Raiders unleash "The Freak" in bid to bring final home from the Shire
No Paps, no Big Red, no hope? Please. Ricky Stuart's shifted deck chairs and the Raiders will scrap like street-kids trained to fight for money in cages. And they'll run out a "freak" on debut.
AND so to the old Endeavour Field in Woolooware to see if Canberra Raiders should host a knockout home final against Cronulla Sharks or travel north for hot Knights in Newcastle.
Bit riding on it, then.
We enter the fixture without Corey Horsburgh and Josh Papalii and as pundits and punters will assure you without hope of any kind. Granted, these are big outs. Outs like you were playing grade cricket against Bankstown and got the Waugh twins out. Say.
Or something I dunno but look, Pasami Saulo has a chance to go all hammers and tongs with the Sharks in the middle and he goes okay, Pasami Saulo. More than okay. Big body, big hair, a big whack and an offload in him. Big minutes to shine, buddy-roo.
Joe Tapine’s got a big gig too, of course, as does Emre Guler, particularly given Ata Mariota’s the only big unit on the bench. But that’s where the points come, for mine: hard charges up guts, with the light-weights hunting around as arms get free. That and Tommy Starling’s darts out of dummy-half on the back of quick play-the-ball. Run these Sharkies ragged. Jordan Rapana busting tackles in broken play. Play off the chaos.
Beside Starling, Mariota and Jarrod Croker on a funky-looking lightweight bench comes 21-year-old debutant Hohepa Puru who’s been rewarded for the reserve grade side’s run of seven wins in nine games and the last five straight. He’s a lock or hooker who’s played five-eighth, he’s a tackle-hound from Penrith where they don’t make mugs, and here’s hoping he can spark some action in the middle, they reckon he’s a “freak” and that he might even start. Go him.
Yes, we must ‘shut down’ Nicho Hynes, the spunky six with the always-wet hair, that’s no secret. His work with the ball in two hands, feeding his wing-men, it is dangerous work.
But we’ve got one of him, Jack Wighton, who our Stick’s decided to play in the centres so that The Great Destroyer of Worlds Matt Frawley can do his thing on the edges.
Now, look, I wouldn’t have picked Frawley instead of Wighton in the six and chances are you wouldn’t have either but you assume the players and coaches have talked about it and come to the conclusion that Wighton’s big body near the line, with Seb Kris (again, for some reason, one assumes they’ve discussed it) on a wing, is the best way to break break free from your lies you're so self-satisfied I don't need you I've got to break free God knows I want to break free.
Anyway. We’ll win. That effort against Brisbane the other night - robbed about eight different ways, Kotoni Staggs stays on the field for a flying elbow back of a man’s head and gets two weeks, Rapana sin binned and gets no weeks, don’t start me on Hudson Young’s penalty for an escort - we put 30 points on most everyone, including these Cronulla Sharks who’ve been enigmatic at best.
Raiders by 1.
Up the Milk.
On a mild Sunday afternoon in August of 2014 I headed to Remondis Stadium - “Sweet home, Remondis” as it was known by no people - for the NRL’s Battle for Little Big Spoon: Cronulla Sharks and Canberra Raiders. And it was, perhaps, the worst game of the year.
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