Mar 25 2020

In the beginning … there was Gerry de la Cruz who scored the first try in the Raiders' first game, a 37-7 loss to South Sydney at Redfern Oval.

There followed in the roll-call such foundation men as Western Suburbs wild-man Jon McLeod, the club's first captain, David Grant, and Ryan Hoffman’s dad Jay, a Queenslander who played hooker and whose head looked every part of his 111 games.

And they were our boys, these inaugural Canberra Raiders, and they were towelled up pretty much every week.

But they got better. And better. And by 1987 after mighty Mal Meninga came from Queensland and brought so many of his kind with him, including a long skinny coach called Wayne Bennett, the club knew a dynasty among the greatest outside the ’66 Saints’.

And now they’re crackers again, the mighty Green Machine, and it pains a man we can’t see ‘em go around.

However... while old mate Cyrus can curtail our freedom, he cannot take our stories. And so here, for no reason other than it’s a pleasing mental exercise, is my greatest ever Raiders XIII, plus four reserves, trainer and coach, and a couple blokes I like.

And as Jules Winfield said to the young fellow before popping so many caps in his bottom, I allow you to retort.

1. Brett Mullins.





Of course! The great Gary Belcher has claims, and chances are he’d be No.1 in most types’ teams. Because no winger could fail to profit outside the great Badge of Queensland. Sean Hoppe played for New Zealand because of Gary Belcher. Just a great, great player, G.Belcher, he took the crown from Gary Jack. But Brett Mullins could run like a southerly wind. How about Mullins. You can hear Ray Warren in your head: Mullins! MULLINS! I remember a game against Canterbury at Bruce, Nigel Vagana made an intercept and bolted 90 metres. And he could go, Nigel Vagana. And Mullins came fair dinkum flying from the diametrically opposite wing and ran him down. It was like watching a human greyhound running upright. It was magnificent.

2. Noa Nadruku





Gotta love a bloke who he thinks he may be a horse. How about that hoppy step of old mate Noa’s? The leaping. The gait. The high knees into the tackle that would not be allowed today. He was a hard critter, Noa Nadruku. Fijian bush muscle.

3. Jarrod Croker.

Best thing out of Goulburn since the first drive-through Macca’s. And little chance of him being banned from the town like his larrikin mate Todd Carney. Super centre who needed another 10 kilograms to play State of Origin. State’s loss, Canberra’s gain. Has played 258 games, second all-time. Just turned 29. Already an ornament.

4. Mal Meninga.

The great man. Trampled David Trewhella in the preliminary final of 1987. Cried on blokes’ shoulders after the grand final of 1989. And in his last first grade game took an intercept, shrugged off Jarrod McCracken and punched his mighty arm-guard into the sky like Viv Richards raising the SS Jumbo after a ton. Big Mal had presence. When he walked the streets of Canberra people looked at him, and said, Look over there, it’s Big Mal, walking on these very streets. And now I must look at him. Because he appears to command it. Because, and say it in your best Rabs, Mal Meninga is deadset royalty.

5. Jordan Rapana.

Yes, yes, yes, Kenny Nagas. Of course! John Ferguson. Mayhap Nick Cotric. And cool your jets, Phil Carey, Sean Hoppe, Blake Ferguson and Angel Marina fans, for sure those people have claims. Well, no they don’t. But you know. Regardless! The things Jordan Rapana did in concert with his mad mate BJ Leilua were – prime your best Ray Warren again – deadset scintillating. I love the bloke. I hope he comes back from Japan better. Not sure how that might happen but … I dunno. Perhaps he’ll learn karate or something. Or kendo. Or … sushi. Oasfldasjfasjfkadsjfkl;adjskld;f. Just come home, son. Come home.

6. Laurie Daley

I’m four days younger than Laurie, and when he turned up and played for Canberra aged 17 it was like I was playing for the Raiders. You could wonder what it would be like, aged 17, to be playing for the actual Canberra Raiders against Cronulla Sharks at Endeavour Field against Gavin Miller and Dane Sorensen and Jon Docking and all those guys from the Scanlen’s gum cards. And you wouldn’t know because you could never be that good at footy. And that’d be a fair epitaph for Laurie Daley: that good at footy.

7. Ricky Stuart

Ricky Stuart came from rugby union and did things Wally Lewis couldn’t do. Ricky Stuart could throw a wombat across Queanbeyan. He could launch the old leather Steeden like it was shot out a cannon. He’s not in the pantheon with Andrew Johns and Johnathan Thurston. He’s on the next rung down, with Sterling, Cronk, Alexander, Holman, Smith, all the greats. And he’s a top fellah, too, and all the haters can, well, they can fuck off.

8. Glenn Lazarus

I always said – and it wasn’t like I was discovering that Earth had another moon or something – but Glenn Lazarus would play for Australia. And did he what. He’s in Teams of the Century, all those. An absolute belter of a front-rower. How about all his premierships. How about the one with Melbourne Storm in ’99, the tinny prick. Man was further gone than Ray LIndwall, yet there he was doing cartwheels after Jamie Ainscough’s coat-hanger went No.1 in the the Best XIII dramatic ways to finish a grand final. (To that end, got a list in you, sports fan? Write us, we'll publish it, and all the pretty pics.)

9. Steve Walters.

The great Boxhead. Simply, a winner. Revolutionised the role of hooker. Begat the descriptor “hooker-forward”. Still the best of his kind. If Jake Trbojevic was a hooker, he'd be Boxhead Walters.

10. Sam Backo

For a decent part of 1988, Sam Backo was the best player in the world. Well, after Wally Lewis. And Allan Langer. And Mick O’Connor. And Gene Miles. And a host of other players. But he was the best front-rower, for sure. And so good was he at hitting the line off a tap kick with his great rolling gait that he played for Australia. I remember a game at Seiffert Oval against the Bulldogs, and Paul Dunn and Peter Tunks fair dinkum sprinted at him. It was kamikaze stuff. The collisions were unbelievable. And the Dogs won 8-nil pretty much solely because of it.

11.John Bateman

How about him, the mad Pommy bastard. Bateman is a man who just … does things. And he does them … oddly. You see Poms come out and they do things a little differently. Andy Gregory used to play the ball with his heel. Kevin Ward’s shorts would get lost in his groin. And Ellery Hanley had such a funny, odd, stuttering, highly-effective, cross-field running style that he carved up everyone in the ’88 finals series, and Matt Johns named his dog Ellery because it had an odd gait. And Matt Johns played against Ellery Hanley once, and Ellery towelled him up and after the game they shook hands and Ellery asked Matt Johns, “’ow’s Ellery?” And all that’s a roundabout way of saying that John Bateman is like Ellery Hanley: an all-action back-rower who does things opponents have never seen.

12.David Furner

For years at Bruce Stadium local bookies would offer good odds about forwards being first try-scorer. And this bloke – whom I first saw playing fullback for Queanbeyan Whites as Terry Campese’s cousin David once had – scored first often enough that it became a Noted Thing. This is why he nudges the still under-rated tackle hound Gary Coyne out of the second-row.

13. Brad Clyde

Like our Loz, Clydey was in my year at school. Few years later we lived in the same street – he in a gleaming palace funded by Super League; me with three mates renting in a drunken man-dungeon. Once saw Clydey playing for Hawker High in the Commonwealth Bank Cup and he ran like a magnificent golden horse. He was unbelievable. He was less than a year from playing first grade and carving up. And he ran through those grasping schoolboys like a horse through wheat. For years Wayne Pearce was considered the quintessential lock. Clyde came in and made him look like Stan Jurd.

14. Josh Hodgson

Love this bloke. Just a bloody beauty. Some games I just watch him. Not in a creepy, stalky way. Or is it? We may never know. Regardless, it’s instructive and enjoyable to just focus on the play of one guy. He’s like the best rugby union halfbacks with the toughness of a middle man in league. There’s something about the Poms. They are hard people, and good.

15. Gary Belcher

You have to put him in somewhere. But others would say you'd have to put Kevin Walters or Blake Austin in too. So I dunno. Badge can come off the bench in my team. Got a team? Write it down and let us know. We'll publish it here. And not just Raiders. Your best Dragons, Eels, Maitland Pumpkin Pickers. Give us a shout.

16. Ruben Wiki

There’s hard. There’s rock hard. And there’s double-strength platinum they use on the space shuttle hard. And then there is Ruben Wiki’s thigh muscles. Harder than a maths test in that movie with Matt Damon. Ruben Wiki played every position on the field except halfback, I think, but he probably played there too and I can’t be arsed going through Rugby League Project to find out. But how about Ruben Wiki. I remember looking over the fence at him at Bruce, on the wing in his in his first game outside all the superstars and thinking, Who’s this stubby little man and what has Tim Sheens done? And then Ruben started belting blokes. And you knew: do not question Tim Sheens ever again.

17. John Lomax

Bloody close to getting a start in the front-row (just as Josh Papalii just missed the 17) but will be playing long fantasy minutes in this team’s game in Heaven against the ’66 Saints. Because, Johnny Lomax, well – what a belter. An old-fashioned bloody belter. And whoever was scouting about New Zealand to find Lomax, Wiki and the late great Quentin Pongia dinkum deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Or something I dunno, a hearty handshake and the heartfelt thanks of all at Raiders nation. Top stuff, scoutman.

Coach: Don Furner.

Yes, Tim Sheens had the greatest success. But it sprang from the well dug by this bloke. A good man in a woolly jumper.

Trainer: Brian Bourke

Only bloke I couldn't find a picture of. There was a statue of him in the lobby of Queanbeyan Leagues, and I can't find a pic of it either. Give us a shout if you've got one. But Bourkie remains a legendary figure in the inter-Monaro. It was rumoured he’d jog 30km from Tuggeranong before running the Raiders ragged in his infamous “Mad Hours”. Apparently Big Mal lobbied to brush him because the players were too rooted to do ball-work. “Bourkie” then came to my footy club and made people do “Bourkies” which made many people vomit.

The Clubman: Sia Soliola

Canberra’s had a few of these. Terry Campese, Alan Tongue, Gary Coyne, Dean Lance. Dane Tilse played 200 games. So did Chris O’Sullivan. Jason “Toots” Croker still holds the club record 318 first grade games. And all these guys bled every week, and left it all on the park for the club and the colours. And Iosia “Rodney” Soliola continues that tradition. A left-field recruitment choice by coach Stuart at the time, it’s turned out inspired. Men follow Rodney and do what he does. And he does good things. He’s like one of those Influencers, except a person.

The Old Boy: Ron Giteau

Had a yarn with the great Ronnie (above right) for a story about his son Matt who was playing for the Wallabies, and somehow got talking about his early adoption of “round-the-corner” kicking. And old Ron told me, and it’s funny what you remember, that he’d practice goal-kicking after training by mucking around with the boys and drinking tinnies. And the simple fun of it spoke to me, for it was sport for no other reason than it's fun.

Got a Best XIII? Email it to sports@northernbeachessportstribune.com.au and we’ll publish it in these very pages.



