Jayden Brailey and Timing

Timing is a funny thing.

When the Canberra Raiders signed Jayden Brailey it looked like Tom Starling was on his way out the door. The Raiders had just let Danny Levi go, and while Owen Pattie was exciting, he was just a prospect; an idea that maybe the Raiders might have something special.

Brailey, more similar in style to Pattie than Starling, would be a useful bridge. A support for Pattie to get from promising to the promised land. Stability and certainty for Ethan Sanders to make his transition to first grade easier. One less thing for Sticky to worry about.

By the time Brailey joined the club Tom Starling had gotten through a career year running downhill after Canberra’s highly effective and highly mobile pack. An extension had followed. Owen Pattie had spent the year playing twenty minutes a game, desperate for more time. Was he ready for more? From the outside it seemed like more. From the inside Coach Stuart had other views.

Instead of an open position and a chance to return to a role as a permanent starter he’d lost in Newcastle, Brailey was walking into the exact same mess. Starling was ensconced, Pattie was ready, what was his role going to be?

Before the season we’d harped on the idea that through some mix of habit and timidity, Stuart would turn to Brailey instead of Pattie. Not because we liked it, but because at his core Ricky Stuart, the coach, craves certainty. He wants players to be reliable and it has led to him sidelining talent because it didn’t jump when it was meant to.

Our reasoning was he already had all the variability he could handle mixing in a rookie halfback to drive his minor premiership side. The last thing he needed was to give major minutes to a near-rookie nine as well.

Turns out our reasoning was wrong (at least in terms of what Stuart has said publicly) but the outcome was the same. Pattie started the season in NSW Cup to get match fit, while Starling and Brailey played first grade.

Brailey was inoffensive as a replacement rake. He rarely played the bulk of the minutes at the position – through the first eight rounds of the season he only once played more than thirty minutes. He had no tries, no try-assists, no line-breaks and two tackle-breaks in that time. He had less than 100 metres across those eight games, and four total missed tackles.

He was there, like one end of a see-saw, in perpetual counterbalance for whatever was going on. If the Raiders were playing well, he was no detriment. If they were struggling, he did not change that fact. He was the utmost professional in a disaster, a janitor sweeping up a corner of the office as the building collapsed around him. You really couldn’t have asked him to do more even if you needed it.

Then the Raiders did ask him to do more. Timing is a funny thing. The entire forward pack decided to get injured/suspended/picked for origin and all of a sudden the Raiders were struggling to fill out a 17 let alone distract themselves with concepts like fitness, certainty, or fit.

Brailey found himself playing lock. Not because it was a good fit, but because he could defend well enough in the middle for it not to be a total debacle. At times Canberra were picking three hookers, playing two at a time, and for the most part suffering the consequences.

It wasn’t fair on Brailey. While the gambit had worked against the Titans in round nine, after that it had diminishing returns, after teams worked out that they just needed to get the two hookers on the same tackle, and all of a sudden they’d have ruck speed. Tommy might be the strongest pound-for-pound defender in the game, but Brailey was not capable of playing the role of clean up man when bigs iso’d him or Pattie in the middle.

But Brailey did the job. He’d been brought to the club for a different role but offered another because the dominoes had fallen that way. He did that job too. Not well, but that’s not his fault. He did what he could with what he had, and it was admirable in a way. Like soldiers going over the top from the trenches, it wasn’t Brailey’s fault he was put in such an hopeless position.

When it came to light that he was leaving the club we weren’t surprised. This wasn’t what he signed up for. Playing backup hooker behind Api Koroisau was more his speed and style. Compassionate reasons were mooted but we’re not aware of more information around that. But we are happy that it’s clear that Brailey will be happier elsewhere.

We’re all villains in someone’s story. A hero in another’s. Sometimes the only thing that determines that fate, that marks how we’re remembered, is timing. The ebb and flow of circumstance. If Tom Starling had moved on Jayden Brailey would be a welcome relief. If the entire pack hadn’t got injured Brailey wouldn’t have been asked to solve an impossible problem. If Owen Pattie hadn’t come on the way he has Brailey wouldn’t be in the position he’s in.

He likely runs out this weekend in NSW Cup, evidence of his willingness to turn up and not pout despite things not going the way he wanted. He has given the Raiders everything he had but it wasn’t what they needed, when they needed it. It didn’t work out, and that wasn’t his fault. Circumstances turned a good fit into an uncomfortable partnership.

Signed a moment too early. Played a minute too late. A matter of timing.