Canberra skipper Jarrod Croker stops short of describing the Raiders’ NRL grand-final match-up against the Sydney Roosters as a battle between the haves and have-nots, but he’s happy to claim popular sentiment for his side.
Sunday’s season-decider at ANZ Stadium shapes as a classic battle between contrasting clubs and teams.
One one side are the blue-blood Roosters, from Sydney’s rich eastern suburbs, a sleek football machine appearing in their eighth grand final since the Raiders last appeared in one 25 years ago.
Their title defence is steered by retirement-bound Cooper Cronk, arguably the greatest finals player in the game’s history, and James Tedesco, widely considered the best player in the world.
On the other are Ricky Stuart’s Raiders, a patched-together combination of country boys, discards, discount signings and savvy Englishmen, who’ve gelled into a formidable attacking and defensive force.
Stuart’s coaching has been questioned at times in his career, but he’s silenced most as his team finished fourth before knocking off minor premiers Melbourne and South Sydney to reach the title decider.
For years they struggled to attract top-line players and just five years ago Tedesco famously backed out of a deal to join the Raiders.
So Stuart and Raiders management turned to some creative recruiting to pull together their grand-final team.
Among them are players from all corners including England (John Bateman, Josh Hodgson, Elliott Whitehead), park rugby union (Jordan Rapana) and cut-price signings from other clubs (Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad).
No one represents the spirit of the Raiders better than co-skipper Croker, a country boy from Goulburn who has never considered leaving during a fine 11-season career, such is his love for the lime-green jersey.
Asked if he believed most league fans outside of Sydney’s eastern suburbs would get behind the Raiders, Croker was confident.
“I reckon they will,” he said.
“We’ve got a strong following in Sydney, if you look at our games we’ve got a lot of fans based there.
“Queensland – we’ve always had a big following there since Mal (Meninga) and (Gary Belcher) Badge way back in the early 90s. Papa (Josh Papalii) is from up there and plays for Queensland.
“We have a real strong connection outside of Canberra. A lot of the country towns through NSW, we’ve got a lot of country boys and we’re a bit of a country club.”
For their part, the Roosters are typically focused and single-minded as they attempt to become the first side to successfully defend their title since 1993 – a feat which has only been achieved once in the salary cap era.
They have boasted the best attack in the competition – scoring the most points (25.8 per game), making the most metres (1497 per game) and the most linebreaks (5.6 per game) – and head in as $1.30 favourites with the bookies.
While jibes about their “salary sombrero” and unfounded insinuations of unfair advantage have dogged the Roosters for years, they’re unworried.
“That’s fine, it doesn’t change how we go about our week or our preparation,” Roosters captain Boyd Cordner said, when asked if the Raiders were sentimental favourites.
The gulf between the two sides is demonstrated by the fact the Roosters have only three players in their 17 – Angus Crichton, Sam Verrills and Nat Butcher – who have not appeared in a grand final.
While only one Raiders player – Joey Leilua with the Roosters in 2010 – has appeared on NRL grand-final day.
The match boasts superstar match-ups all over the park.
Latrell Mitchell takes on Leilua in the battle of two of the game’s most powerful centres.
Nicoll-Klokstad takes on the man who was supposed to be wearing the Raiders No.1 jumper in Tedesco.
But there are none better than the heavyweight battle between superstar Raiders prop Papalii and fiery Roosters talisman Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
“With Canberra, they’re big and physical, it was a hell of a game that (Papalii) put on (in their preliminary final win over the Rabbitohs),” Waerea-Hargreaves said.
“For us, it’s not worrying about an individual, if you narrow your focus you lose your plan on what you want to do.”