Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart is hoping for good headaches in 2021.
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He can be excused for thinking all he had was bad ones this NRL season, where everything from a huge injury toll to the Queensland government seemed to conspire against the Green Machine.
The Project Apollo protocols, which helped get the NRL back on the park during the coronavirus pandemic, led to the Raiders having the toughest travel schedule of any team in the competition.
They even had to play a few "home" games at Campbelltown after the ACT government locked down Canberra Stadium.
Then their injuries started to mount, with Canberra coach Ricky Stuart missing seven first-graders for their round 10 trip to the SCG when they knocked off the Sydney Roosters.
That toll was especially felt through the middle, where he had star hooker Josh Hodgson (knee), John Bateman (shoulder), Emre Guler (ankle), Sia Soliola (face), Corey Horsburgh (foot), Hudson Young (suspension) and Ryan Sutton (knee) all unavailable throughout the year.
With any luck he'll have most of those forwards back - with even Hodgson a chance of being ready for round one in 2021 if he repeats his seven-month recovery from a knee reconstruction.
But with the way all of his forwards performed this season, Stuart could go from scratching his head over who to pick due to lack of options to scratching it over having too many.
Josh Papalii, Joe Tapine, Elliott Whitehead, Dunamis Lui, Sutton, Soliola, Ryan James, Young, Corey Harawira-Naera, Horsburgh and Guler will be vying for the five starting forward spots and three on the bench.
That makes for an impressive pack, but also some selection dilemmas.
"I know how important the middle unit is and with some youth coming through, those boys who didn't play this year coming back and the addition of Ryan James we certainly are going to have a competitive middle unit," Stuart said.
"It'll be different headaches to this year where I was looking for players.
"It'll be a situation - without injury - there'll be players there that can take the load off players such as Josh and Nams and Taps who have had to sustain a massive workload this year."
$3m in talent
It makes the Raiders' season all the more impressive when you consider just how much talent they had on the sidelines.
Raiders recruitment guru Pete Mulholland estimated they were without about one third of their salary cap for a large chunk of the campaign, with Curtis Scott (leg) and Bailey Simonsson (shoulder) also out for extended periods.
The plus side was it allowed them to blood six first-grade debutants in Semi Valemei, Kai O'Donnell, Harley Smith-Shields, Matthew Timoko, Adam Cook and Darby Medlyn.
"I think people forget what we had out when we played a majority of the season without five starters," Mulholland said.
"It's easy just to discount that: Hodgson, Horsburgh, Guler, Simonsson, Scott, Sutton.
"We did it pretty tough. There's probably close to $3 million worth of players off the field. That's 30 per cent of your salary cap. That's a lot of money."
Contract tracing
The Raiders only have a handful of players coming off contract on Sunday with Lui, Young and Guler the most prominent - Mulholland revealing he'd already started discussions to extend Guler's contract.
Soliola will likely take his time before making a call whether he'll continue playing in 2022, while Penrith fullback Caleb Aekins has come in on a one-year deal in search of opportunity.
Hooker Siliva Havili, halves Sam Williams and Matt Frawley, and outside backs Valemei and Smith-Shields can also sign elsewhere from the start of November.
"Emre I'm down the line with and Hudson I'll start to talk with [manager Sam Ayoub] now he's back [from Queensland]," Mulholland said.
New Scott
After a tough season, Scott almost comes into 2021 like a new recruit.
Injury, form and battling a brutal, unlawful arrest at the hands of NSW police meant the Green Machine haven't seen the best of the centre.
The departure of Nick Cotric and the imminent re-signing of Jordan Rapana means he could form a right-edge pairing with the latter next season.
John Bateman's return to England means Young and Harawira-Naera will likely battle it out to fill the right-edge forward role.
Hodgson's combination with boom halves Jack Wighton and George Williams is another area of interest, after the playmakers took control of the team in the second half of the season to great effect.
Nice tackle
Papalii's tackle of the year is now immortalised in a pair of budgy smugglers.
The Queensland star's effort to run down Gold Coast halfback Jamal Fogarty sums up the Green Machine's gutsy 2020 campaign.
Nice tackle, Papa. Nice tackle.
RAIDERS AT A GLANCE
Finished 5th, 14 wins, 6 losses, 445 points for, 317 against
Preliminary final: Lost to Melbourne Storm 30-10
Qualifying final: Beat Sydney Roosters 22-18
Elimination final: Beat Cronulla Sharks 32-20
Ins: Ryan James, Caleb Aekins, Harry Rushton
Outs: John Bateman, Nick Cotric