It was the Fourth of July 1982 Seiffert Oval Queanbeyan and I was one of the 13,758 at the ground that day to witness the Canberra Raiders in their first season slay the Mighty Dragons. It was the day my friend, Angel Marina, was playing on the wing and scored three tries to catapult the Green Machine to a shock win over the Saints. I remember the day vividly, sitting in the old cold western stand and coming to the realization that I had organically become a Raiders Fan! It came as a bit of a shock to me because having been raised in the St George district of Sydney I grew up supporting and watching some of the greats of Rugby League play the game. 
The likes of Langlands, Smith, Gasnier, Clay, Provan, Raper etc made it compelling to follow the famous Red and White V even though you couldn’t see colour on TV in those days. You could however get all the “colour” you wanted by just tuning into 2SM on the wireless and hearing the famous Frank Hyde’s call of the great game of rugby league complete with his berating of anyone who obscured his view of the action from his sideline commentary position and his legendary description of a place kick with the call “it’s long enough, it’s high enough, it’s straight between the posts”. So compelling were those football heroes my brothers and I had to collect all the player profile footy cards only obtained by purchasing and chewing copious amounts of Scanlens bubble gum.
Fast forward to 1987 I find myself as the co-host of Sport 87 on CTC 7 or Capital Television Canberra the year the Raiders made their first Grand Final only to be rolled by the silvertail Sea Eagles inspired by the crafty and annoying talents of Cliff Lyons. That led to the privilege of covering the golden years of the Raiders from 87-95 as a sports journalist. I was with our TV crew the day Laurie Daley dropped the Winfield Cup and it spun across the road on State Circle, I was there to report on the extraordinary celebrations after our first Grand Final victory and the greatest Grand Final of all time in 1989 and I was there the day we should have had a “three-pete”of premierships in 1991 when Mark Geyer clocked Bradley Clyde because Penrith knew they couldn’t win without taking out the supreme running and tackling machine that Clyde was in his prime. 
The celebrations were just as wild in 1994 when Mal Meninga led the mighty Raiders to a crushing victory over the hapless Canterbury Bankstown after Martin Bella dropped the ball for the bulldogs from the kick-off. The Raiders Mawson Club was packed to the rafters for the arrival of the players and I was once again fortunate enough join the players bus for its journey from Mawson to the Raiders heartland of Queanbeyan for even more revelry and boisterous partying.
From 2002 – 2010 you could find me on the sideline for every Raiders home game as the ground announcer. I didn’t enjoy being in the game day broadcast box, I preferred just like Frank Hyde, to be on the sideline so I could get a feel for the mood of the crowd and try to pump them up when the team needed support the most.
I was there for some lean years but I witnessed some great courage in 
adversity and the glue that keeps the Canberra Raiders fans stuck on one of the great clubs of Rugby League in the modern era. There were some memorable sideline moments like when Alan Tongue left the interchange bench to ask me to be a little more humble as I emphasized the word NIL every time the Raiders scored in the thrashing of the Brisbane Broncos 56 – 0 in 2009 and then there was the time Troy Thompson convinced me to introduce all the players by their nicknames. I’m not sure all the players were overly impressed especially Terry (comb-over) Campese and Trevor (Bizarro) Thurling.
Since I retired from the ground announcing my passion for the Green Machine has never waned and I hate to miss a match “just in case”. As I say, you can witness on field events in Raiders games that you just don’t see in any other NRL games, whether it be bizarre refereeing decisions or just outright on-field brilliance. Ricky Stuart is absolutely correct when he says “we are treated differently to every other NRL club“. Maybe they haven’t forgiven us for being the first team to lift the trophy out of Sydney.
Our commitment as fans was tested during the Super League phase but the true believers saw it through and came out the other side. My passion for the Raiders has never subsided since that day in 1982 at Seifert Oval when I unexpectedly turned green and us Raiders fans will continue to bleed green and count down the days till we get another shot next season and edge closer to another well deserved NRL Premiership.
Go You Mighty Raiders!