WHO are you calling soft, Ricky?

A week after giving his Canberra players a dressing down for failing to put the hard yards in, Ricky Stuart’s troops proved their mettle and showed just how tough they can be.

Down to 14 fit men midway through the second half, with one genuine playmaker on the field and a makeshift left flank, Canberra somehow grinded out as good a backs-to-the-wall win as you’ll see in rugby league.

Round 20

They lost back-up hooker Ata Hingano and fill-in winger Michael Oldfield to concussion in the first half. Then halfback Sam Williams left the field with a knee injury soon after half time.

By full-time the bench was empty, with Aidan Sezer picking up a knock that forced him from the field when the result was under lock and key.

MATCH CENTRE: Raiders v Bulldogs

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The Raiders had run out of interchanges with almost 20 minutes left on the game clock.

They had a centre playing on the wing. They had a prop playing in the halves, and a backrower at centre.

Still, none of it mattered to the Raiders, whose desperation to win was manifest in their aggression in defence and tenacity in attack.

In the opening four games of the season — all of which they lost — Canberra seemed happy to roll over and let sides beat them in the dying stages.

Not this week. Not after Stuart delivered an all-time spray towards his players following last week’s loss to Manly.

Stuart said the players should feel “embarrassed” to pull on the famous Raiders strip.

They won’t be embarrassed to wear the colours this week.

Aidan Sezer stepped up in light of the injury plague, laying on two superb try assists with his left boot to captain Jarrod Croker in the second half, who had been forced to the wing himself to cover for the personnel losses.

And while some of their work was pretty to watch, most of it was tough, and it was ugly.

They missed 30 tackles, but the ones that stuck certainly rocked the Bulldogs players.

The Raiders had less possession than their opposition, and they could only complete 76 per cent of their sets.

But a win’s a win, and the fans will take it.

Ricky’s blow-up had the desired effect. Now they’ve got to bring it every week for the rest of the season.

CONCUSSIONS GALORE

The sideline doctors had a busy night monitoring the screens at GIO Stadium.

Four players were sent for head injury assessments in the first half, with two essentially immediately ruled out.

Brett Morris was the victim of an unfortunate Jordan Rapana boot to the face as he tried to make a trysaving tackle. He failed his HIA.

Then Raiders lost Luke Bateman to the test, and Ata Hingano and Michael Oldfield followed soon after.

Hingano and Oldfield were immediately ruled out after copping sickening head knocks in the defensive line.

Luckily, Bateman returned after half time.

THE REPORT

Canberra went so close to open the scoring after just a couple of minutes when Michael Oldfield chased through a Sam Williams kick.

But Oldfield spilt the loose ball with no one between he and the tryline.

Canterbury then had a glut of possession inside their attacking 20 metres but couldn’t pierce the defence.

The Raiders made them pay, with Jordan Rapana making a 90 metre break and then Joey Leilua finishing it off to score the first points of the night.

The entire play was set up by fill-in fullback Nick Cotric, who scooped the loose ball in his own in-goal and produced some magic to put Rapana away on the wing.

To make matters worse for the Dogs, winger Brett Morris copped a Rapana boot in the face when trying to tackle and had to leave the field. He later failed his HIA and was gone for the game.

It didn’t take long for the Raiders to strike again, this time with Rapana and Leilua combining to capitalise on an Aidan Sezer chip to their wing.

Croker’s sideline conversion made it 12-0 after 16 minutes.

The Raiders continued to attack as the Dogs held on by the skin of their teeth.

Then things went from bad to worse when Canterbury centre Josh Morris suffered an injury to his right leg.

He bravely chose to stay on the field, given his brother was already ruled out for the night.

Then Canberra lost Ata Hingano — who had only just come on the field to play at hooker — when he got his head in a terrible position and got collected by a charging Greg Eastwood.

Hingano was in a bad way and could not return to the action.

Then Canberra lost winger Oldfield to concussion as well, when he collected the knee of Marcelo Montoya.

It meant Ricky Stuart had to make some desperate changes. He put Elliott Whitehead at left centre and shifted Jarrod Croker to the wing.

It took until the 53rd minute for the next points to be scored and they came through the Bulldogs.

Kieran Foran sliced through a gap to get his side on the board and give them some hope.

Then the Raiders lost their halfback Sam Williams to a leg injury and the home side was down to 14 fit men.

But mit mattered not, as Sezer placed a perfect chip kick to sit up for Croker who sprinted through and collected the pill to score.

The conversion made it 18-6.

Then it was Croker again who crossed the stripe a few minutes later to extend the lead even further.

Fox Sports commentators noted Croker may have missed his calling as a winger. It was Sezer’s left boot that again provided the assist.

The score was 24-6 and out of reach of the Bulldogs.

To cap off the night, the Raiders lost Sezer to a HIA in the dying minutes, so they finished the game with no bench.