Copping a miracle to the face

Some closure for Bathurst

My personal feelings out of the way first, I hated it!

No one is going to feel sympathetic for me or Penrith (and nor should you), but there is something somewhat gratifying to the neutral to see the all-conquering Panthers lose to golden point tries in back to back weeks thanks to spurring individual brilliance (and in the Canberra case, not realising you can tackle the airborne player after the ball bounces).

Alas, this game was more about what we learned from Canberra because of the now six years of data points we have on this Penrith side.

So what did we learn?

If you cast your mind back to Magic Round where Canberra used all the powers of voodoo and pixie dust available to them to eke out a victory against the Melbourne Storm via the assistance of two penalties in possession by the Storm, the general consensus opinion following that game was one of a “they can’t keep getting away with it” persuasion.

At some point there’s a certain element of destiny to what Canberra is piecing together this season, between the emergence of Ethan Strange and Kaeo Weekes as legitimate superstars and lesser lights like Morgan Smithies, Zac Hosking and Simi Sasagi all stepping up into expanded roles. The pixie dust is apparently limitless.

Let’s reflect on Simi Sasagi for a moment because he’s a really appropriate microcosm of how Canberra have operated for the last decade plus. Cast your mind back to all those big money, Hollywood signings the Raiders have made.

If you thought of a name you are a liar.

Canberra operate in the margins in murky, shadowy silence, filling their roster with diamonds in the rough and unwanted workers desperate for a chance.

Kaeo Weekes found his way to Canberra due to his first grade path at Manly being blocked by the likes of Tom Trbojevic and Tolu Koula. Ethan Strange was plucked from the Roosters SG Ball side. Zac Hosking was deemed surplus to requirements at the Panthers after being dropped late in their 2023 charge to the premiership. The most famous of all these is Joseph Tapine, a mundane player swap for Mitch Barnett from the Knights all those years ago.

Much like Sasagi, an unheralded reclamation project paying the ultimate dividends.

Sasagi debuted at Newcastle in 2021, playing 17 first grade games for the Knights over the next two years before spending the entirety of 2023 in NSW Cup with no prospects of first grade football in a back row room stacked with talent like Kai Pearce-Paul, Dylan Lucas, and the aforementioned Barnett, among others.

In those 17 games, Sasagi started 14 of them from the bench as a rotational forward, with two games as a starting centre and one randomly on the wing. His signing for Canberra drew as much attention as a full sleeve tattoo on King Street in Newtown. The Newcastle to Canberra pipeline is so well trodden it makes the Silk Road look like an abandoned alleyway.

Since the start of last season Sasagi has featured 29 times for the Raiders, 19 of which came this season. He has been basically an automatic selection in the side since Round 10, with his versatility a real benefit to Ricky Stuart, allowing him to play as an edge forward, in the centres, or even in the middle if really needed.

This isn’t about Sasagi as a player though, because he’s a cog fitting seamlessly into a machine right now, a wacky machine that wouldn’t look out of place on Joseph Herscher’s YouTube channel, sure, but a functioning machine nonetheless, however insane the pulleys and levers get.

Canberra, operating in the NRL’s wilderness, only have each other. Banded together by isolation and rejection, hell hath no fury like a man scorned as the saying goes, and Canberra certainly have been playing this season like they have someone’s nose to rub in it. The high profile backflip of James Tedesco, or maybe Jack Wighton leaving for Souths to win a premiership. Has anyone checked the ladder recently?

There’s an exuberance, a swagger, and a borderline arrogance with how Canberra play, and it reminds me a lot of Penrith in 2021 when they hadn’t won the big one yet but had already begun their transformation into the NRL’s villains, starting with…a game against Canberra.

If you remember this incident, Tapine had been waiting to sub back on as Penrith scored a try right in front of him in the corner. Stephen Crichton decides Tapine should be part of the celebration and drags him in and a 21st century melee (read: nothing) eventuates. Every villain has an origin story, and while this one has taken some time to develop, it’s been years in the making.

Never forget the “Weak Gutted Dog” game, where Penrith ran a scrum play with a minute left to let Jaeman Salmon crash over to tick the score past 50 after Ricky Stuart lambasted him in a press conference due to unpaid childhood dues.

Never forget the original last minute madness game, in Bathurst in 2017, where Penrith scored two tries in the dying stages to run down Canberra and all but consign them to missing the finals. That Bathurst game still wakes up Raiders fans in cold sweats, this will go some way to exorcising those particular demons.

Canberra had been taking names all season, but they hadn’t played Penrith yet, and as much as the wins can stack up, there’s always going to be that underbelly of society that questions your credentials until you stack yourself against the best, even if the best may not be as fearsome as they once were.

Canberra’s “Miracle in Mudgee” was proof of concept for the Green Machine. It was a realisation that they can indeed go down into the gutter and fight the sewer rats. Maybe they didn’t need to prove it to themselves, but the tape is now out there for all to see.

More importantly though, it’s reassurance that sometimes all you need is a fleeting moment of brilliance to erase 82 minutes of bone crushing intensity. Penrith and Canberra played themselves to a standstill, a gladiatorial contest fit for the first weekend of October, played out at an intimate country venue like a Taylor Swift tour in 2013.

A half step, a moment’s hesitation, that’s all the clearance the great teams need to punish the opposition, and Canberra have morphed into that right before our eyes this season. It’s only flukey if it happens once and Canberra have now built up a rolodex of batshit insane finishes in 2025 that most other teams would take 15 years to fill.

Maybe it wasn’t a miracle.

Maybe it was destiny.