The Raiders should have woken up this morning right up to their eyeballs in a battle to make the finals. Instead, they are now resigned to the fact that their fortunes lay hugely out of their hands after yet another late game fade out.
Leading 16-0 at half time, and then 22-12 with 15 minutes to go, the victory song should have been sung, the Green Machine should be within striking distance of the finals, and the Broncos should be waking up nervous.
Instead, the Broncos have moved six points clear of the Raiders in eighth. If the Tigers lose their Sunday afternoon fixture, the top eight is all but settled.
The Raiders best bet of salvaging their season now rests in finding a bargain deal on Wotif for their Mad Monday celebrations in Bali or somewhere similar.
As much as I jest, the Raiders seriously only have themselves to blame after again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
I could fill pages and pages with recounts of the games the Raiders probably should have won but threw away, but I can sum it all in one simple paragraph;
The Raiders run to an early lead, enjoy all the momentum and score some brilliant tries. The forwards tire, the halves make silly errors, outside backs miss tackles, and the Raiders ultimately get over run and lose it late on. Ricky Stuart walks away in disgust ... and repeat.
And repeat. Repeat. Repeat. ALWAYS REPEAT!!!
The sign of a good side is not the ability to put 60 on a side every now and then. It certainly isn't winning the odd game in blow out fashion.
The sign of a good side is being able to win games when you're not playing well. Especially close games.
With that said, this Raiders side is not a good side.
That sounds funny to read back as this side is capable of putting a mammoth score on any side on any given day. Unfortunately they're just as likely to turn up, complete at 50% and cause their fans to rip hair from their head.
Every time I think the Raiders have broken their late fade-out curse, they find another way to throw away a near certain two points.
It all started when they ran out to what should have been a match-winning lead against the Titans in round one. Without looking back it was something like 16 or 18 nil inside twenty minutes. From memory, they almost scored again and I remember tweeting that the Titans should start preparing for 2019. I was only half joking such was the onslaught from Canberra.
Then we all saw what would become a summation of their 2018. They lost momentum and forgot how to tackle in the final minutes, ultimately losing on the bell.
A group of Canberra fans and I were discussing the reason for this late last night. Some have genuine belief that the Raiders just don't have the mental capacity to wrestle back momentum once it is lost.
Others blame Ricky Stuarts fitness regime and sub rotation saying that the forwards are only good for 65 minutes and fall apart in the final 15. Judging by last night, it's tough to argue.
One even said the Raiders go into almost celebration mode too early, and start throwing the ball around crazy as if the game is won when leading with ten to go.
It's tough to pinpoint exactly what goes wrong but surely an experienced coach like Stuart would have an answer given this occurs almost every second or third week.
What is for sure is that Canberra's season is now all but over. Anything can happen in this funny old game but the Raiders are now three wins outside the eight. Unless Brisbane or possibly the Sharks forget how to football over the next two months, not even a perfect season from here on will see the Raiders qualify.
Given the amount of games they should have won, and the competition points they should have banked, that must be pretty frustrating for those fans wearing the famous green.
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