Wearing jerseys of a greenish-yellowy hue and devoid of any major sponsor, the players burst from the tunnel leading from under the grandstand onto their home ground.
Preparing to take on the Western Sydney Magpies on the first Saturday in March, 1982, the newly formed Canberra Raiders embodied the claim they were “a Queanbeyan side dressed as a Canberra team”.
Despite “officially” being an ACT Club, the first “outside NSW” to be accepted as part of the NSW Rugby League competition (beating out Campbelltown, Newcastle and the Central Coast), they could barely have been more Queanbeyan.
Their entry as the 14th team in the NSWRL came about courtesy of a notable letter, handwritten by local league identity, Les McIntyre. The coach was prominent Queanbeyanite and former international, Don Furner, and the team’s headquarters, the affluent Queanbeyan Leagues Club (est. 1961) perched on the town's picturesque river.
The home turf, Seiffert Oval, in the heart of the NSW regional city that borders the capital, was the crowning accomplishment.
A former sheep paddock, after a very hefty financial injection by the QLC in 1964, it was developed into a “fine playing field with a covered stand for 2,800 spectators … and parking for 400 cars that enabled patrons to watch from their cars”.
Named for long-term Member for Monaro, J.W. Seiffert (1941-1965), it was easily the match of any of the Sydney club grounds and would come to boast lighting allowing for televised mid-week games. Later fixtures held at the venue would attract huge crowds - the record for which, 18,272, was set on June 18,1989, when they took on, and beat, the Brisbane Broncos (27-6).
It would also be here the Raiders would gain their only successes in their inaugural season. (Of the 98 home games in total they'd play, they'd win 52, lose 45 and draw 1).
Come that very first grand final win seven years later, it was also well celebrated in their hometown.
[NB: Take a look at the street parade through Queanbeyan and the reception in Civic - and the Cup suffering a little from the attention https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/canberra-raiders]
A goodly number of the players for the original squad were indeed requisitioned from Queanbeyan's two long-dominant league sides: the Blues (2019 marks its 90th year) and the Kangaroos (est. 1966).
Since first officially appearing in Queanbeyan in 1921, the game had quickly earned an esteemed place in the town. The silverware amassed by its first team more than demonstrated the considerable local ability.
In the time since, the "City of Champions" has produced arguably some of the most well-known names in rugby league.
Among them, Glenn Lazarus, nominated one of the nation’s finest players of the 20th century, former Raiders captain and Kangaroo, Terry Campese, and the highest point-scoring forward in Australian rugby league history (and also a former coach of the Canberra team), David Furner.
Then, of course, there's dual internationalist (he was a Wallaby, too), player, captain, and 2019 Coach-of-the-Moment, Ricky Stuart.
Early talent included the likes of “teenage footballing sensation” Steve Darmody; from 1908 playing for South Sydney and picked for the Ashes-winning Second Kangaroos tour of 1911/12.
In the late 1920s, Tommy O'Connor, was selected to play with the Southern NSW rugby league team led by footballing legend, Eric Weissel.
Tommy was also one of the town's most outstanding all-round sportspeople – along with league, boxing, tennis, cricket and golf as well.
Johnny Hawke played for Australia between 1948 and 1951 and captained St George for four years from 1949, with a premiership in his first season.
A little later, Steve Hewson was thought “the best half back never to play for Australia” after his stellar career was cut short due to injury.
In the earliest days, the population was small enough that players had to be versatile: “The blokes that played Rugby League on the Sunday were playing Aussie Rules on the Saturday, the same mob, because we didn't have enough blokes in the town.”
After the war, league continued to grow in popularity – even the RSL fielding their own side, with a personanlised double-decker bus and “everything done for them [including washing and ironing] for nothing”!
In 1959, the inaugural meeting of the Queanbeyan District United Rugby League Football Club was held at Walsh's Hotel, the Queanbeyan Showground, their homebase.
With the 1960's construction of the town's “most splendid Club House”, the Leagues Club, Queanbeyan surged as a powerful centre in country football.
From such a strong starting point, it was a natural progression when NSW Rugby League sought to expand the competition by taking on two new teams outside Sydney.
Adopted was the media-bequeathed name “Raiders” over suggestions from the community including the “Canberra Cockatoos”. The original jersey, designed by a local after a competition run by the Club, featured the green intended to set them apart (also said to have been "the colour of the first team in the district, Hall") – with the ACT's “traditional sporting colours” of blue and gold not forgotten. And thus, the smallest, newest rugby league member of what was to become a national affair, emerged.
After a rough start – they earned the wooden spoon in their first year – and an initial struggle to win away from home, come 1987 and the Raiders had truly found their feet. In the eight years that followed, they'd reach five grand finals and win three premierships.
When they triumphed in 1989, in “one of the all-time great Grand Finals”, beating the Balmain Tigers 19-4 in extra time - “the first won by an out-of-Sydney club; and the first team to win from 4th position” - the team took up their new digs at Bruce Stadium on the western side of Canberra.
In the same year, 1990, they'd win their second straight premiership against Penrith, 18-14.
The third would come in 1994, the Green Machine thumping the Canterbury Bulldogs, 36-12.
A quarter of a century on, October 6, 2019, marks the Club's next moment to create sporting history when they take on the Sydney Roosters for the 109th Rugby League Grand Final. It will be a chance to break "the longest grand final drought in the league" (that refers to actually making it to the Final - at the least, Parramatta hasn't won a GF since 1986).
As has been shown in the past, while perhaps smaller in stature than some Clubs, it's more than made up for it in spirit and determination – players and supporters both. And that's truly what makes champions.
Regardless of the result, for those of us on the NSW side of the border, they'll always be the Queanbeyan Raiders. But, as always, we're more than happy to share that glory.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
Queanbeyan District & People, Errol Lea-Scarlett, 1968.
Queanbeyan, Town in Transition, Susan Mary Withycombe, 1985.
Way back I was privileged to meet the young men arriving in the district for the team which was then referred to as the Woodgers Raiders. I worked for Jim Woodger and Colin Maxwell, managing the Insurance Broking division of the company. Such an exciting time and today my heart is with the team.