Ricky Stuart does not feature in most conversations for NRL coach of the year, apparently because Des Hasler took Manly from second-last to sixth on the ladder and Brad Arthur oversaw Parramatta’s rise from a wooden spoon to fifth. Yet for Stuart to forge defensive and mental steel into a club that once did not possess those assets is perhaps the greater achievement.
Stuart has brought the best out in a group of players from disparate cultures, and moulded a team that beat minor premiers Melbourne Storm twice at AAMI Park, and on Friday bested South Sydney Rabbitohs 16-10 in Canberra. Stuart resonates the right mix of kindly fun uncle and gruff disciplinarian. His players have bought in and will now play in the club’s first grand final in 25 years – when Stuart was halfback.
The Raiders have always been known as a destination for crack attacking players and the club is consequently many fans’ “second team”, just as North Queensland Cowboys were during the Matt Bowen era. Yet while they have played entertaining footy, Canberra’s games may have been too for entertaining for their fans – and their hyper-competitive coach – given their D-line could tend to the porous, particularly under pressure.
No more. The Raiders were bombarded by Souths at old Bruce Stadium on Friday evening and weathered six repeat sets of six including four in a row. They lost their fullback to the sin bin with 11 minutes to play. The injured James Roberts may have given Souths the incision they needed, yet Souths’ best player Cody Walker was a constant threat and the Raiders held him and 16 other cardinal-and-myrtle marauders to 10 points, four of them arriving when the game was gone.
It was the biggest game of rugby league played in Canberra. The Viking Clap brought them out, and a full house of lime green-clad people roared them home. The players defended their line as if from home invasion.
Ironically the Raiders’ much-vaunted attack was not in gear. Yet when they were out of ideas they just gave the ball to Josh Papalii who made several storming carries, with “carry” the operative word given he’d take two and three Souths players with him. His try in the 73rd minute sent his teammates into a pile-on akin to Richmond upon the AFL’s grand final siren a day later.
Papalli makes his teammates better. He draws in defenders, slips an arm free and gifts space to the likes of Josh Hodgson, Jack Wighton and the Raiders cast of players light on their feet. His quick play-the-ball is key for Hodgson, the Raiders captain.
Hodgson was immense on Friday. In the first half he was stunned in a tackle that saw him stumbling. It looked HIA 101 yet he stayed on the field to set up a try and save another – he stripped the ball from the dangerous Walker as the five-eighth was falling over the line to score, a remarkable feat of movement and spatial awareness at speed.
The Raiders’ defence was inspired by a record crowd in Canberra, but a day later in Sydney the Roosters defence was more: that’s just how they play. It is tight, committed, swarming and they all buy in. The edict was no better illustrated than by their halfback, Cooper Cronk, who made clutch try-saving tackles before charging down field. He is 36 in December and one of the Roosters’ most vital cogs.
Cronk has now made nine grand finals in 15 seasons. If the Roosters win on Sunday he will have won the last three in a row. Glenn Lazarus played five in a row with the Raiders and Broncos (and a sixth one at Storm). Lazarus is in the pantheon of props and Cronk must be included in any conversation of great No 7s. He will be a story all week.
James Tedesco is the best player in the game despite Stuart’s assertion that it is Papalii. The Roosters fullback saved a try at one end, scored a try at the other. And if Canberra are to win their first premiership in 25 years they must nullify Tedesco. And Cronk. And Luke Keary wouldn’t hurt either, though his leg injury will be monitored all week.
Keary did manage to escape punishment outside a $1,500 fine for tearing a fist-full of hair from Felise Kaufusi’s head before whacking him across the jaw with a swinging arm that forced the Storm backrower from the field, never to return. It was later revealed Kaufusi had passed the HIA yet suffered a rib injury. Keary appears to have benefited from the unofficial grand final rule that saw Billy Slater play in last year’s decider and Papalii play in this one.
Certainly Papalii’s shot on Adam Doueihi rocked the jaw of the Souths custodian. Yet the gods of rugby league have been kind to Papalli, as they were to Keary and Slater. Papali’s match-up against Jared Warea-Hargreaves on Sunday evening will be one of several match-defining contests. Ricky Stuart versus the world will not be one of them.
