NRL 2018 season review: Canberra go up, down and side to side in a crazy seasons that ends where it began
NOT beating a top eight team all season then knocking over two top four sides once the season was gone is a pretty good summation of how the year went for Canberra.
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NOT beating a top eight team all season then knocking over two top four sides once the season was gone is a pretty good summation of how the year went for Canberra.
WHERE THEY FINISHED
10th
WHAT WENT WRONG?
Much like last season, close losses were the bane of Canberra’s existence. They came in many forms — collapses after running up big leads, epic fightbacks that fell short, lack of concentration in key moments, agonising late field goals, being robbed by refereeing blunders — you name it and it got Canberra at some point.
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Such was the sprawling nature of their failings it’s difficult to pinpoint a single area of deficit, but their shaky goal-line defence and poor game management from the halves goes a long way towards explaining missing the finals for a second straight year.
Until the late-season wins over Souths and the Roosters, Canberra did not defeat a top eight team all season. They ran the Sharks (x2), Panthers (x2), Broncos, Dragons and Warriors close, but could not close the deal.
Canberra falling apart when the pressure was on and lifting to heretofore unforeseen levels of defensive resolve once the season was gone is like some kind of elaborate torture from Greek mythology.
WHAT WENT RIGHT
Joey Leilua and Jordan Rapana were again excellent with Leilua was comfortably Canberra’s best player over the course of the season. As controversial or polarising as Leilua may be, his effort cannot be questioned.
Rapana missed part of the middle of the season with a hamstring injury but was stellar when fit and is still one of the best wingers in rugby league.
Joseph Tapine emerged as an equally destructive force as the year went on while Siliva Havili acquitted himself well as Josh Hodgson’s replacement and will be a valuable player for the club going forward while Hodgson himself enjoyed a great year once he returned from injury.
Special mention must be given to Josh Papalii, who totally reinvented himself after a stint in reserve grade, moving to the middle and becoming one of the best lock forwards in the NRL.
STATS THAT SUM UP THE SEASON
Canberra are the first team in competition history to score the most points and miss the finals. They also lost 11 matches by 10 points or less.
MAIN AREA THEY NEED TO IMPROVE
Winning the close games. Be it by improved fitness, better decision making or some kind of deal with the devil, Canberra need to find a way to win the close ones on a consistent basis.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE SEASON
Knocking over the Roosters and Rabbitohs in consecutive weeks once the finals were gone was frustrating, but also life-affirming.
The team had every right to roll over and give it up but played tough, committed football without their captain, halfback and fullback and beat two competition heavyweights at their own game.
The Raiders are a quality football side who through a combination of horrible luck and poor choices will miss the finals again.
But their ceiling remains very high — they have the ability to compete with the best teams in the competition on their day, but their days don’t seem to come along as they once did.
There is still plenty to build on in 2019, but Canberra must make the most of this playing group and cannot afford to squander their talents again.
LOWLIGHT OF THE SEASON
The second loss to Cronulla was a lowlight in a futile kind of way, as it seemed that even when Canberra did things right it didn’t matter because the universe had decided this season was to be a cruel and dark place.
The first loss to the Warriors was a lowlight in an inexplicable kind of way, as it still defies belief that a team can lose the way Canberra did that day, conceding a try and two field goals in a couple of minutes that simultaneously felt like they took 30 seconds and an hour.
But we’re going to have to go with the 30-28 loss to Gold Coast in the season opener. It had it all — Canberra blew a 24-6 lead to lose after a try in the final seconds when Austin failed to clean up a simple grubber — and served as a harbinger of things to come.
BIG-NAME RECRUITS
Ryan Sutton (Wigan), John Bateman (Wigan),
BIG-NAME LOSSES
Blake Austin (Warrington), Shannon Boyd (Gold Coast), Charlie Gubb (released), Junior Paulo (Parramatta)
2019: BEST POSSIBLE SCENARIO
The new Englishmen jell, Josh Hodgson has another class season, Aidan Sezer knocks it up a notch and the Raiders return to premiership contention.
2019: WORST POSSIBLE SCENARIO
Canberra continue their status as the NRL’s glass cannons and play in a host of entertaining and dramatic fixtures but lose all of them and miss the finals.
COACH SAFETY RATING
7/10. Ricky Stuart is as Canberra as leadership spills. In perhaps any other environment he would be under pressure heading into 2019 after making the finals once in five years in charge, but it’s hard to see the knives coming out unless things get totally disastrous next season.
In three of the past four seasons, the Raiders have finished 10th on the ladder. For all the hardship they went through this year, they’re roughly in the same place as 12 months ago with the same ceiling and the same flaws.
A slight roster overhaul, most notably a new-look forward pack based more on mobility than size, means a repeat of this year’s performance is unlikely, regardless of the direction they head on the ladder.
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