, from playing within a structure, within a system.

Going without it as the Raiders have scrambled together a plan to match the changing game and their misbegotten lineup has impacted their confidence. It’s easy to think their insipid, spiritless performances can be changed in the off-season, but starting now would not be a waste. Finding a plan, and some urgency, is central to re-orienting this team, to teaching the newcomers what they should be aspiring to for 2027.

Will they embrace the challenge? Nothing we’ve seen in recent weeks showed that. But in round 17 Simi Sasagi ran with such purpose, and deliberateness, that it seemed that time away from this mess preserved what was making him great. Maybe it’ll work similar for Martin, for Papalii, for Nicholson.

Then again, maybe Jayden Brailey will be starting 13 and none of this will matter.

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