Win for Papa.
Sure, you can win it to keep the season’s life support on. The doctor is giving you those furrowed looks and wondering how many ways she can tell you the light behind their eyes won’t come back. But if the Raiders win this week you get to say “hey, it could happen” for another week. And for most of us that is enough.
Or win it for next year. For what is being built. Lessons that are learned and filed and put away for when they’re required. Young men working their way through life rarely get it right the first time. Plenty of opportunities to fumble and bumble are needed to find solace, security and maybe even something approaching intelligence.
See it as evidence of combinations building. The spine now has the talent. There’s plenty of vibrancy in that backline. The pack has stars, it has potential. If they can keep that together, if they can find some bulk beef, this game is part of a story of readying that for next year.
Win it for revenge. Sure, you can do that. It won’t make the feeling go away. The memory of suffocating in open air when that Ben Hunt kick went through. The elation, frustration, sadness in the madness. The despair at seeing a rolled gold opportunity to end this pain just flitter away like the ashes of a long-departed personification of hope.
Hurt them like they hurt us? Only it’ll never mask the pain. It’ll never make the memory more endurable. I’ll never combat that pang of regret when the thought hits me out of the blue with “oh but we beat them in round 25 the next year so that’s ok”. There’s no ‘lose the battle, win the war’ scenario here.
Maybe win it for pride? That’s closer. Win it because the Canberra Raiders don’t quit on seasons, no matter how dire they get. This band of madmen fight. They fight like every hero does, against the odds, against good reason, ready to die because that’s the only way you can live. Show people like me who spend their lives seeking protection from existence that you can only truly live your life when you’re ready to get hurt again.
Or maybe win it for Simi. The man has had a career year, should definitely not be playing and should actually be getting surgery. He’s putting his career at risk because he wants to show out. For you and me and the Raiders.
But more because of what Josh Papalii means to him as a man. As a Samoan. As a friend. Simi has been at Canberra for three seasons now, has only just established himself as a first grader, and has no compunction in getting hurt, as long as he can be there for Big Papa. We know how much Papa means to our city. Sometimes we forget what he means to a nation. A culture. A people.
But really that’s the core of why we’re here. Win it for Papa. For what he’s done for this club. For who he is as a man. For the quiet determination, the courageous brutality. The transition of boy to man to hero. Win it because he risked his bones and body every week for our entertainment, for our amusement, for our solace.
Win it because he deserves to walk off the ground not having to ask questions like ‘well the ending doesn’t matter’. It probably doesn’t, but I’d rather he walked off the turf of Bruce Stadium with zero regrets and zero concerns. Win it like we did for Mal. Or for Loz. Or Ruben.
When this man comes back to have his statue, or a stand, dedicated to him, he should do it with nothing but great memories. Because that’s all he ever gave us.
Sign up to the email below so we can reminisce about Papa forever. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.
The Sportress 
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