The Storm’s aura could finally be fading with fearless Raiders back-rower Hudson Young declaring “teams don’t want to play us” during the NRL finals series.
Canberra head to Melbourne searching for their fifth consecutive win in the Victorian capital, one that would end the Storm’s premiership hopes and continue Canberra’s stunning surge.
An elimination final in the backyard of a premiership powerhouse offers Young a chance to press his claims for selection in Mal Meninga’s Australia squad for the looming World Cup. Raiders five-eighth Jack Wighton says Young “would have to” be in the frame for a Kangaroos debut.
However, more pressing for the 24-year-old is the chance to continue a Raiders revival, with 12 wins from their past 16 games reigniting the prospects of a team that most thought was dead and buried. The exclamation mark among that run was a four-point win in Melbourne, snapping a five-match losing streak against the Storm and continuing Canberra’s form line at a venue likened to a graveyard for travelling teams.
Melbourne have advanced to at least week two of the finals in every season bar two since 2003. The only time they missed the eight in that stretch was when they were busted for rorting the salary cap. Often a road trip opposition would dread, Young says the Raiders have no fears ahead of an AAMI Park showdown on Saturday, despite drawing the short straw with a six-day turnaround.
“I’m confident we can go down there and get the job done; we’re a team that has got nothing to lose because no one expected us to be in the finals,” Young said. “I feel like teams don’t want to play us at this time of year either.
Hudson Young and the Raiders have surged into the finals.Credit:Getty
“No one even thought we’d be in the finals. For us to go down and beat Melbourne in Melbourne would be a massive confidence boost to push further.
“When we were 2-6 at the start of the year, it looked like it was going to be a long season. Us group 82 boys, the leaders, sat down and said we don’t want to go down that path, and we want to turn it around. To be able to action that and not just speak it is great for us.
“It’s been a great vibe down here at the club and I feel like everyone’s form over the past 10 weeks has just been getting better. Everyone is confident. We knew the game of footy always throws spanners out there, so if we could keep winning something would happen and we’d end up in the finals. It was a good show of faith and belief.”
One could mount a strong case to say the Raiders may not be here without Young. Twice he has taken a gamble on himself and scored match-winning tries – once against Cronulla and once against Newcastle – that have been the difference between a finals appearance and an early holiday in September.
Now he is on the verge of realising a dream with Meninga keeping the Canberra back-rower in his sights ahead of the World Cup, where he would feature in a Kangaroos squad alongside Wighton.
“He’s been unreal, he’s been one of our better players,” Wighton said. “It’s not like he’s doing it one week and letting it go the next.
“He’s been building into a first-grader and this year he is just nailing it. I think that was the main thing, just being consistent. We always knew he had this talent and willpower, but the consistency of it, he’s got it week in, week out.
“He’s my left-hand man, outside me in attack and inside me in defence. Building the relationship and the comms we have over the past two years has been great.”
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