This was published 8 years ago
NRL: 'Rags to riches' stories fuelling Canberra Raiders' premiership charge
By Jon Tuxworth
Confidence breeds success.
It's not one of the Canberra Raiders' official mantras for their breakout season, but it wouldn't look out of place for the bunch of cast-offs, no-names and youngsters that have thrust them into the premiership mix.
Blake Austin has shone since joining the Raiders.Credit: Getty Images
Ask Joey Leilua, Blake Austin, Kurt Baptiste, Jordan Rapana, Clay Priest, Joe Tapine and Luke Bateman what the key ingredient to their emergence has been, and confidence would be near the top of the list.
All of them at one point were searching for someone to show some faith in them. To back them to the hilt.
Joey Leilua celebrates with teammate Edrick Lee after scoring.Credit: Getty Images
The Raiders did that and now they're reaping the benefits of moulding their diamonds in the rough.
Rapana was playing for Queanbeyan Blues three years ago, pulling beers and cutting hair to make ends meet.
At the start of the year Priest would often turn up late for Mounties training because he was still toiling away fixing powerlines.
Austin, stuck behind young halves Mitchell Moses and Luke Brooks at Wests Tigers, couldn't sign quick enough when Raiders coach Ricky Stuart spoke to him from his car in 2014 and virtually guaranteed him first crack at the No. 6 jersey.
Jordan Rapana used to pull beers in Canberra before making it with the Raiders.Credit: Jeffrey Chan
It was all Austin needed to hear after being shifted from position to position at the Tigers.
"I feel like I landed on my feet a while ago. I struggled to hold down a position at the Tigers but I think a lot of people forget that I had a pretty decent season there and that's how Ricky came across me and got me down here," Austin said this week.
"I'm really enjoying my time in the top grade and I'm really enjoying being a player regularly week-in, week-out. It's been really cool."
When Leilua first arrived from Newcastle, cut adrift for being overweight, Raiders conditioning coach Nigel Ashley-Jones called the blockbuster centre his "favourite subject".
Like a sports car in need of a few new parts, the potential was there but he needed to be moulded and the results are obvious.
Rapana uses his rags-to-riches story to squeeze every last ounce out of himself every game.
He has scored 15 tries, leads the league in tackle busts and line breaks and is the form winger of the NRL.
"I often reflect on it [the past] as it's probably the biggest motivator for me and it's what has got me here today," Rapana said after scoring a hat-trick in a 60-6 thrashing of Wests Tigers in April.
"I definitely know what it's like to not have this lifestyle and for me it's important I play as good as I can week in, week out and try and have this career as long as I can.
"I definitely know it's a lot harder working nine to five. I used to work with my old man concreting when I was playing 20s [with Gold Coast], worked nine to five and then went to training.
"It's not something I want to do just yet. I knew I had the ability and just wanted to try and get back into first grade."
While the likes of Cronulla, Melbourne and North Queensland are brimming with representative stars, the Raiders have stamped themselves as the form team of the NRL by giving blokes a chance.
Two years ago young forward Luke Bateman was Canberra's representative at the launch of the Auckland Nines. It's fair to say the NRL stars he rubbed shoulders with that day had no clue who he was.
Now he's keeping dual Mal Meninga medallist Shaun Fensom out of first grade and ran for more metres than anyone else in Monday's 22-8 statement win against Melbourne.
Just five Raiders who played against the Storm had tasted finals football before.
It's hard for youngsters like Bateman not to daydream about what the big stage is like before taking care of the business at hand.
But Stuart has made a point of ensuring his team lives in the moment.
"It's tough but Sticky's really good at keeping everyone grounded and just looking to next week," Bateman said.
"The win [against Melbourne] means nothing if we bomb out first or second week of the finals, and Sticky is all over that.
"As a group we're have our feet on the ground, no one gets too far ahead of ourselves."
Young forwards Joe Tapine and Junior Paulo could effectively had wasted a year of their careers at struggling Newcastle and Parramatta had the Raiders not offered a lifeline.
Tapine was told to train on his own by Newcastle when he told them he had signed with Canberra from 2017 onward, and eventually he was released early to play for the Raiders this year.
"I'll be pinching myself if I was at any team in the top four and looking towards finals, but at the moment we've just got to take it game by game," Tapine said. "We've still got a couple of rounds to go, we're just going to put in the work for those games first."
Kurt Baptiste spent all of 2013 in Queensland Cup after he was released by the Broncos, and virtually had his bags packed for England before the Raiders came knocking.
"It seems like a while ago all that sort of thing happened [almost off to Super League from Brisbane]. I'm just really happy to be a part of this side at the moment. We're going pretty well," Baptiste said.
"We'll just work on improving each week and look forward to the next few games and then the finals series."