The second-stringers are nipping at the heels of Canberra’s under-fire NRL stars with coach Ricky Stuart showing he won’t be afraid to wield the axe if his side’s slump continues.
Out-of-form hooker Danny Levi has been dropped to the bench in favour of Tom Starling while prop Emre Guler has been left out of the 17 following Canberra’s miserable 48-24 defeat to Wests Tigers.
It’s been a different story for the Raiders’ NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg sides, who are second and first in their respective competitions.
Winger Albert Hopoate and debutant Jordan Martin have been rewarded for their impressive NSW Cup performances by Stuart, called up to first grade for Saturday’s clash with the league-leading Melbourne Storm.
Veteran prop Josh Papalii admitted even he could feel the pressure from the reserves.
“Those boys are playing well and it keeps the older blokes on their toes a bit more,” he said.
“Sticky (Stuart) has obviously changed a few this weekend. Hopefully we can sort of gel a bit closer and play a bit better and get our season back on track, but credit to the NSW Cup boys and the Flegg boys.”
The fresh faces will hope to light a fire under the Raiders but the senior players will need to change something fast with their season sliding quickly away from them.
As worrying as the results have been, even more concerning are the performances.
Canberra have found themselves trailing in six of their last eight games after leaking tries early and were insipid against the Tigers and in their 34-16 loss to North Queensland the week prior.
Stuart chastised his side for lacking mental toughness after their latest defeat, which was echoed by second-rower Hudson Young.
“The way that we’ve been playing over the last two weeks, we haven’t been tough or resilient,” he said.
“We haven’t been defending our errors and probably looking for the easy way out and looking for a quick fix rather than digging deep, what we’ve built this club on.
“That’s the way that we’re going to try and get back into it and get the win this week.”
Young, who is back in the Raiders squad after being snubbed by NSW Blues coach Michael Maguire for State of Origin game II, said the side had been guilty of trying to force passes and failed to finish their sets well.
“And that comes down to us (forward) boys not putting them in the right position to put a good kick away and that’s something that we’re trying to work on now and make sure that we get better and build that toughness back.”
By Jacob Shteyman in Canberra
