"A very bad day": Stuart laments domination by Knights

Also: girls have a win and unearth new cult hero, while Paid Subscribers can read an extract from the Milk about the very sad tale of the two future Immortals the Raiders nearly signed circa 2003.

Well, that was quite bad.

Or, as Ricky Stuart told assembled media post-match: “Very bad.”

The Knights are good and in a bit of form, and did the same to Melbourne Storm last weekend as they did to us this one. Their back five is humming.

But there’s little excuse for so tentative, meek, passive and effete an offering as that dished up by our Canberra Raiders Saturday afternoon, no sirree Bob Hawke.

The 28-6 hiding wasn’t our worst loss to Newcastle, however, as the following Exclusive Extract from The Milk, the book, details for paid subscribers following a three-par tease, along with some meaty goodness about the two future Immortals and champion coach the Raiders didn’t sign circa 2003.

You think yesterday’s loss was sad…

But! Buck up, buckeroos, you’re allowed a couple of stinkers a season and we’re still outright fifth with Wests Tigers (h), Storm (a), Bulldogs (h), Broncos (h) and Sharks (a) to come.

Despite that miserable shite yesterday - and it’s impossible to sugar-coat, they sat back and sucked - we can win all of them. We can finish fourth.

Believe it.

Grace Kemp is mobbed by team-mates in Raiders 24-14 win over Sydney Roosters. Pic: Getty Images.

Meanwhile the girls had a fine win over Millie Boyle and the title-favourite Roosters and unearthed a new Big Red in Grace Kemp, and if you read The Daily Telegraph there’s a cracking piece in it by a promising sports writer detailing the deeds of Ms Kemp, and the greater NRLW unit in their historic first game at home.

Go them.

Up the Milk.

*

Super League, they told us, would usher in a new era for rugby league. It would ‘Americanise’ and further professionalise the sport and spread its grand entertainment around Australia and the world.

To help usher in this new age of enlightenment and draw a line with the past, the Raiders designed a new jumper. Predominantly dark ‘bottle’ green, some black (including the shorts), some white, a splash of iridescent green-yellow on the chest and no blue. It was a combination of colours which couldn’t have clashed more had they been fighting for the Gaza Strip. It was a melange of hot mucus. It looked like the Friday lunchtime corporate soccer kit for the PLO¹.

Brett Mullins, Laurie Daley and David Furner in their last game in the terrible black shorts of the 2001 strip. Pic: Canberra Raiders.

But Super League had designed their own Raiders jumper with the Super League logo on the sternum, along with various slashes and bits n bobs, a template used by Sydney Bulldogs and Brisbane Broncos and Hunter Mariners and Adelaide Rams. The Raiders’ one never looked right either. No blue and gold of the ACT though the green was true to roots.