more wanderings

After the travels I mentioned in my previous post, in reality I should have come home, worked hard on saving, reducing costs, planning the trips later this year.

But the road beckoned. Mum and Dad told me they had some guests, my auntie, uncle and cousin, so I popped down to Bega for just over a day.

The word was they were going to take a trip to Mumbulla Falls (pictured) in the morning, so I got up quite early, and I had hit the road by 6am. Midway along I got a call from Mum seeing if I had left yet, and I told her I'd be there in an hour.

Our access to the falls was blocked about 1km from the normal place, with a tree across the road. This was after a meandering cow had blocked our way further back on the track. Welcome to the country.

Once we got there, the water was crystal clear. I had been planning to probably not go in, but once we got there, the sun was up, the water looked good, and the slide had plenty of water running through it. I dipped my hand in the water, it was pretty sharp, but we'd come on an adventure, so I went in for a few jumps.

Although we had the whole place to ourselves, we didn't spend too long in the water, as it was freezing. The afternoon we spent watching my mum play in this wildlife park, Potaroo Palace, on the road to Merimbula. She was playing for quite some time, so I was checking the tweets once the Raiders game started. Things weren't looking good when we drove back into town.

However the Green Machine put on 24 points in 9 minutes, and the game was into golden point. Too bad they lost that, but that was a great 9 minutes. If you had that to the 22 minutes against the Cowboys before losing Dugan and Campo in the space of 8 minutes, you're getting towards a decent half of footy. What a disappointing season this year has been. Maybe next year...

We were talking about a sunrise beach mission the next morning, but the more we talked about it, the less appealing it became, so the next morning I hit the road back home. The day I left we got a new housemate back in, but apparently I missed a good night to miss, and by the time I was back, that feller was a distant memory already.

A few days later I was on the road again. I was actually meant to go to Malaysia last weekend, but plans had to be changed at the last minute. My flights to Malaysia were from Melbourne anyway, so I decided I'd head down there for the weekend.

On arrival at the airport, the jokers at Qantas laughed in my face and told me I booked my flight for the day before. One of a string of stuff ups recently, but I wasn't going to let that stop me, so I rushed into a taxi, got to the Jolimont for the 8:45 to Narrandera. A change and sometime in the middle of the night, we were off to Melbourne. With the sun just starting to think about coming up, I was there.

After a lunch at Crossways, one of those Hare Krishna joints, I wandered around the NGV. Although Victoria is not its own nation, there are not one but two National Gallery of Victoria. There was a cool Everfresh exhibition there. I also popped into Sticky to collect my Eurovision pack, featuring Capital Eyes #12. Whilst there I also picked up If Destroyed Still True #5 (I think).

I had a kick with Ryan Richardson, the inclement weather meant we had to go behind the gallery to The Cave. The students wandering the gallery seemed more impressed with the footbag then with the paintings....

After the kick I actually went for a swim. It was a cold day, but the pool was heated and I was hoping this would relax a few aches and pains. It didn't really work, but it was good in the pool, and there was no one else there.

I met up with Megan, a good friend of mine, from school. We went to a bar called Cabinet, I'd never been there before, but I quite liked it. Not too many people and they will come and take your order at the table.

I got to see another good friend later on that night, I guess Melbourne is just full of friends of mine from different eras. Friends from school, friends from when I lived in Sydney, friends from when I lived in Melbourne and friends from Canberra.

It was Michael, an old workmate of mine, it was his 21st. We went upstairs to the Noodle Kingdom, where we had shared a great 3am meal in the not too distant past.

Some of his other pals made him a cake. A one ring cake. It was very tasty.

From the Noodle Kingdom, filled with food and still with plenty of money in the wallet, we jumped on a tram for a couple of stops, and wandered to North Melbourne, another revisit, a place I mentioned in the last post, our dart playing place. It was a bit too crowded for playing darts, but they did still have the appeal of the $10 jug. Bargain.

It wasn't too late a night, so I was feeling reasonably fresh the next morning. We went for some bagels for breakfast. I had another kick planned and headed down to Fed Square to meet with Dan Ednie. Dan has been one of the best players in Australia over the past years, though he has been otherwise occupied and hasn't been kicking too much. We had been kicking for a while, and were joined by a familiar old face, Brendan Erskine. Brendan was one of the earliest footbag players in Australia, and he taught me a few tricks when I was first starting out in freestyle.

After our kick, we went for some lunch. A lot of places were closed, but the ever reliable Noodle Kingdom was open for action, one of the waiters actually recognised me from the day before. Lynton Stephens, another Aussie footbag legend actually called while we were playing and they arranged to go for dinner later on. I wasn't able to join in on that, as I had a flight to catch.

I didn't bother to repeat my walking feats of the last visit, so just jumped on the skybus and was at the airport not too much later. Not all that long after that, I was in Sydney. Francisca had come up to Sydney for the weekend, so I thought rather than fly back to Canberra, I could join her there.

We were both pretty tired so not much was on for the night time. After a big breakfast feast at Grandma's, we were meeting up with some more friends, this time it was Nathan and Brooke. We met them in Gladesville, but instead of waiting an hour for a bus, we just walked.

It was quite a pleasant journey actually, and it didn't really take that long. We went to the Bayview in Gladesville where we had plenty to eat, a big lunch.

To digest the lunch, we took a walk down to the ferry. We passed the Gladesville skatepark, which I never knew existed, and we watched some young kids go around on there. If that had have been around many moons ok (maybe when I lived in Sydney), I could imagine myself spending plenty of time there.

We caught the ferry into Darling Harbour, and something I noticed while walking was that things had changed. Once the home of getting incredibly ripped off, now every place is trying to outdo each other for deals and cheap prices. $10 steaks here, all day, $3 drinks, 2 for the price of 1. I'm not sure what brought this change about, but I like it!

We didn't stop to take in any of the deals, but went to the park just near Central Station for a quick kick with Dyalan Govender. We didn't have too long, as I had a bus to catch, but I got through my routine with two drops, twice which put me in good stead for the nationals.

From the kick it was straight on the Greyhound and back to the cold of Canberra.

Now, I should be getting back to what I mentioned in the first sentence. Instead, I'm about to pull in to Sydney...

Elysian

I just made Issue #11 of Capital Eyes, it features a couple of interviews I did with some friends of mine. It also is in a new style, I've halved the size for something a bit different.

Late last year Elysian played a show with Ignite The Ibex, who I interviewed a couple of weeks earlier for BMA. Nathan and Gabe are the brother guitarists of Elysian, and we have been friends for a long time now, probably about 15 years.

I caught up with them for an interview after the show

So you guys are finally together...how does feel to be in a band together?

G: Wow, we're getting into the heavy stuff straight away!

N: It's good, we've always jammed together, written stuff, but we've just been living in different places so never got the chance to do something together.

G: It was idea to get him in the band. I told him, you've got to be in this band. He said, I can't be in the band, I can't be in the band, so I told him he was in the band and he was in the band.

N: So then we trekked down to Melbourne and we started drafting people for the band.

G: We can yell and scream at each other, punch on. We're the two most hot headed people in the band, got the Hutchinson flare, we can scream at each other, but the next day, we can wake up, get back into it, it doesn't matter.

Did you have to move to Melbourne to get the band started?

G: Definitely. When I was first starting to think about it, it was between Brisbane or Melbourne. We thought Melbourne just had a much wider selection of venues.

N: Living in Melbourne you can play a range of shows at different places without overdoing it. A lot of bands overplay the same places over and over again. In Melbourne it seems you can play regularly without playing at the same place all the time.

That's not how it works in Canberra...

G: Apart from the Melbourne shows, Fogs from Assidian, he hooks us up with some shows around the place

You guys are playing a lot of shows on this Harbingers of Storm tour. What's a Harbinger?

G: It's a bringer.

N: I think it came around, Alice Through The Windshield Glass, every time they tour, it pisses down rain. Funnily enough, when this tour got announced, the floods started. We're playing in Wagga tomorrow. Hopefully we can get in there, the venue we're playing at actually got flooded.

How would you describe your sound?

G: A simple term to describe it would be melodic death metal. We draw a lot from progressive rock influences, we try and focus our songs around heavy vibes and mood, rather than playing fast and tech. I wouldn't call us a typical progressive band, with millions of different time signatures, but the song structures they way the songs go, some of them, they're a real journey.

What are the main places you play in Melbourne?

The Espy, The Arthouse, The Tote, these random youth centres in the burbs, weird clubs. Anywhere we can. There's still plenty more places to play.

Have you guys had any international supports yet?

N: No we haven't done any yet.

G: Yes we have (laughing). We played with this band called Death Vomit, from Indonesia. That was a disaster. It just wasn't our show. People were looking at us, where's the blastbeats, play faster. We travelled to Sydney for it, there were about ten people there, and all these grind heads, old death metal guys, they weren't into us at all.

How'd you like the show tonight?

Yeah it was good, awesome. Everytime we come to Canberra we get a great reception. I think Canberra is really starved for some new bands.

Do you think people are still holding on to the Shigella legacy?

N: No, I don't think people remember my old band at all. I'm sure the people watching had no idea about what my old band was about. It was just like Cannibal Corpse Junior, and no one cares really.

G: Shigella were cool, they were cool at the time. That was before the resurgence of death metal hadn't happened yet. This whole deathcore thing wasn't even around yet. They were doing blasts and things and this was impressive to people. If you look at it now, compared to some of the bands going around, it seems pretty simple.

N: We were sweep picking and things, when nu metal was still the big thing.

You guys had a big turnout at Metal for The Brain in 2006

We had a bit of a buzz going, there were plenty of people watching there.

I think I was at the first Shigella show, with two singers.

G: Yeah, me too.

N: Oh man, that was horrible, we were just making it up as we went along. I pretty much learnt metal guitar, because I had joined a metal band.

Have you guys ever played in a band together before?

G: We played in a covers band in high school, well it was Nathan's band, Seraphim but I filled in on bass a few times.

I was at the first show of that band to... I reckon that was one of my early favourite bands. I heard you on the community radio once..playing All Along The Watchtower I think.

N: We used to win all these battle of the bands, because the old blokes loved us. We would playing Hendrix, or Led Zeppelin, they were into it.

How does being from Bega affect your music?

N: I reckon it does, definitely. You're not really influenced...you've got no idea what anyone else is listening to, no idea what the trends are. Especially with metal, you just look in a magazine. I used to just order things from catalogues that sounded cool. That's how I got into stuff like At The Gates, In Flames, that kind of thing. You're just into what you're into. When you're in a small country town, it's probably just you and two other guys, you don't really care if that's the in thing.

G: You are isolated, that's for sure. Especially for us growing up, there was no myspace, no youtube, there was no connection. That's what I noticed when I first went to Brisbane. There were a whole lot of bands, they just wanted to sound like Strapping Young Lad. They all looked the same, they all had the same vibe. When you go to cities, you're so impressionable, in a country town, you're brain isn't as bombarded. You search harder for things. I remember sitting by the radio ready to tape songs, watching late night Rage if there was going to be a new Deftones song.

Do you still have your Hanson tape?

G: laughs

N: No, I don't have the Hanson tape. I gave it to Vivien Irving, for free.

G: laughs more.

Do either of you have any of your tapes left from your original collections? I've been listening to a lot of silverchair on tape lately.

N: I think I've still got a Foo Fighters tape. Nirvana- Nevermind, a bunch of mixtapes, or copied tapes from my mates.

What do you hope to do...what's the goal with the band?

We want to go as far as we can. In the forseeable future we just want to play as much as we can in Australia. Just bombard places. We want to play so much that people have no choice but to take notice of us. Hopefully the right people do...we definitely want to play somewhere overseas within a year or two. Fogs has been talking about a tour to Japan. Just want to drop another plug there for Fogs, he's our booking agent/manager with Assidian.

What do you think of the Australian metal scene at the moment?

N: I reckon it's bigger than ever. Look at the stuff that's popular at the moment. It's stuff with distorted guitars and screaming music, whether it be death metal, deathcore, hardcore, it's all metal. The hardcore kids might not agree...Metal's the biggest it's been since the 80s.

G: Metal's big at the moment, but I really question the uniqueness sometimes. That's why I really like Ignite The Ibex, it draws heavily from Meshuggah, but it's different. No one else is playing that style in Australia.

N: When I go out, it's often just another band that looks and sounds like Parkway Drive. A lot of them are just young kids though, and in the end, they're playing metal.

G: We complained for so long that there wasn't enough metal, now it's a big deal and people complain that there's too many copy cat bands. A lot of the time I'm disappointed when I see bands. Some that I really dig are Belakor and Ignite The Ibex. Apart from that there's not that much I'm impressed with at the moment.

What do you expect this tour to bring you? What's the Harbinger bringing?

N: Hopefully just a couple more gigs where people hear us and enjoy it. If we can just get that connection where people enjoy it, that's enough for me.

G: You can tell when people are genuinely digging it.

Do you have anything else to add?

G: I'm getting sued. A motorcycle t-boned me in Lismore three years ago. It wasn't my fault either, but I didn't have the money, the time or the know how, so they won the case. Our band also really enjoys pulling faces on stage.

Why do you have a mohawk when everyone else in the band has the Scandinavian Metal Look?

N: It's because he hasn't got the perseverance and patience to grow his hair long.

G: Well that explains the short hair, but this particular mohawk...

Was it because your mum was coming tonight?

N: We didn't know Mum and Dad were coming tonight actually.

G: This particular mohawk, I watched an interview with Phil from Pantera, he had a mohawk. You could argue he's just as metal as any of those other guys. When people say that's not a very metal haircut I'll tell them Phil from Pantera thinks it's alright.

N: He's pretty much the most metal guy ever actually.

N: My hair is pretty much what Phil's hair used to be. If I didn't have this hair, I'd have no idea what to do on stage.

Raiders first Trial match- Bega Recreation Ground

I remember as a kid going to see the Raiders up against the Steelers in a Tooheys New Cup in Bega, it must have been in around 1992 or so, probably the first time I had seen the players in the flesh, a great experience, probably still one of my favourite footy experiences.

So I was pretty excited when late last year the Green Machine announced they would be playing again in Bega, after about 15 years out of town. The game before, I think it was a double header, Norths v Brisbane and Penrith took on somebody else. These matches didn't have that same local flavour of a Raiders v Steelers match though. That must have been about 1994 or 1995. Since then the ground was not considered up to scratch, but an injection of cash from the Federal government and the ground was getting an upgrade, enough of an upgrade to host the Raiders and the Storm.

I finished work on Friday night and the plan was to head down directly. We got off to a bit of a late start and didn't get on the road until about 8pm. The gang was myself, my wife and Jonathan, my usual Raiders-watching pal. The last league outing for this trio was a success, the finals match in Penrith, so I was hoping for more good times.

Once coming down Brown Mountain we were engulfed in a thick fog, so it was pretty slow going, we arrived fairly late at my parents' house and pretty well went straight to bed.

Jonathan and I had a bit of a ride around in the morning, I had Mum's pink bike, a very masculine look. We rode out to Tarraganda, then around the town. For the first time in a long time, the river had plenty of water in it, what has come to be a rare sight in Bega.

Once we got back from cycling around, it was time to head to the beach. We went out to Middle Beach, from the lookout there didn't seem to be a great amount of surf, but there were a few people out and they were catching some waves. We got down to the beach and it seemed to have increased in size.

The tide was getting lower and the sand was precariously close to where the waves were breaking, so there was always the worry if something went wrong, that you would get a face full of sound. Jonathan hadn't really been out in waves like this before, he was asking how to get right out the back. I told him it's just like the footy, you have to charge up and just try and break that advantage line, gain a little ground every time, and hopefully you will charge through eventually.

I got a few good waves, but most of my time was spent hoping to come up for air. My last wave was a nice late take off though, got up plenty of speed, and once finished decided it was time to head into shore.

We got home and got ready for the big match. We arrived for the 5pm kick off of the under 20s game, and the game was already on, even though it wasn't 5 yet. The Storm were already ahead, and they scored not long after. They continued to score, getting out to a 28-0 lead.

The little Raiders got on the board eventually, McIlwrick going over soon after arriving on the field, to bring it to 28-6. In the end it was 34-16.

There were some girls behind us, as Dad said, they "didn't represent Bega so well". We were sitting just behind the dead ball line at the Northern end of the field. They had some wise insights, such as "the Storm players are so much hotter than the Raiders in all grades". During the half time break there was a girl's Oztag match, one of the girls from the Bega Roosters team went over for a try after a nice chip and chase effort. "That bitch deleted me from Facebook cos I kept posting pictures of Storm players"...suddenly I liked the idea of this girl.

As part of the pre match entertainment a helicopter was going to bring in the trophy. In order for the chopper to land, everyone sitting in our position had to move on out. In a game that was pretty well sold out (crowd 6169), there weren't a lot of places to go, however we found a new spot, in line with the 10m line just around from where we were sitting previously.

I was amazed by the amount of purple in the crowd. Bega should be through and through Raiders territory. So I'm not sure if it was people travelling from Victoria, or that the silverware in the cupboards of the Storm (falsely earned) had attracted some more fans here in Southern NSW.

After the helicopter then came the official opening of the new facilities at the ground. Now did this ever go on. First was John Dixon, on behalf of the Aboriginal Land Council. He himself played many years for the Bega Roosters. I think he may have been captain coach at one stage. Following him were a variety of footy bosses, politicians and it seemed anyone who else who wanted a say.

The teams trained on the field. The Raiders were directly in front of us. My mum asked who the player to look out for would be. With Dugan, TLL, Tonguey, Campo, Orford and Joel Thompson all missing, I wasn't so sure who would be playing a starring role. I selected Shillington (16) and Brett White (10).

A while after the stated time, it was kick off. The Storm kicked things off, and the first period had pretty well the strongest lineup available of the 30 players each team used.

The Raiders started with a team of something like

1. Milne 2. Robinson 3. Croker 4. Stuart 5. Vidot 6. M Picker 7. McCrone 8. Tilse 9. Buttriss 10. White 11. J Picker 12. Harrison (c) 13. Fensom

While early signs were positive, the Raiders continued to drop the ball in attacking positions. The game was being played in three thirds of thirty minutes, just to show it really wasn't a real game. The first third had each team fielding pretty well first grade lineups. Melbourne looked like they usually do. Even though they were missing Billy Slater, Cameron Smith and Cooper Cronk, they were still playing a very structured lineup, led by Garreth Widdop, the English fullback playing with the number 7 on his back. I think they plan to use him at five eighth for the year, after from Raider Brett Finch packed up and went to England, and I think he will flourish there.

Just towards the end of the first 30 mins, Brett White put on a huge hit on one of his old teammates, dislodging the ball and setting up a scrum in great field position. Josh McCrone back himself for a grubber but the ball went over the dead ball, it was followed by a flying McCrone sliding through after it, but he was a long way from the ball. Something that has been lacking in the Raiders game the last few years has been communication on kicking options, and it seemed there that no one else in the team had any idea about it.

The scores were locked on zero at the first break, the scorekeepers not bothered at all by either team. Within the first period of player there were a number of penalties against both teams for play the ball infringements. The refs keeping their promise to crack down on this area. In my opinion, there are worse things that need to be looked at, and this really bogs down the game, into a game filled with penalties.

Some of the younger players got their chance to impress in the second period, but it was Chase Stanley who was impressed, waltzing through a couple of big defensive holes to score the first two tries of the match. The Green Machine needed to get over the line in this third, and young Sam Williams sent the ball on to Croker who passed on to Vidot to charge over in the corner.

I'm sure young Croker would still be having nightmares about his last kick, the missed goal in the final against the Tigers, and this was not an easy kick to begin 2011. From directly on the sideline, in some muddy grass, pretty well in the dark. It was no surprise he missed.

That kick was no concern though really, Croker was by far the best player in Green. From watching that game I felt this is going to be the breakout year for the kid from Crookwell. After making the training squad for the Australian team last year, looks like he will be keen for some more recognition.

For the other backs, David Milne had some strong kick returns, but one particular howler dropping a towering bomb, he knocked that back, but then picking it up on the tryline, he dropped it forward. The Storm scored from the ensuing set.

Reece Robinson played strongly while he was on. He took a great take on a bomb, and for his troubles got tackled in the air by a Storm player, earning the Green Machine some more ground from the penalty. James Stuart was probably the worst of the backs. He got quite a few games last year when Joel Monaghan broke his thumb, and showed himself as a winger unable to score tries. In this game he mainly featured by dropping the ball or missing tackles. I didn't see much of Nathan Massey, a new signing for the under 20s, and Drury Low could have scored a late try but dropped the ball in open space.

From this slight description, you can imagine the frustration watching this game of the continuous dropped ball, particularly in attacking positions. The third period had the most inexperienced lineup on the field, it was the same for the Storm, many of them not even wearing a number, but they still held their structures. It seemed the Storm had a heavy off season getting into shape now that they are once again eligible for premiership points.

They scored a couple more tries in that last time period and the final score was 24-4. Of more interest to me was a text from Jonathan. "They're giving away food at the BBQ tent". I was there immediately. So at least that was some kind of score.

We walked back home, the lost wasn't so hard to fathom, it's only a trial, what does it count for. Eels fans had a different attitude after they beat the Tigers 30-10. According to them, trials show everything. The best part was that no one got injured. The Cowboys weren't so lucky, it seemed most of their new signings got injured during their trial up against the Broncos in Alice Springs.

A 3-2-1 for the Raiders:

3: Jarrod Croker- top game, will be a star this season

2: Brett White- showed he will be a very worthwhile investment and crunched a few of his old team mates.

1. Shaun Fensom- always seemed to be ready to take another run, make another tackle

The Green Machine

I may have written in here somewhere that I started studying my Masters. It's in Writing, all done online through Swinburne University in Melbourne, through the Open University system. I'm really enjoying it so far. I got some marks back today, the first so far, I managed to get 80% overall for this particular subject, and for my major writing piece, 85%, which is a high distinction. Not a bad start, especially compared to the way I started my undergraduate degree.

I'm just going to post the whole thing as I handed it in. In the next few days I'm going to edit it and add in some classic Green Machine pictures, which will all come from Google Images. So here's the piece of writing.

This piece of writing is going to chronicle my time following the Canberra Raiders. Canberra Raiders are a rugby league team based in Canberra. The idea of this story is not particularly new, Nick Hornby's book Fever Pitch runs along the same lines, about his devotion to the English Premier League team Arsenal. This will be a personal reflection, a look back and an understanding of why something has captivated me for 20 years now.

Let's go back in time a little while. It's 1990, my pop is down visiting us in Bega. He is watching the TV, the Balmain Tigers are up against the Canberra Raiders. I must be about 5 or 6 years old. Pop is a hardened Tigers man, having been the principal at Ibrox Park High School in Leichardt, where Balmain captain Wayne Pearce went to school.

I should add a note here that the previous year's grand final is still regarded to as the greatest grand final of all time. The Tigers take a half time lead, yet the “Green Machine” as they are known claw back into the game. John “Chicka”Ferguson scores right on full time to take the game into extra time. In extra time, reserve forward Steve Jackson, wearing number 20, takes the ball fifteeen metres out from the line. He was a late addition to the team and had never scored a first grade try before. He bumped off a couple of defenders and kept charging for the line. He bumped off a couple more, nearly there. He reached out, letting a few more defenders slip off him and planted the ball over the line. Try! Raiders win. In my extended family there are many Tigers fans, they cringe at every mention of the 89 Grand Final.

So the game my Pop and I are watching is the grand final replay. I only choose the Raiders because Pop is going for the other team, but they go on to win the game. Not only do they win the game, but also the premiership. I think I'm on to a good thing here, as well as the fact they are the closest team to Bega.

The next year my cousin Tom started to really get into the footy too. It was a similar situation, we were watching the Raiders play the Panthers, the beaten grand finalists from the previous year. As I was such a keen supporter of one team, he backed the other. They went on to win the 1991 Grand Final. Later that year the Raiders were caught for extensive salary cap breaches, not quite to the level of the Melbourne Storm over the last five years, but it meant they had to shed a number of players, they were not a force to be reckoned with in 1992.

1992 though was the first time I went to a game. The league was the NSWRL at the time, Canberra and Illawarra had been two of the first teams to be based outside of Sydney, both entering in 1982. By the time I was following the game Brisbane, Newcastle and the Gold Coast had joined the competition.

This game I went to was with my cousin, my uncle and my Dad. Where else would we head to but Penrith football stadium. Walking into the Panthers club in my Raiders jersey, the lady at reception said “I don't know if I'd wear that in here”. I was slightly concerned about a wild Penrith man coming and beating me up. After playing aqua golf badly, we went over to see the game. It was a close match, but Penrith won in the end. In the late stages of the game Steve Walters threw a pass which was ruled forward, the centre was away unmarked. I couldn't believe it. “That pass wasn't forward, it was flat”. I cried and my cousin gloated in his victory.

Neither team featured in the Grand Final that year, 1992 and 1993 both involved Brisbane and the Dragons, with Brisbane winning both games. 1993 was the year all fans were hanging out to see a Brisbane vs Canberra grand final, they were the two best teams of the early 90s. Unfortunately for the Green Machine, star player Ricky Stuart broke his leg just before the finals. Even though they still had a number of stars still playing, they went out in the early days of the finals. The North Sydney Bears were one of the real leaders each year during the regular season, however once the finals came around, it was a different story. Their team was full of stars, but simply could not play once the finals came around.

In the preseason in the early 90s there was the “Tooheys New Cup”. It was a knockout competition played in regional areas. A few times these matches came to Bega. My favourite was when the Raiders and the Illawarra Steelers came to town. These were the two closest teams, so most kids in the area went for one of the other. Not only the kids, but the grown ups on the hill drinking beer as well. Unlike many matches of that era, I have no idea what the score was, who won, or when it was, however it is one of my favourite rugby league memories.

In 1994, I went to another game. My uncle Tony took me to see Canberra play North Sydney at North Sydney oval. This time the Green Machine powered to victory. They continued this powering all year, winning the competition. Mal Meninga scored the final try in a big win. This was “Big Mal”'s final match in the competition. The next year the competition name was changed from the NSWRL to the ARL, a national competition.

The next few years the Raiders were still contenders, but couldn't quite make it to the top echelon again. The Super League war came and went. This was a major controversy in Rugby League, losing many supporters. The 1997 competition had two separate competitions, the Super League, which the Green Machine were involved in. When reading about it before it happened, I liked the idea, and I think the main reason for my support for this competition was that Canberra was always involved, there was no plans to cull them from the competition.

I was in high school by that time, I wasn't as obsessive into the football. I had played a season of league for the Bega Roosters, our team was one of the worst in the competition. I played most of my year on the wing, that's where they play the worst players at that level. I had played the year before in the school team. I ended up in the seconds team there, for some reason starting as a front row forward. We were still playing up against the top teams, so I would regularly find myself smashed down and bleeding. Playing for the Roosters, we endured thrashing after thrashing. The only teams we could compete with were Cooma and Cobargo, who were just as bad as us. The distances we needed to travel were quite staggering. Pretty well two hours in any direction, the Group 16 competition ran from Eden to Batemans Bay and up to Cooma. Two hours for a thrashing got a bit old, and I didn't get on well with my other team mates. I was not interested in turning up the next year.

Throughout high school I kept an eye on the Raiders, but didn't have the obsessive passion. They were still “my team”. There was no interest in following another team. However, once the Raiders were bumped out from the finals again, you had to choose someone else to support in the big game, the Grand Final. I remember enjoying Jamie Ainscough conceded a penalty try for the Melbourne Storm to win in only their second year.

The next few years provided grand finals featuring teams I didn't really care about at all, and the Raiders would generally scrape through in the back end of the top eight, then lose in the first round of the finals. Mal Meninga, the great man, came in for a stint as coach, which was not a particular success. He has now taken Queensland to a record four State of Origin series in a row.

In 2002, there was another salary cap scandal, this time at the Bulldogs. They were effectively thrown out of the competition that year, the Green Machine snuck into the finals. 2003 the Raiders were a big surprise packet, they were leading the competition for the first ten rounds. I was living in Sydney at the time and went to see them play the Roosters. It was a close game, the first time I'd been to the Sydney Football Stadium. You could hear some of the bone crunching tackles from the stands. Unfortunately it was not the day for the Raiders, from memory the score was 16-14.

It was a strong year for the Raiders, getting into the finals. Their semi final match was up against the Auckland Warriors. New Zealand hero Stacey Jones slotted a field goal to seal the match.

The next year I moved to Canberra, I thought I would be heading to games regularly, but I really didn't get there as much as I would've liked due to my poor student budgeting. I did see the rematch against the Warriors though. From high up in the grandstands with a mean hangover, I joined the crowd in a collective sigh when Stacey Jones kicked a field goal to put the Warriors up 29-28 with five minutes remaining. Clinton Schifcoske saved the day though, a field goal right on full time, another into the golden point extra time, game over, Raiders win.

Over the next few years I went to games every now and then. The Raiders were a team of has beens and never weres, the star player was Jason Smith, a mid-30s chain smoker, who put in some surprisingly wily kicks for someone who could not run at all.

In 2007 I moved to Melbourne. Before leaving I had seen the round one match against Manly in Manly, the Raiders were thrashed. The year ahead did not look good. As they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder. It was hard to even see a game on tv. I took to going to a seedy “sportsmans bar” next door to a strip joint. Whilst the AFL played on the big screen, the NRL matches would get a run on the tiny screens around the corner with no sound. Maybe once a year the Green Machine would get a run on free to air TV. In Melbourne these games would not even show until 3am.

The next year I was back in Canberra. I was keen to go to the matches, but didn't always have the cash. I was living just down the road from the stadium, so I would wander up every now and then to check out a match. I ended up seeing a few games where the Green Machine piled on the points. They broke 50 against the Gold Coast, then absolutely smacked the Panthers 74-12 in icy conditions. The Raiders put on a strong run, even though their star player Todd Carney was sacked after 31 various alcohol related indiscretions. The run to the finals ended in the first week, a terrible injury toll saw them wiped out by Cronulla.

The under 20s competition was still running though, and the Raiders had made it through to the Grand Final. I went with my friend who is a keen Manly supporter. The Raiders beat the Broncos in extra time and Manly thrashed Melbourne 40-0. It turns out that Melbourne squad was well and truly over the salary cap.

Last year I joined to be a member, this year I have renewed it. The ticket prices for one game are so expensive, it makes sense to be a member. Most of the players from the under 20 premiership are now in first grade, some are taking steps to the representative levels already. The Raiders are in the bottom half of the competition at the moment, but are filled with the potential. Watching them still has me just as excited as when I was six years old.