Canberra Raiders

Abandoning the political crusade

The Raiders were established in 1982. Green and white was used to reflect the colours of Hall, the first rugby league team in the district. Blue and gold are the colours of the ACT.

Names considered for its moniker included Senators, Capitols and Warrigals. However the new club wanted to move away from traditional names and so, perhaps inspired by the LA Raiders in the American gridiron league, settled on Raiders.

The club reached the height of its popularity in 1989 when it defeated Balmain in what many people consider to be the best Grand Final ever. Post match celebrations united the Canberra community and Rugby League clearly asserted itself as Canberra's most popular code.

With success, however, came corruption of the ideal. In 1995, the club helped establish Rupert Murdoch's Super League, a rebel competition that excluded the traditional ARL clubs. To justify the defection, the Raiders made some moral argument that it was a victim fighting for the future of Rugby League. But the people of Canberra were not mindless sheep and easily saw that the Raiders only wanted to take a greater share of pay TV and television revenue. Crowd support evaporated and with the establishment of the Brumbies union team, Canberra had a new team to follow.

Although crowd numbers at Raiders games have increased from around 50 or so at the height of the Super League war, many Canberreans still consider a Raider's game about as stimulating as John Howard hosting a slide show of his crazy crazy university years.

To win back some fans, the club has listened closely to a few of the local politicians and got involved in some more political campaigns. Recently, it changed its jumper for a game to raise awareness of Aboriginal disadvantage. Presumably, the club believed that no Australians were aware of Aboriginal disadvantage and so possessed the misleading stereotype that Aborigines have been living an idyllic lifestyle away from prisons, petrol sniffing, low life expectancy, high infant mortality and high unemployment.

Perhaps instead of reinforcing negative stereotypes, the club could have done something positive and recruited more Aboriginal players that could become positive role models. Perhaps they could have even followed the lead of Richmond and Essendon who have celebrated Aboriginal achievement. Sadly, the nature of politicians is to be negative. As the Raiders work in the political environment, they have unfortunately developed a negative culture as well.

Roy Morgan research

2004 - When compared to other NRL supporters

• 68% more likely than the average person to vote for the Australian Democrats;
• 19% more likely than the average person to say they would rather clean than cook any day;
• 32% more likely than average to have drunk scotch whisky in the last four weeks;
• 15% more likely than the average person to say that freedom is more important than the law.

2006 - When compared to other NRL supporters

• 26% more likely to have a degree or diploma
• 37% more likely to be a manager
• 58% more likely to believe that computers and technology give them more control over their life
• 20% more likely to have difficulty coping with a demanding job or career
• 22% more likely to believe that a percentage of everyone's income should go to charities
• 37% more likely to believe terrorists deserve the same rights as other criminals
• 54% more likely to feel comfortable giving their credit card details over the phone
• 30% more likely to have bought fresh flowers in the last three months
• 54% more likely to have bought something over the internet in the last three months
• 33% more likely to have been to a short course, seminar, convention or public lecture in the last three months

IconS

• Mal Meninga - Big outside centre with huge eyebrows. One of the few men able to lift the old Winfield Cup above his head. Showed great loyalty to Canberra throughout his career.
• Chika Ferguson - Evergreen winger who scored the try that took the 1989 Grand Final into extra time.
• Laurie Daley - Had a huge gonzo style nose. Played plenty of games for NSW and Australia, but was usually injured for club games.
• Ricky Stuart - Crossed from union and became a star with unpredictable play.
• Garry Belcher - Wiry fullback with Ned Flanders mustouche.

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