Game on, Game One: "Raiders learn big city lesson" vs Bunnies at Redfern
It was always going to be tough to beat South Sydney at Redfern Oval in the Raiders' first ever game. And it was. But the bush babies loved it. And learned plenty
Sports Fans! Accursed work in the way of another Big Match Preview (but, again, don’t sweat, we’ve got the Warriors, Big Red to go bananas) so follows is another extract from The Milk the book about 40 years of fandom for the Canberra Raiders, we literally have one (1) hard copy left from the deadset millennia printed, so we’re knocking out the book in digital excerpts which you may consume for $1 a week, effectively the froth off a skinny cappuccino.
Get it bang India.
Raiders by 12.
Up the Milk.
AND SO TO REDFERN where firsts watched third grade and the first half of reserves before heading off to suit up in Souths’ brick sheds.
With steel studs clacking on the concrete floor, liniment smell strong, Don Furner spoke and David Grant spoke, and each individual did their best in the pregnant moments pre-match.
It wasn’t like the bit in Gladiator when old mate wees himself. But rugby league, those days, guys would mentally prepare like they would for an actual fight.
The Souths fans were restless and mad. They wanted the new chums put in their place.
And out into the maelstrom those baby Raiders went.
Early in the match rumbling Souths lock Robert Simpkins ran the ball at Peter McGrath in the centres. McGrath told The Milk he did what he’d always done: aim a shoulder at a hip, drive with legs, wrap arms.
And “Simpkins just kept going”, according to McGrath.
“I tackled him and he just didn’t stop. And I was thinking, This is not how it works. I hit you, you go down. Not: you keep going! It was like, This is it. I’m here.
“It was fabulous,” McGrath exclaimed.
It got better. Rabbitohs winger Mark Ross – who five years later would replace Steve Mavin when George Piggins hooked the winger off the SCG before half-time in the semi-final against Canberra – dropped a pass.
The ball was seized upon by Lloyd Martin who found Jay Hoffman who found a good man in the circumstance: Gerry de la Cruz.
The halfback, born in Innisfail, raised in Darwin, described as “the first half- Filipino, half-Sri Lankan to play top level rugby league”, stepped through a clutch of South Sydney defenders and scored after a run described as “bewildering” twice in the same piece by The Canberra Times.
And after 24 minutes the visitors had a shock 7-5 lead.
That was as good as it got, however.
In the second half the Raiders dropped the ball several times while referee Barry Goldsworthy found 11 penalties against them and just two in their favour. Souths’ rake Ken Stewart won the scrums – an important thing in times of contestable ball– 13-7 over Hoffman.
And on top of all the possession and territory and exploitation by cunning halfback Graham Murray, Ross scored a hat-trick, Simpkins scored a double while Ziggy Niszczot and Peter Smith scored tries too.
And back on the bus those bush babies went.
Coach Don Furner, though, stayed an extra night in Sydney to see the Raiders’ next opponents, Western Suburbs Magpies, play Manly Warringah Sea Eagles at Lidcombe Oval, a game Manly won 33-12 in a typical bash-fest.
The following Saturday was Canberra’s first home game and Wests piled on seven tries in the 33-4 loss at Seiffert Oval. Terry Lamb scored a double and spent 10 minutes in the sin bin for “a tackling infringement.”
“Raiders learn the big Sydney lesson,” went The Canberra Times headline with journalist Kevin Robertson declaring, “Wests slammed home the strength of Sydney rugby league.”
Both statements effectively channelled the insecurity of locals from Queanbeyan, Canberra and the greater Monaro – a mob you could categorise as ‘suburban bushies’ - felt in relation to the big smoke up the road.
Sydney was where Test cricket was. The Opera House was in Sydney and all those skyscrapers. Paul Keating once quipped that “anywhere else you’re just camping out.”
Like Australia to America, New Zealand to Australia, Origin- infused Queensland to the larger state of New South Wales, Canberra felt like the lesser cousin; patronised - or worse, ignored. And being heard by – and beating - the smug bastards up the road was very much in the public interest.
That interest was piqued soon enough.
Next: First home win, first away win.