“They have let slip a huge opportunity.”
Following the heartbreaking defeat at the hands of the Broncos, the Canberra Raiders will have to defy history if they’re to win this year’s grand final.
An NRL legend doesn’t believe they can.
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Since the top eight was introduced in 1995, no minor premier who lost in Week 1 of the subsequent finals series has ever gone onto win the grand final that season.
That doesn’t include the 1998 Brisbane Broncos as that season, in what was the inaugural year of the newly formed NRL, the finals series included ten teams, not eight.
The 2008 Melbourne Storm were the closest, but come the day of the decider, an exhausting finals campaign had clearly taken its toll as they were belted 40-0 by Manly.
Finishing the 2025 regular season atop the table, the Raiders fell to the Broncos 29-28 on Sunday in a game labelled “one of the best finals of all time”.
Canberra not only coughed up a 16 point lead but thought they had won the game twice before the Bunker overturned two decisions to save the Broncos.
Ben Hunt then kicked a 94th minute field goal to deliver an unlikely Broncos win.
“It will be a big job for (Raiders coach) Ricky Stuart. It’s unprecedented,” Fox League’s Braith Anasta said.
“He kissed his players on the bench and celebrated like they won two or three times.”
Broncos beat Raiders in ALL-TIME CLASSIC | 04:15
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While history suggests the Raiders’ premiership hopes are all but over, it’s on their side when it comes to this weekend’s semi-final against Cronulla.
In a stat that should worry Sharks fans, only one minor premier has gone out in straight sets – the 2009 Dragons.
However, the difference between the Raiders and the other five minor premiers who have lost in Week 1 of the finals (since 1995), is that those sides weren’t coming off a 94-minute game that had as many twists and turns as a rollercoaster.
Multiple premiership winning halfback Cooper Cronk is pretty confident the Sharks will get the job done on Saturday night.
Not so much because he thinks the Sharks are a better team, but due to the mental and physical toll the Broncos loss would have had on the Raiders.
“In my opinion, they had to win yesterday to be a chance to win the Grand Final. I think they’re going to struggle to bounce back from that,” Cronk told foxsports.com.au.
“Can they win this weekend? Obviously, they can. But it is physical, it is mental, it is spiritual, it is all the things that you need.
“Ricky Stuart is the one guy that’s probably been in their shoes over the history of his playing career and coaching career. So he’s going to have to pull out all that magic dust to get it done.
“But look, if you put me on the spot, I think the Sharks probably win.”
In response to Matty Johns opining that “it’ll be hard” for the Raiders to get up again for their semi, club legend Bradley Clyde was defiant.
“Ricky’s prepared the team for the last sort of six weeks, training a little bit harder for this finals series so physically they’ll be fine but mentally they’re going to have to reset and have a couple of days off after this game and charge into the next game,” Clyde said on Sunday Night with Matty Johns.
Stuart was asked in the Raiders’ post-game press conference how he plans to rally his troops for their semi-final in six days.
Stuart his confident his young team has the mental fortitude to put Sunday’s loss in the rear view and focus on their next opponent.
After all, a grand final spot is still the goal.
“I’ve got to get them up and we’ve spoken about that. If you’re not hurting now, you shouldn’t be doing the job. We dust ourselves off and go again,” Stuart said.
“We’ve won games like that this year too, you’ve got to remember that. There’s been a number of games we’ve won like that.
“We’ve got to be professional enough to have a day off tomorrow and we’ll get going again.
“We have a strong resolve. It (the loss) doesn’t increase it, we’ve just got to deal with the hard way now.”
Veteran journalist Phil Rothfield revealed on Monday night’s episode of NRL360 that he spoke to Stuart after the crushing loss and before the club’s end-of-year awards ceremony that night.
“He’s going to walk into that presentation on Monday night, he’s going to be upbeat and he’s going to pick those young boys off the canvas, the disappointment of yesterday and they’re going to rock up on Saturday and that game against Cronulla will be a colossal game,” Rothfield said.
“He will not give up.”
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