The NRLW Canberra Raiders have never played the Bulldogs in Canberra. Both of their encounters thus far have been played at the Berries spiritual ground in Belmore. Their inaugural match in 2025 saw Canberra romp home 56-24, a standout performance in a pretty bleak season. Almost a year later, the Raiders inflicted more pain on their hapless hosts.
It took less than three minutes for the visitors to get on the board, the Raiders opening their account through captain Simaima Taufa. Sherridan Gallagher sliced the kick-off left through the opposition receivers, handing the Raiders possession on Canterbury’s line. From the tap it was simply a matter of shifting to the middles until Shakiah Sophie Holyman Chloe Saunders found Taufa with a crisp short ball, putting her through a gap and over to score.
Canberra struck again in the 11th minute, a sudden direction change from Zahara Temara thirty metres out catching the Dogs napping, Blackwell digging into the line before foisting a netball pass over the heads of befuddled defenders and into the hands of Mackenzie Wiki for try number two.
For a brief moment it looked as though the Dogs were going to right the ship and challenge the Milk, the two teams arm-wrestling through a few sets before the Raiders regained possession in the red zone.
Having pilfered the Steeden after a Dogs intercept nearly caused her embarrassment, Blackwell sped past the tiring defence to score the first of her three tries. Blackwell played arguably her best game in green, shading her OG predecessor Quinlan on more than one occasion.
The fourth try was a combination of Temara’s veteran brilliance and Waterman’s current form, the crafty half shaping a grubber that careened up into the grasp of a defender who thought they’d latched onto the ball, only to discover that the rangy Raiders centre had purloined the pill and scored.
It was the Raiders fifth try that illustrated how badly the Dogs were faring, Blackwell nabbing her second after an appalling defensive read on the line left a near six metre gap for the five-eighth to stroll through and plant the ball.
The second half was more of the same. Despite now running into a formerly friendly breeze the Raiders continued to torment the Dogs, Elise Simpson scoring in the left corner in under four minutes.
The next try came when Tufuga charged through some paper thin defence on the right. Blackwell’s third try materialised when Temara hoisted a bomb from the Raiders 40 metre line, the ball bouncing on the Dogs 30 metre mark and into the hands of Blackwell who homed in to score between the posts.
At 44-0 the Dogs finally scored, following some chaotic play that saw Raiders falling over their own teammates, Simina Lokotui stepping through and around a few defenders to score.
The last twenty minutes of the match descended into tit-for-tat mistakes, both teams tiring as the temperature ebbed away with the sun. The Raiders weren’t quite done yet though, Hollie-Mae Dodd crashing over in the 57th minute to bring Canberra to 48.
In the end the Raiders try-scorers list was like a Whitman’s sampler with seven different flavours to choose from. The Dogs, meanwhile, were a packet of scotch fingers that had been crushed into dust, with only one solid biscuit (try) left at the bottom.
This game was an absolute romp for the Green Machine. They dominated Canterbury in almost every positive stat/metric, making short work of defence that simply didn’t want to do the hard stuff. Sure, they got a bit greedy and silly in the second half, but by that point the result was well beyond doubt.
The only downside to the match was Charlotte Basham failing a HIA after collecting some friendly fire damage in a tackle.
With three games left Canberra are in a good position to qualify for their first ever finals campaign. They do have to play two teams above them, but given the last three weeks it appears that they’re peaking at just the right time.
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