Manuka Oval mooted as potential home for Canberra Raiders and ACT Brumbies during Canberra Stadium rebuild

The Canberra Raiders and ACT Brumbies could be forced to move to Manuka Oval and abandon their regular home if a staged rebuild turns Canberra Stadium into a construction site.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is pushing ahead with a vision to revamp the AIS precinct, ditching plans to build a stadium in Civic despite Senator David Pocock and industry leaders urging him to reconsider the location for a new venue.

Stadium experts tip a knockdown and rebuild on the existing site would likely be a two-year project - but a staged rebuild could blow the timeframe out to almost four years while costs skyrocket.

A staged rebuild would require a knockdown and rebuild of one section at a time, with fans booted out of their seats by bulldozers.

There is now a sense moving the Raiders, Brumbies and a Canberra A-League Men's team to Manuka Oval for the duration of the rebuild could be a realistic avenue.

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There are concerns clubs would feel the pinch with crowd figures and memberships potentially dropping if they are forced to play in a smaller venue built for AFL and cricket.

A move across town could also put the Raiders, Brumbies, and an ALM team on a collision course with the GWS Giants with all four teams needing to play fixtures at the venue.

The Brumbies had submitted a proposal to the ACT government to play a heritage match at Manuka during the 2020 season to mark 25 years of Super Rugby in the capital, but plans were scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Just how stirring is listening to Wallabies coach Eddie Jones present his World Cup vision? Enough to spark "a couple of fights" at ACT Brumbies training.

And that's exactly what Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham wanted to see, days after calling on his players to lift their intensity after a "passive" showing in Wellington, he got the response he wanted.

"There was a fair bit of contact out there. We had Eddie down presenting his vision for the World Cup. I think that probably lifted the intensity of training," Larkham said.

"I think they had a really good focus coming out onto the field, and there was a little bit of added spice out there with a couple of fights, which you want to see."

No Limit promoters George and Matt Rose can hold the phone - Larkham grins this was "nothing too serious", so they might not get Allan Alaalatoa in the ring with Junior Paulo in a hurry.

"Everybody was out to impress Eddie today," Brumbies scrumhalf Nic White grinned in passing. "Holy dooley, that was some session."

Canberra A-League bid director Michael Caggiano is closing in on investors to fund a $25 million licence to join Australian soccer's top flight.

Caggiano is confident an ALM team in Canberra will be sustainable as they jostle with the Raiders and Brumbies for corporate support.

Canberra's sporting scene is already stretched in the search for corporate cash when you throw in the GWS Giants and a raft of summer sporting teams.

So imagine the scrap if Eddie McGuire got his way with a bizarre plan to bring more Giants games to Manuka Oval.

McGuire has called for the Giants to play 11 games in Sydney and 11 games in Canberra, because "there's no need for you to come to Melbourne". If he wants to fund more games in the capital, then we're all ears. If not, we might as well just divide the AFL again. Victorian clubs can play in their coveted VFL, and those further north can revive the NEAFL.

Maybe sit this one out, Eddie.

Toby Greene returns to Canberra fresh off his match-winning heroics but you've got to wonder just which version of the GWS star we'll get this week.

The one who starred against the Western Bulldogs at Manuka Oval in both 2021 and 2018? Or the one who was banned for striking Caleb Daniel in 2017, or fined for what looked to be an eye gouge on Marcus Bontempelli in 2019?

Giants coach Adam Kingsley knew Greene was elite from the day he arrived in Sydney's west and is confident Canberra will get the best of the star forward against the Bulldogs on Saturday night.

"He trains in a way that almost forces you to follow him. He certainly leads the way in that in that sense," Kingsley said.

"I'm pleasantly surprised that he is that type of character who is a great teammate, a great leader, and certainly through actions as well as words."

It would be hard to say no to a gladiator, so how big a role did Russell Crowe play in luring Jack Wighton to the Rabbitohs when he made a surprise appearance in Canberra?

Crowe was in the capital just as South Sydney ramped up its bid to bring the Dally M Medal-winning Raider to their new Maroubra base on a four-year deal.

The Gladiator star was in town to join Amy Shark on stage at Groovin The Moo, and some wondered if he had seized the chance to meet the Raiders five-eighth to convince him to join South Sydney.

We went straight to the source and Wighton knocked it on the head, grinning a few messages back and forth had been the extent of his dealings with the A-Lister.

Some fans had already turned on Wighton, calling for him to be dropped after signing a cut-price deal to join the Rabbitohs in pursuit of a premiership.

A tearful Wighton responded in the best way possible, and now he is desperate to back it up with a Magic showing.

A Friday night at Canberra Stadium in the middle of Canberra's freezing winter hardly seems the time to be wearing shorts.

But maybe that is the perfect tribute to outgoing ACT Brumbies mentor Laurie Fisher, whose bucket hat and shorts combination is rugby's answer to a fried chicken joint's three-piece feed.

The Canberra rugby icon will finish his full-time coaching career at the end of the Super Rugby Pacific season with the Brumbies chasing a fairytale finish for one of the game's most beloved characters.

So how can fans honour the man known as "Lord"? Let's get the Brumbies to come to the party at their final home game of the regular season against the Melbourne Rebels on June 2.

How about every fan who turns up in shorts gets a free bucket hat - just like the one made that has been a staple in Fisher's wardrobe for years.

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