Green Machine becomes the dream team
BY JOHN-PAUL MOLONEY
His team has been threatened with a wooden spoon more times than a ratbag child.
Workman-like, gutsy but lacking star power, the Canberra Raiders of the recent past haven't been premiership contenders in any but the greenest of eyes.
So how did team captain Alan Tongue feel in late 2006 when the NRL asked him to join 15 club captains and raise the premiership trophy for a TV commercial aimed at giving every fan hope?
Did he feel like an imposter? Did he feel unworthy to put fingerprints on the latest version of a trophy the great Mal Meninga raised in 1989, 1990 and 1994?
Not at all.
The much-respected Raiders leader Tongue, who drew special praise from Meninga at the club's awards night on Wednesday, recalled this week the rush of excitement he felt lifting the heavy trophy for the first time, even if it was just for show.
''I just felt 'imagine what it would be like if this was us come October and I'm in this situation','' Tongue said.
''Imagine what it would be like for the rest of my teammates, for my family, for the fans who've been so loyal and supported us through thick and thin, especially since I've been here.
''It's been a huge rollercoaster of rebuilding, coming and going players and coaches in the last few years.
''All those thoughts go through your mind. The promotion only went for a couple of hours, but that's all right, you dream while you can and then you hook back into training.''
Tongue's premiership dream last year was well and truly extinguished by October as the team finished the season third from last. This year though it is burning brighter than ever, even if it's still a humble flame against those of rivals Melbourne and Manly.
But their $34 premiership odds prove few think they can go any deeper than week two.
Coach Neil Henry said, ''We certainly don't feel we've overachieved. We've played the football we're capable of playing and we need to step it up and be more than a nuisance value in the finals, which there's a perception is all we'll be.''
The most heart-warming thing about this Raiders finals charge, the thing that has made outsiders stop and admire them for the first time in a long while, is the modest quality of the roster.
They have just one 2008 State of Origin player, Joel Monaghan, and one former player, Neville Costigan. There are no Australian representatives.
The one player with the biggest long-term rep hopes, Todd Carney, has been banished from the club and the league. Injuries have whittled the squad down to its barest number a mob massaged, iced and strapped together each week.
Yet if you ask Tongue, there's a lot to be said for a depleted, no-star team.
Managing and leading it on the field is easier for one thing. It knows it has to stick together and can't rely on a handful of gamebreakers.
And a lack of big-name players and the accompanying egos has also helped keep the Raiders together off the field, particularly in this, one of the club's toughest years.
Henry's shock decision to exit his contract early at season's end rocked the club in April. Outsiders feared Henry's authority would fail and the team would flounder, but coaches and players stayed true to their course.
Then in July, Carney and Bronx Goodwin were stood down for alcohol-related incidents, eventually leading to poster boy Carney's sacking.
Incredibly, losing its best player for good seemed to harden the team's resolve.
Not that Tongue pretends it was easy.
''There's no doubt [the Henry and Carney episodes] were very difficult. You can't just say 'we moved on' because there were decisions made that didn't sit well with a lot of people,'' Tongue said.
Henry has endured a season of contrasts he was the unofficial public enemy No 1 among Raiders faithful after his decision to leave, then this week named NRL Coach of the Year.
Proud of getting his team where it is today, when Henry talks about how the group got through a season punctuated by tension and turmoil he uses the word ''honesty'' a lot.
Asked if the word was a euphemism for harsh words behind closed doors, the North Queensland-bound coach laughed and gave his qualified agreement.
''You don't profess to know all there is to know about rugby league and you don't always get it right,'' Henry said.
''The thing is admitting when you don't get it right or reacting to criticism and feedback. As long as you do that you go a long way to getting results out of players.''
In terms of attack, the Raiders' results have been spectacular and another endearing quality of their campaign.
Led by surging talent and five-eighth Campese, the Raiders finished the season with their second best home-and-away points tally (640), behind the 677 scored by the 1994 premiership team.
This year's season average 26.6 points per game ranks in the top five in Raiders history, taking into account the extra two games played compared to the 22-match seasons of the 1990s.
Henry said the attacking freedom shown late in the season wasn't the result of risking all as injuries and the odds against them stacked up.
''It's taken us a while to play this style,'' Henry said.
''We tried to play like this last year but we just didn't have the ball control. We haven't just said 'let's throw the ball around'. We're playing a style that we think can test opposition lines.''
Henry said he saw similarities between the Raiders of 2008 and North Queensland teams of three and four years ago. Henry was an assistant coach when the Cowboys made the finals in 2004 and then the grand final in 2005 and he will take charge of the team from next season.
''We probably don't have the gamebreakers here like the [Matt] Bowens and [Johnathan] Thurstons,'' Henry said.
''But certainly we're a hard-working team and in our own right players like Terry Campese and Colin Best and Joel Monaghan are up there with the best in terms of linebreaks and creating opportunities.''
Henry's assistant coach and incoming head coach David Furner saw similarities with an earlier vintage contender the last Raiders premiership team, in which he won the Clive Churchill medal for best player on ground.
''I see the same kind of enjoyment among the players of going out and playing with one another and that's a massive thing,'' Furner said.
''If you stand side-by-side and look at the players around you and feel confident in them, you're on your way. I see that kind of confidence in the players and I think the club atmosphere is the same as it was back in 1994.''
Tongue, the fan's favourite who finally received national recognition this week when he was named Captain of the Year and Lock of the Year at the Dally M awards, hasn't hitched his premiership belief to any previous team, not even the Wests Tigers of 2005 whose run to the title was a triumph for the underdog.
But there are parallels.
The Tigers had almost no representative experience, had been written off by bookmakers before and during the season, had made their charge into the top eight in the last 10 weeks of the season and were then richly rewarded at the Dally M awards, where Tim Sheens won Coach of the Year and Scott Prince Captain of the Year.
While he's allowed himself to dream a little this week, the realist in Tongue knows that bleeding 81 points in the last three games is a reality check for the Raiders.
''We've talked about the fact that we need to be far better than we've been. There's no illusions there,'' Tongue said.
So what then is Tongue's inspiration? What sustains his dream of lifting the NRL trophy for real after doing it for show two years ago?
''I'm drawing on the positive things we've done this year to get us where we are,'' he said.
''It's about working hard, being committed to the game plan and the style we're playing.
''And really, look what we've come through. Look at what's got us here.
''Let's hold onto that and take it into the finals and get through.''
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/lo ... 71580.aspx
- just a feeling...
I cannot wait for Jaycar to return. 
