Hay Pie In The Sky Match

Not sure if it was the desperation for the real season to begin, or a desire for adventure that took our two travelers across the plains for the Pie In The Sky match. A formidable lineup mainly made of former Raiders greats was the reason for heading to Hay.

We left Canberra after work on Friday afternoon, bound for Wagga. We made pretty good time and beat the Google estimation of when we would arrive. We stayed with TreesMenz, an old workmate of mine. Conveniently enough, she had two single beds spare in her house. When we arrived, the doors were wide open, but nobody was home. Turns out her mum lives a couple of doors down, and it's Wagga so no worries about robbers. Anyhow, we decided we would get a pub meal for our dinner. The first place we stopped by, the Union, it seemed pretty expensive, but not that impressive, so we decided to continue the tour of the town. We came across a big outdoor concert, and a man told us to hurry along the bridge as there would be fireworks in 90 seconds.

The man must have been wrong, because we were at the table in Romanos pub, ready to be served our meal when the fireworks had finally kicked off. Funnily enough, there were fireworks on when we last went to a footy match, the trial in Bega.

We had our meals which were all pretty good, I had a big steak, which was probably a bit too big, but is there really such a thing? We weren't really keen for a big night out on the town, so we went back and watch the comedy channel, then went to bed.

Plenty more driving the next day, with no hills to be seen. Flat as a tack the whole way, bound for Hay. I had driven the journey yesterday, so it was my turn to sit back and relax. We listened to the local ABC, and they had a match preview for the game we were heading to. Matt Geyer was on as a guest from their live broadcast from Hay, he was saying how it would be good if there was a more formal system of these matches in the bush, but it's something the CRL is simply not interested in.

After the early sports section, the Weekend Woodies took over, I wasn't really interested in old ladies and their creaky floorboards, so I put on the appropriately titled "Small Town Stories" from A Death In The Family.

The fruit fly exclusion zone requested we drop our fruit in the rubbish or receive a heavy fine. Though I thought there would probably be no inspectors out on the weekend, I didn't want a heavy fine, nor did I want to be single handedly responsible for destroying the Riverina. After eating a couple of bananas, we decided to simply hide the fruit in the bushes, and collect it on our return journey.

We stopped to meander in Narranderra for our morning tea break. There were signs of wealth that you don't usually see in the country. Even the cricket ground had a very shiny fence, reminiscent of North Sydney Oval. I stopped in at the skatepark for a quick roll around, I've got to say it's not one of the highlights of the various skateparks I've been to. Right up there with the worst to be honest.

The Gaslight Anthem carried us on our way and Lostprophets brought us into the town of Hay itself. We had a lunch at a local cafe, The Long Paddock. It was a bit disappointing and a bit too expensive. We located the field, and I stopped by another skatepark. A kid riding some sort of 3 wheel tricycle contraption told I was "heaps good ay", and to be honest, even though he was wrong, I was stoked.

We checked into our cabin at the Hay Caravan Park. It was a pretty small area, I'm not sure how many they claimed it could fit, but if you filled it to the maximum, you would want some pretty small children filling the triple bunks.

I played some Footbag and was playing quite well actually, there was a small brick area just outside our door. Some fellow Raiders fanatics came by, Kenrick, better known as KW, that bloke on the radio who sometimes tells how the fans are feeling about each week's match. He said something about being pretty good with the old Hacky Sack. Instead of being a jerk and saying it's Footbag mate, I just muttered some thanks and talked about the game ahead.

Soon after we were off to the game. It wasn't a long drive into town, and we could park quite close without being in an area that looked like it would be havoc after the game. We walked past the old Hay skatepark on the way in, which was definitely one to miss, simply a couple of quarterpipes on an old concrete block. Excitement plus. To one side of that Laurie Daley was sitting down with Brad Clyde and a bunch of TV cameras, I guess it was a small segment for Fox.

We arrived at the match and a couple of the youth academies were playing. The scores on the scoreboard didn't seem to match up with the scores the announcer was giving, but when we arrived, the score was 18-6. By the end of the match, the team we thought was Hay- though neither team was actually a Hay team, were up 24-18, but the other side scored a late try. The kicker from the corner went wide and it was game over, 24-22.

Not long after the main game was about to kick off. I wondered who the guy in the middle with the big gut was, and was surprised to see it was Big Mal, rather than a muscle man, he now sports a huge belly. Though nowhere near the size of front row forward Mark Tookey. As the ABC commentators said, the team came out in "a variety of shapes and sizes".

The team that came out was something along the lines of:

K Nagas

M Bai

B Clyde

L Daley

M Geyer

M Meninga

A McFadden

Q Pongia

S Woolford

M Tookey

B Roarty

D Furner

S Millard

On the bench they had a number of young players from the Hay side with Ricky Stuart pulling out a couple of weeks ago and Jason Croker a late withdrawal.

Things were not looking good for the old blokes early on, with one of the Magpies, carrying the name of his town, Harley Hay, capitalised on a dropped ball from Laurie Daley and found winger Ryan Gash backing up for the first points of the match. 4-0 down it was time for the all star lineup to get serious. It was a long, long time before the Hay Magpies crossed the line.

Kenny Nagas was the star of the first half, scoring the first two tries. The first involved some crafty footwork, leaving a number of the Magpie players bamboozled, while the second try he basically pulled out of his arse. The ball had bounced after a short break from Simon Woolford and he picked it up at almost full pace, reaching out behind him and knocking over a few defenders to score. This was vintage stuff, and the whole reason we had come out to the wild, wild west.

With so many of the big name players from the early nineties Raiders glory days, it was no surprise to see a similar style employed, something between that style and that of the Harlem Globetrotters being played. It was no match for the farmers and whoever else lives out in Hay, who were led by Gareth Price, a former Welsh international, who I'm not entirely sure what he's doing in Hay, but he has signed on as Captain/Coach for the season.

The points kept flowing in, with David Furner getting something to show the boys back at Raiders training, this is how you score a try mate. He bopped off a few would be defenders and charged over the line.

The game was played in four quarters, each one of varying length, somewhere between 15-20 mins. It was a hot day, so I'm sure the old blokes were happy to take a rest. Each time between quarters, half the crowd would swarm across the field and they would have to wait until they meandered back off to the other side before play resumed.

After the third quarter, the ABC team said coach Arthur Beetson gave Laurie Daley the worst pass award for the day, for a long ball, a few metres forward, that landed a little ahead of Marcus Bai on the ground, which he knocked on.

The second half had plenty more tries, Andrew McFadden chipped through and then soccered the ball again to find support, while Simon Woolford ran further than he ever did in his NRL career to score a 60m try. He took no further part in the game after that.

As the clock ticked down, you saw a few players looking for a reprieve, but there was no way the players on the bench were going to be getting back up from their chairs, so whoever was still on, stayed on. With a few minutes left, the Magpies were attacking the line, after a dropped all at the back. After a suspicious amount of tackles in the count, the ball was placed somewhere near the line (probably in front of it), but with no video ref, Bill Harrigan pointed to the spot. The scores remained unchanged, the All Star lineup victorious by 50 points to 8.

For a 3-2-1 I would give

3- K Nagas

2- D Furner

1- A McFadden

After the game we headed back to the Caravan Park and had a swim in the pool. It was still fairly hot at about 6pm, so it was a good way to spend the rest of the day. We headed to the South Hay Pub just down the road and ate a pretty mean mixed grill. We had seen a truck outside and thought it was a trucker getting a good feed, but when the covers came off, there was a band playing inside.

The old tavern looked like it would be a fairly wild place that night, and after Jonathan won $270 on the pokies, after an outlay of $1, we hit the road. We were back in the cabin and had the cricket on with Australia vs Sri Lanka.

I watched for a while, then continued with F Scott Fitzgerald's "The Diamond as Big as The Ritz and Other Stories". I had gone to bed with three wickets down, and I wouldn't have missed much more action as heavy rain stopped proceedings.

We were up reasonably early to kick off the long drive home. We got our breakfast goods from the local Foodworks, which was advertised on the radio station, just after they played "Bang On" from the Propellerheads.

I drove the first leg, across the flat and then we switched over at Narranderra, before collecting our fruit, good as new, where we had left it the day before. We powered through to Gundagai where we stopped at a Chinese restaraunt, probably the only place open in town. They had some $10.50 lunch specials...there was not really any surprise that we were the only ones there, so the meals came in no time.

From there I was back in the drivers seat, and it was not all that long until we were back in the "big smoke" (in comparison to where we had been) of Canberra.

Some of those players we went to see, they've still got it, while others are a long, long way off being in their prime. When you think it's almost 20 years since some of them retired, it's pretty impressive they can still get out and play a match every now and then.

It was a lot of fun going to the match and seeing all the old heroes, it was also good to explore somewhere I had never been before.

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

In Memory Of

This photo is from a couple of years back. Todd Carney (#7) kicks a field goal to seal the game for the Raiders in the early rounds of 2008. Another loss in Canberra for the Dragons, who you see walking back dejectedly.

Times have changed. At the time Todd Carney was the golden boy, however already then he had problems. There might have been twenty separate alcohol related incidents at the time. By the time of his sacking from the Canberra Raiders, there were 31. That's really a lot. Especially considering they included a high speed car chase (the loser there was Steve Irwin- not the crocodile hunter, but the substandard player who had his contract torn up).

The final straw came mid 2008, Carney was accused of urinating on a man's face. A friend of Dan Tilse. The charges were later dropped, however, that's not the kind of story you just make. Sure, it would be a lot of hassle, and of course, nothing would happen in the courts, so the man may have made the right decision.

This was at All Bar Nun. Sydney media portrayed it as "a hot Canberra nightspot". It's a pub, it closes at 12 most nights. It's not that exciting. It is however, where I'm going to go watch the match tonight. It's not that far from home, and what better place to watch the Raiders take on Carney and his new mates at the Sydney Roosters.

The papers have been full of Todd Carney talk all week, and he's going to have to play well after all the media focus. The other focus has been on the Roosters illegally courting Raiders custodian Josh Dugan.

As it's the Raiders, nothing will happen. Nobody will care. The same rules don't apply when dealing with the Raiders. Just look at Joel Reddy's suspension. One week for elbowing Terry Campese in the face.

If the Green Machine can get a win here, they will be two away wins in a row and they should get into the top 8. A win will show they really are contenders, not pretenders. Tackling machine Sean Fensom is out, he has been replaced by human cannonball Josh Miller.