Inside Joseph Tapine’s rise at Canberra Raiders, background, Ricky Stuart

In Canberra, nobody expects the Sydney press to give the Raiders their due.

The blokes in the changeroom know the reality — performing for a high-profile Sydney club will always get bigger headlines than doing the heavy lifting in green.

Watch every game of every round of the NRL Premiership LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.

So, when the predictions came out that the wheels would fall off after the 2025 Minor Premiership, nobody down south was surprised.

For the first half of this year, the critics actually looked right. The Raiders stumbled, slid down the ladder, and looked completely out of rhythm.

But the ship is turning. Shifting Ethan Strange back to his preferred left edge has unlocked his natural weapons and given Kaeo Weekes the space he needs to cause absolute havoc.

Young Owen Pattie is starting games and reproducing the form that saw him debut in Vegas, regularly turning matches on their head by dropping 40/20s for fun.

Yet through all the tactical shifts and early turbulence, the one rock-solid constant in the capital remains Joe Tapine.

Tapine’s journey to the Canberra captaincy didn’t start in a boardroom. It started on a wind-swept sideline in Newcastle.

The late Peter Mulholland had done the initial scouting work, spotting a teenager playing against men back in New Zealand and luring him to the Knights for the NYC Under-20s.

Joe didn’t say much when he arrived, but his motor and footy ability were impossible to ignore.

Get all the latest NRL news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now!!!

Within a week, his teammates were calling him ‘Sonny Bill’, and he dropped a beep test score that only club legend Kurt Gidley had bettered that entire pre-season.

Under Wayne Bennett, Joe got his first taste of the top grade, but when Bennett departed amidst the chaos of the Nathan Tinkler collapse, Tapine began to drift.

It was the classic trap for a young talent without a North Star: mid-week drinking, slapping the slots, nothing malicious, just a gifted kid nowhere near the best version of himself.

The turning point arrived during a Raiders road trip to Newcastle. Standing on the sideline watching reserve grade, Ricky Stuart turned to Mulholland — who had by then moved to Canberra to head up recruitment — and asked a simple question: “Which one is Tapine?” Mulholland pointed toward the middle. As if on cue, Tapine took the ball, used light footwork that defied his frame to slice between defenders, and delivered a clinical offload for a try. Ricky didn’t need to see another set.

The sliding-doors moment on the field was sealed.

RELATED: The positional switch driving Raiders resurgence, and the ‘unicorn’ behind it

But while that day in Newcastle shifted his footy path, the real turning point in Joe’s life off the field was meeting Kirsten. She provided the stability, perspective, and grounding he needed to turn his life around. Today, they are married with two kids, and that anchor at home changed his course completely.

When Joe arrived in Canberra as an edge backrower, nobody doubted his raw ability. Ricky Stuart didn’t need a leap of faith to see what Tapine could do — the footy instincts and those explosive ‘wow’ moments were already plain as day.

It wasn’t about coaches teaching him; it was about Joe gradually understanding what the NRL required every single week.

The real shift came when he started playing representative footy. Earning those rep jerseys proved to Joe that he didn’t just belong in the top grade — he belonged at the very top of the game.

That self-belief, paired with the shift into the middle, transformed him.

But the blueprint for the man he wanted to become came from his best mate, Josh Papalii.

Big Papa didn’t just teach him front-row footy; he showed him how to be a devoted family man, a genuine, kind person who didn’t walk around cranky at the world, but could flick an absolute lethal switch the moment it was game time.

You could see that influence take hold of Joe, stripping away the old volatile edges and replacing them with the composure of a genuine general.

That shift became official on presentation night when Joe was announced to succeed Elliott Whitehead as captain.

Standing in a room full of teammates, sponsors, and club stalwarts, there were no corporate PR lines or canned responses. In front of a crowd expecting standard athlete speak, the tough enforcer vanished.

Joe spoke with a raw, tearful honesty that gave everyone in that room goosebumps. That vulnerability is what real leadership is all about.

When an international test forward and a multi-time Mal Meninga Medal winner lays bare just how much it means to captain this club — and how much relentless effort goes into earning that green jersey — it sets an untouchable standard. It doesn’t just ask for respect; it demands you follow him.

In that single moment, anyone who doubted where Canberra was heading knew the club was set. He had built up the ultimate ‘Shed Currency’ — a leader blokes would bleed for because they knew he’d do the exact same for them.

Now, as the Raiders pack their bags for Mudgee to take on Penrith, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

A win keeps the dream alive, but a loss will almost certainly sink their season. All eyes in the broadcast will naturally be on the marquee battles — Nathan Cleary and Isaah Yeo driving Penrith’s machine against the raw excitement of Ethan Strange and Kaeo Weeks.

But if you want to know how this game will truly be decided, watch the off-the-ball stuff. When the Panthers slice through for a half-break or a desperate cover tackle needs to be made 40 metres away, look closely at who is in the frame.

It will be Taps.

He worked it out a long time ago: highlight reels don’t win tough footy matches — the little, unheralded efforts do. And win or lose in Mudgee, that is the standard Joe Tapine brings to the table every single week.