Raiders beat the Storm 26-16

Solid effort and a fantastic game to watch.

Excellent effort by the Raiders. When the Storm were coming back at them in the 2nd half I was thinking if we didn’t beat them today it was never going to happen in my lifetime again.

The Mal Meninga statue was unveiled before today’s game, in a brief ceremony. Mal himself was in attendance and gave a short, gracious speech. Photos are here for anyone who’s interested (towards the bottom of the page). The new statue stands opposite the statue of Laurie Daley, flanking the entrance to the West Lounge at Canberra Stadium.

Not sure if it was the Mal effect, or the rapture at finally beating the Storm, but the game itself was one of the most emotional games I’ve ever been to at Bruce. The crowd (just shy of 10,000) was unbelievably loud, reacting to almost every tackle and hit-up made by the Raiders, and going completely ballistic when Bronson Harrison crossed to seal the game in the 79th minute. Strangers hugging each other and high-fiving, all that kind of stuff.

Best Raiders on the field were Troy Thompson, Justin Carney, Joel Monaghan and Josh Dugan. Marc Herbert and Alan Tongue were also much improved.