The first win was incredible.
In those days you only were allowed 13 imports into the club, otherwise they all had to be locals. The Sydney clubs put all sorts of nasty conditions on our entry. We even had to pay for their travel down to Canberra as well as our own travel to Sydney. Anyway, what that meant was that there weren't a whole lot of quality players in the club. Even the imports were not the top liners. Usually players who were trouble in their current club or getting a bit older.
A lot of the people going in the first year supported both their "Sydney" club as well as the Raiders. But the locals still wanted to see the Raiders succeed. All it needed was for the Raiders to start to win, and the loyalties would slowly drift to the local team. But in that first year, the Raiders were getting flogged every week. It was going to be a long first season. People in Sydney were saying we should never have been admitted, and that we might never win a game all season.
But then we played Newtown at Seiffert. The ground was always packed, even though the Raiders were losing, as seeing the top line competition was still a novelty. And the ground was small, even though it was a high quality ground for its day. I was on the hill on the western side. Frankly, I don't remember much about the match. Except that it was exceptionally close. We won 11-10 and just held on for the victory. I tell you the feeling in the crowd as the hooter sounded was like they had won the Grand Final for us. And the players jumped up and down like they had too. Everyone left the ground thinking how great it was, the Raiders had beaten Newtown, still a strong club in those days. The traditional traffic jam, trying to get out of Queanbeyan on the only 2 roads back to Canberra didn't seem so bad that day, people beeping horns and laughing. It was a good day.
