2006 Canberra Raiders season

The 2006 Canberra Raiders season was the 25th in the club's history. They competed in the NRL's 2006 Telstra Premiership, finishing the regular season 7th (out of 15) to make the finals. They were knocked out of the play-offs in the first week by the Bulldogs.

The Raiders started the 2006 season heavy favourites to run last,^[1] however the raiders' players believed that they could make the top 8, but despite this external pessimism and heavy losses to the Knights and the Roosters early on, fought back and guaranteed themselves a finals berth with a round to play. 2006 saw club stalwarts Simon Woolford, newly named captain, Clinton Schifcofske and the club's longest serving player, Jason Croker, leave the club, going to St George Illawarra, the Queensland Reds rugby union team and the Super League club the Catalans Dragons respectively. Outgoing backs Schifcofske and Adam Mogg both earned representative berths with Queensland in State of Origin. Saturday 9 September 2006 saw Jason Croker, Simon Woolford, Clinton Schifcofske, Michael Hodgson, Jason Smith and Adam Mogg all play their final games for the club. The round one finals series clash with the Bulldogs saw the Raiders defeated 30-12 in slippery and muddy conditions at Telstra Stadium, and eliminated from the 2006 premiership race. This was also the final match for coach Matthew Elliott, who is coaching Penrith in 2007. His replacement was former North Queensland Cowboys' assistant coach Neil Henry.^[2]

Trial Games Round Opponent Result Can. Opp. Date Venue Crowd Position Trial 1 New Zealand Warriors Win 28 16 Feb 12 North Harbour Stadium 11,000 N/A[3] Trial 2 Brisbane Broncos Loss 20 28 Feb 18 Port Macquarie Regional Stadium 6,000 N/A[4] NRL Regular Season Games 1 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles Win 27 14 11 Mar Brookvale Oval 17,135 4/15 2 Newcastle Knights Loss 32 70 19 Mar Canberra Stadium 11,606 10/15 3 Sydney Roosters Loss 56 20 26 Mar Sydney Football Stadium 9,826 14/15 4 Penrith Panthers Win 21 20 1 Apr Canberra Stadium 9,399 12/15 5 Bulldogs Loss 12 30 9 Apr Canberra Stadium 12,125 12/15 6 New Zealand Warriors Win 18 14 15 Apr Canberra Stadium 7,174 11/15 7 BYE 21-23 Apr 9/15 8 Brisbane Broncos Loss 28 30 29 Apr Suncorp Stadium 23,582 12/15 9 Parramatta Eels Win 30 10 6 May Parramatta Stadium 10,146 9/15 10 Cronulla Sharks Loss 18 14 14 May Canberra Stadium 9,695 12/15 11 Newcastle Knights Loss 22 12 20 May Energy Australia Stadium 18,236 12/15 12 North Queensland Cowboys Win 15 14 27 May Dairy Farmers Stadium 16,971 12/15 13 South Sydney Rabbitohs Win 24 22 3 Jun Canberra Stadium 10,150 10/15 14 Bulldogs Win 28 26 12 Jun Telstra Stadium 12,541 9/15 15 Melbourne Storm Loss 22 12 18 Jun Olympic Park 7,954 10/15 16 Sydney Roosters Win 42 10 25 Jun Canberra Stadium 11,876 8/15 17 Parramatta Eels Loss 12 18 1 Jul Canberra Stadium 8,824 9/15 18 Penrith Panthers Loss 12 24 8 Jul Penrith Stadium 9,111 11/15 19 Wests Tigers Win 20 18 16 Jul Canberra Stadium 9,125 10/15 20 St George Illawarra Dragons Win 31 12 23 Jul Canberra Stadium 13,504 9/15 21 South Sydney Rabbitohs Loss 8 21 29 Jul Telstra Stadium 6,152 12/15 22 Brisbane Broncos Win 30 18 6 Aug Canberra Stadium 13,137 8/15 23 Wests Tigers Win 19 18 13 Aug Campbelltown Stadium 18,474 8/15 24 BYE 18-20 Aug 8/15 25 Melbourne Storm Loss 18 22 26 Aug Canberra Stadium 21,255 8/15 26 Cronulla Sharks Win 26 24 2 Sep Toyota Stadium 9,289 7/15 NRL Finals Games QF Bulldogs Loss 12 30 9 Sep Telstra Stadium 14,628 N/A

Colour Result Green Win Red Loss Yellow Golden point Win Blue Bye Round 19 Raiders playing the Tigers at Canberra Stadium

2006 NRL season v t e
Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	B	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Melbourne Storm	24	20	0	4	2	605	404	+201	441
2	Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs	24	16	0	8	2	608	468	+140	36
3	Brisbane Broncos (P)	24	14	0	10	2	497	392	+105	32
4	Newcastle Knights	24	14	0	10	2	608	538	+70	32
5	Manly Warringah Sea Eagles	24	14	0	10	2	534	493	+41	32
6	St George Illawarra Dragons	24	14	0	10	2	519	481	+38	32
7	Canberra Raiders	24	13	0	11	2	525	573	-48	30
8	Parramatta Eels	24	12	0	12	2	506	483	+23	28
9	North Queensland Cowboys	24	11	0	13	2	450	463	-13	26
10	New Zealand Warriors	24	12	0	12	2	552	463	+89	242
11	Wests Tigers	24	10	0	14	2	490	565	-75	24
12	Penrith Panthers	24	10	0	14	2	510	587	-77	24
13	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks	24	9	0	15	2	515	544	-29	22
14	Sydney Roosters	24	8	0	16	2	528	650	-122	20
15	South Sydney Rabbitohs	24	3	0	21	2	429	772	-343	10

¹ The Melbourne Storm were later stripped of this minor premiership due to gross salary cap breaches.
² The New Zealand Warriors were deducted 4 competition points due to gross salary cap breaches.