But he also praised his team for the way they handled the toughest travel toll in the NRL. Remarkably 10 of the 13 starting players from the Raiders 2019 grand final team are still there for this week's preliminary final. Melbourne are three points back from minor premiers Penrith. For proof there is merit in resting superstar players, the Raiders have pointed to how effective the policy was when they employed it last season. View the latest NRL news and rumours for the Canberra Raiders and their players. The Raiders have made it a habit of performing on a teammate's milestone game, but the milestone man himself didn't want to be left out. Check out all the big moments from the two grand final qualifiers. His late footwork has been a highlights of the past couple of months and he was at his dancing best again. "The last thing we’d want is Josh or Jack or George to go in, get a knock and then be 50/50 for a sudden death game. But on Tuesday, Ricky Stuart made the interesting decision to rest Jack Wighton, Josh Papalii, John Bateman, Elliott Whitehead, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Jarrod Croker and Jordan Rapana. Yes. They deserve to go through and fight for that final spot.". "So I came into the club on Tuesday night and said I'm going to rest our entire first grade side and I'm going to play our entire reserve grade side in first grade. He had two tries disallowed - one for losing the ball, the other for promoting it - but eventually he got there with a brilliant solo run the Raiders left edge should've shut down early on to set up a grandstand finish. I think the game plan we tend to go with is we have our set structures that every team goes off, and when we shift or there is a quick play-the-ball it’s just eyes up footy. Papalii was immense. He ran a whopping 253 metres, made a linebreak, three tackle busts and a try save - somehow he wasn't credited with two. We saw a few reports of people putting the red line through us – I think the boys that have come in have done a fantastic job," he said. "Many years ago when I was coaching the Roosters we got to a position, after a very tough season, where we finished in the top four and with one round to go, we couldn't go forward, we couldn't go backwards," Gould recalled for Wide World of Sports, on his Six Tackles with Gus podcast. "I remember saying right in this room - the last game we beat the Roosters here - nobody has given us an opportunity to show what's underneath the jumper. "There's only one nervous team here and that's the St George Illawarra Dragons, who have probably woken up on Wednesday morning and said 'What? "Then we are talking Melbourne who have been the benchmark for such a long time.". October 16, 2020 11:11pm . The following is a list of rugby league players who have appeared for Canberra Raiders since the club's first league game in 1982. In truth though, the demise of Josh Hodgson (knee) has seen the rise of Starling and Havili. And that's how I named it in the programme. So I went with the bare minimum, I said, 'I'm not going to relent on this, there are some players here who I want to have a rest,' so we went with the bare minimum of NRL players in the squad.". "Perhaps that risk is minimal but I believe it does exist. For us it is really important to go into the finals with everybody nice and fresh and try get rid of a few niggles. Or the Tapine? They're the moments that you remember, they're the moments that are really important in big games," Stuart said. They've become the masters of the SCG with a 22-18 victory over the Sydney Roosters on Saturday night. Croker must match himself against an old friend in Storm right centre Brenko Lee, who spent three seasons in Raiders colours (2014-16). Don't begrudge fringe players a run this weekend; in the worst cases, there are guys who won't have played an active game since the end of last season and won't play again until whenever next season begins, with only the drudgery of training in between. It was a case of third time lucky for Tricolours centre Joseph Manu. He ran a whopping 253 metres, made a linebreak, three tackle busts and a try save - somehow he wasn't credited with two. A raft of those guys will take to the field for clubs who opted to rest players this weekend. Croker admitted a dark cloud did descend for a day or two on the playing group when Hodgson's scans showed a torn ACL – ironically while playing against Storm in round nine. Player ↓ DOB Position(s) APP T G FG Pts ABBEY, Brad 1996-12-30 Fullback, Wing 9 1- …