Campo’s Corner: The enduring mystery of Canberra’s Aidan Sezer
The ups, downs and roundabouts of Aidan Sezer, what Latrell Mitchell is and is not, some stuff about old fellas and Golden Hombre action - we’re bringing the heat in this week’s Campo’s Corner.
There was a time when Aidan Sezer was the most exciting Canberra signing in years.
That’s a funny thing to say about a team who recruited Josh Hodgson, Joey Leilua, Jordan Rapana, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, John Bateman, Blake Austin and Sia Soliola but it’s true.
Most of the above players were either smart purchases of established but undervalued players or bets on rough diamonds that paid off but Sezer arriving from Gold Coast in 2016 was meant to be the start of something.
To begin with, he isn’t the sort of player Canberra usually land, especially back then. Keep in mind when Sezer put pen to paper in 2015 the club was less than a year removed from a horrible winter of “almost got him, but then he backed out” non-transfers – most infamously coming just short on Michael Ennis, Josh Mansour, Kevin Proctor and James Tedesco.
Things all worked out in the end for Canberra but even so, landing the in-demand Sezer, who had been linked with Manly as a replacement for Daly Cherry-Evans before the latter’s backflip on the Titans, was something of a coup for the Raiders.
The then 24-year old had been in the league four seasons and was one of the NRL’s best kept secrets, an enormously talented halfback or five-eighth with every skill a team could want in their dominant half. His combination with Albert Kelly was the classic marriage of a distributor and a runner, and for a while they were the most electric young halves duo in the competition.
The four years since have not been what was promised.
It’s safe to say Sezer has been the most polarising player among Canberra fans in recent years and, through factors and circumstance that aren’t always his fault, flirted with becoming the player he promised to be without ever really shattering the constraints which have kept him grounded.
What made Sezer so enthralling as a recruit, and why I have always been a believer, even at his lowest ebbs is that he can do just about everything from a technical standpoint. His left boot is an absolute howitzer and when he hits the ball clean it stays hit.
He can pass short and long and he can do it both ways. He’s quick and he’s fast on his feet. If you were building a half from scratch you couldn’t do much better to give him the physical tools of Aidan Sezer.
On paper, and on talent he’s in the conversation as Canberra’s best halfback since Ricky Stuart - admittedly, it’s not a hot field, but none of the others ever played in a preliminary final.
But if you ask some Canberra fans what ails them and fails them, if you ask them the cause of all their complaint, Sezer is the one who cops it. Sezer can also get inside his own head sometimes in a way where one error compounds another.
When things get bad they get really bad and he can make the simple parts of rugby league appear extraordinarily difficult. Even at his best he’s good for one blatant forward pass per game – usually an inside ball to a forward – and more than once in the past four years I’ve said things like “I thought Sezer was past having these kind of games”.
No half is an island and Sezer doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s impossible to tell the story of his time with Canberra without mentioning Sam Williams, his polar opposite. Sezer is yet to fully uncover the full depths of his own talents, Williams maximises his own gifts.
Sezer has peaks Williams cannot reach, Williams keeps his head while Sezer gets trapped in the valleys. Sezer can win you back with singular moments, Williams struggles to convert doubters even with sustained good form.
There’s a possibility a Williams-Sezer halves combination would have worked, with Williams playing halfback working out of first-receiver and allowing Sezer to move back to five-eighth. With Jack Wighton’s remarkable progress as a five-eighth this year, such a combination will never be but it does make sense in theory.
But if you’re talking about theoretical Raiders halves combinations the conversation begins and ends with Sezer and Blake Austin, which could have worked and should have worked and I’m still not sure why it didn’t. Sezer’s strengths as a distributor seem to perfectly compliment Austin’s strengths as a runner and even though they helped pilot Canberra to their only preliminary final appearance since 1997 it still feels like they left a lot on the table.
Austin and Sezer’s first season together was Sezer’s first in Canberra and his first game for the club, against Penrith, looms large in my recollections.
At the end of the Raiders first set he put up a bomb that I swear to God hung in the air for almost 10 minutes. He scored two tries himself, the second a terrific, gut-check effort where he carried two Penrith defenders over the line. Austin scored a try and set up another. It felt like there were no limits to what they could do together.
But after the match it came out Sezer had played most of the second half with a fractured cheekbone. He missed the next four games and the pattern was set – just as it seemed like he was putting some form together and it was time to render unto Sezer the things that are Sezer’s, something happens that takes it all away.
Sezer was something of an afterthought for that 2016 success. Hodgson and Leilua and Rapana loom larger in the memory and Sezer and Austin are shunted to the side. It’s a good representation of another factor in Sezer’s time with Canberra – Hodgson himself.
Hodgson is Canberra’s best player, the best buy they’ve made in the last 25 years and may well be one of the club’s greatest ever players by the time he is done. There’s a better than even money chance I’ll name a son after him.
But he’s not the easiest man for halves to play with, especially organising halves like Sezer. Hodgson is not a selfish player, but if he sees a chance he will take it – and sometimes he sees chances that aren’t there. It’s the reason Canberra’s attack can occasionally get bogged down inside the attacking 20 as Hodgson becomes obsessed with getting the team over the line himself.
This isn’t a complaint – Hodgson’s decisions are right so much more often than they’re wrong – but it can create a difficult situation for his halves. How can Sezer take control when there is such a dominant playmaking presence on the field already?
It’s not certain Hodgson ceding that control would be in the team’s best interest given how productive he can be. As the Tigers found with Robbie Farah, finding the right half for such a dominant hooker can be a challenge and it’s only now, in their fourth season together, that Hodgson and Sezer are finding a balance which suits them.
In recent weeks, Sezer has started to look like the player he always seemed like he could be. He’s got eight try assists in 10 games and his kicking game, his most potent weapon, has really clicked into gear. He’s also taking on the line more often, always a good sign for halves - Sezer’s 41 metres per game is his best ever average for the Raiders.
After Williams was given the reins early on – and performed well, helping Canberra to a top four spot – Sezer returned to the side for the Round 12 match against the Bulldogs. Canberra won, Williams was somewhat unfairly dropped for the following week’s clash with the Tigers and the Raiders have gone 6-1 since. It feels like, after three and a half seasons, we’re seeing the real Aidan Sezer.
Like I said, it’s felt this way before. Sezer had moments in matches in 2016 but never quite got over the top. He was excellent for the final two months of 2017 and shaped as the man to take control of the side when Hodgson was injured in early 2018 but a truly baffling move to hooker put paid to that (Sezer did his best, but nobody has ever looked like they hated a position more).
Ricky Stuart is the right coach for the Raiders and this season has eased any pressure he was under but his record developing halves isn’t great, even back to his Roosters days when the club’s spine fell apart post Brad Fittler’s retirement. Given a fully formed halfback Stuart can work wonders but he’s never shown an ability to take a good one and make him great, for whatever reason.
Maybe these are legitimate reasons, maybe it’s too hard for me to admit Sezer isn’t the player I believed him to be. Maybe he’s the kind of player who can go this far and no further, maybe he could have been a representative player if the cards fell other ways. There is enough of the good and the bad you can twist Aidan Sezer into just about whatever you want him or need him to be.
With English Test halfback George Williams coming to Canberra next year there might not be a place for Sezer there anymore. He’s been linked with a move to Huddersfield, which he denied earlier this week. Given Canberra’s track record with English players they deserve all the faith in the world and Williams is a proven performer for Wigan with some nice displays at Test level.
But it’s still a risk given the run of outs halves from the English competition have had in Australia. It’s been almost 40 years since the last success story and from a technical standpoint, Williams plays mainly on the left for Wigan, the same side Jack Wighton plays for Canberra. The Raiders have a good thing going with Sezer and if he is to leave it would be a tremendous shame if he’s lost to the NRL. Even if he never fulfils his immense potential – and at 28 he pretty much is what he is at this point – he can still be a very useful player for several clubs. He’d be a good fit in Brisbane and Melbourne, he’d do well at Manly and if the Knights can swing it salary cap wise they should be calling his manager right now.
Sezer’s rugby league future may well be decided in the coming months. Williams is coming to Canberra and nothing can change that but a few good games in the run up to the finals, if not the finals themselves, will catch somebody’s eye and once Aidan Sezer has won you over there’s no going back. He’s got everything you need, even if it’s not always there when you need it.
MITCHELL STAYS THE SAME BUT PERSPECTIVES CHANGE
Before this year the last time a Roosters player scored 26 points or more in a match was 1935. On the weekend Latrell Mitchell did it for the second time this season but the reactions to the twin performances tell us much about rugby league fame and infamy.
The first time Mitchell did it was in Round 8 against the Tigers. As rugby league tends to do, we all got very carried away. Some people called it the greatest performance of the NRL era, which it wasn’t.
Some of The Daily Telegraph’s own experts dubbed Mitchell the best player in the game. Mitchell has always been a player who captures the imagination and after his three try, seven goal effort in the 42-12 romp he was riding the very crest of the wave, he was borne to the highest of highs on the shoulders of the faithful.
Fast forward to the weekend and the reception for a similar feat was far more muted. Sure, it wasn’t as spectacular but 26 points is still 26 points and two tries, two line breaks and nine goals is nothing to sneeze at.
Mitchell has not changed, but the way we see him has.
James Tedesco is now, more correctly in my opinion, held up as the best player in the world. Mitchell is what he has always been but people seem to have a clearer view of what he provides. He is not, and never has been, the miracle some assumed him to be but is more a very gifted attacking player who can fade in and out of games and can make errors, both with his hands and his defence, based on lapses of concentration.
There’s nothing wrong with this – Mitchell is still just 22 and has so much more ahead of him.
Mitchell is still my current pick for centre of the year. He’s a fair chance of topping the tryscoring and pointscoring lists and may become just the third player ever to top 300 points, plus the overall field isn’t the strongest.
But according to our Dally M primer earlier this week he shouldn’t win that accolade, despite doing much the same as last year when he was the consensus pick.
By failing to live up to the impossible expectations others have created for him, Mitchell is set up to disappoint. The imperfections which were ignored are now highlighted. He can’t be the golden God of your memory because he never was in the first place.
THE OLD WARHORSES
And now, to celebrate James Graham playing 400 first class games, here’s some other players with stupidly long careers and the things I know about them.
Jim Sullivan
A Welsh rugby union convert who the old fellas around Wigan swear could walk on water, Sullivan played for the cherry and whites from 1921 to 1946 and accumulated 928 first-team appearances. He once kicked 22 goals in a Challenge Cup tie against the unfortunately named Flimby and Fothergill and booted 2867 goals in club matches over his long career. All these are world records by the way. For Cameron Smith to even come close to matching Sullivan’s record the Queenslander would have to play until at least 2035 and hope he kept never getting injured.
Tedda Courtney
Ed “Tedda” Courtney is a legend of rugby league’s early years in Australia. After debuting for Newtown in 1908 he switched to Wests in 1909 and Norths the following season before resuming with the black and whites in 1911. From there, Courtney stuck it out until 1924 and was the final player from the code’s foundation year to retire. Sixteen years is nothing to sneeze at now, back then he was damn near superhuman. Courtney’s 180 games was a premiership record at the time and his final season, at age 39, he played alongside his son, Ed Jr, in a couple of games.
Billy Wilson
Also known as Captain Blood, Wilson holds the record for the longest-spanning first grade career. After he debuted in 1948 for the Dragons, Wilson finally hung them up for the last time in 1967 – he came out of retirement to play a few games for the Bears, who he was captain coaching. Years spent in country footy kept Wilson from playing in 20 straight seasons but he remains the only man to play first grade in his 40s.
Ben Westwood
The Warrington legend announced his retirement earlier this week and is a legend of the English game. Westwood is one of the last active players who debuted in the 1990s – Gareth Ellis, who has already retired once, and Jamie Jones-Buchanan, who will also retire at year’s end, are the others.
GOLDEN HOMBRE
Is there anything more thrilling than when a big man gets into the clear and attempts an ill-advised dummy, or perhaps a chip kick?
Is there anything greater than when a large lad decides the time has come for him to show the world the ball skills he knows lurk deep within?
Is there anything that lifts the spirit more than a hefty fellow crashing across the stripe for his second NRL try in his 179th first grade match?
I say no, and to honour these big fellas each and every week of the year, which many have dubbed #BigManSeason, we hand out The Golden Hombre, named after Todd Payten, the biggest halfback God ever created.
We have a runaway winner this week – literally – in Canberra prop Sia Soliola. Not only did he race 25 metres to score the first try of Canberra’s win over the Warriors, with a little shake and bake on Roger Tuivasa-Sheck if you don’t mind, he also banged over a very wonky conversion late in the game following his 100th game for the club last week. You simply love to see it.
A GUY YOU SHOULD KNOW
North Queensland have a real problem with speed – namely they don’t have any. That could change this week with Gideon Gela-Mosby named to return on the wing.
A 22-year old from Darnley Island in the Torres Strait, Gela-Mosby is so fast he makes fast people look not fast.
In 2015 he scored 39 tries in 25 games for North Queensland’s Under 20s side and has six in 10 games since making his NRL debut in 2017.
It’s not been a smooth ride for Gela-Mosby – he’s still very raw and has had problems with injury and suspension over the last 18 months but he’s also stupid fast and incredibly fun. He might not ever be a long-term first grader but he’s never boring.
Originally published as Campo’s Corner: The enduring mystery of Canberra’s Aidan Sezer
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