11/11/04: The Canberra Raiders are certain to be on top of the ladder after the first round of the 2005 National Rugby League season, with the club given a bye to start the year.
It will be worth the wait for Raiders fans, however, with the Green Machine set to kick-off their season with a home match against Joey Johns Newcastle Knights on the weekend of March 18-20.
The game against the Knights will be the first of three home blockbusters for the Raiders in the opening five rounds. The Raiders play the St George Illawarra Dragons at Canberra Stadium in round four, then back-up to meet the Sydney Roosters the following weekend, April 8-10.
"It's not ideal [a first round bye], but the flippant way of looking at it is that at least we'll be joint competition leaders going in to round two," Raiders coach Matt Elliott said. "We'll have to sit down and look at how we're going to manage that training period because obviously we anticipated playing in the first week. Our trials were formulated around us playing in round one, so we'll have to look at what changes we need to make, otherwise we're going to have three weeks between our last trial game and first NRL match."
The Raiders have booked three trials for the pre-season. They will play the Central Queensland Comets at Rockhampton on February 5; the Bulldogs at Gosford on February 19; and the Brisbane Broncos at Toowoomba on February 26.
Elliott has not ruled out playing another trial against non-NRL opposition. In 2003, the Raiders played one trial against four NSW central coast teams - a fresh opposition team every quarter. Elliott said it was an option for this pre-season.
"We've got to make [the first round bye] a positive for us," Elliott said. "I'm fairly happy with the way the rest of the draw has panned out. It's good for our home crowd as well, they get to see some good footy at home early in the season.
"I'm looking forward to putting on some great performances for our spectators and showing them what sort of outfit we're going to be in 2005."
