Canberra Raiders fighting to create NRL Anzac rivalry with North Queensland Cowboys

As well as setting up an Anzac Round rivalry with the North Queensland Cowboys, the Green Machine also wants to host the Canterbury Bulldogs for the 30th anniversary of their 1994 premiership.

The Raiders have finalised their requests for next year's NRL draw, where each team can nominate up to three "priority games" for next season's fixture list.

Their third and final request would be for a big-drawing home game against the likes of South Sydney or Parramatta.

But top of the list would be to honour the ADF during the NRL's Anzac Round.

Next year's Anzac Day falls on a Thursday, when the traditional NRL games between Melbourne and the New Zealand Warriors, and the Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra Dragons will be played.

But the Raiders want to set up a Cowboys clash that brings together the two ADF strongholds.

Canberra is the home of the Royal Military College at Duntroon, while Townsville has the Australian Army's Lavarack Barracks and a Royal Australian Air Force base.

The Raiders want to draw on that next year, with the fact the Cowboys were coached by former Raiders prop Todd Payten adding to the history.

"We're going to ask for an Anzac game ... we tried it a number of years ago, to try to set up a rivalry game, for the sake of a better word, with North Queensland," Raiders chief operating officer Jason Mathie told The Canberra Times.

"Both those towns, Canberra and North Queensland, have the largest representation of defence personnel in the game.

"Canberra's the home of defence technically and there's a very big deployment of defence people that live in North Queensland.

"So we're going to request an Anzac match in Canberra for North Queensland, so hopefully that's a positive. They're an attractive team as well."

The Raiders also want to celebrate their 1994 NSWRL premiership triumph over the Bulldogs.

Canberra completely outplayed Canterbury to run out 36-12 victors and claim its third premiership, following triumphs in 1989 and 1990.

It will be the 30th anniversary of their last grand final success, which was also the last Raiders game of club legend Mal Meninga's career, capped by his iconic late intercept try.

The 1994 squad is arguably the best Raiders team of all time, with the likes of current Canberra coach Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley, Steve Walters, Bradley Clyde and Brett Mullins.

"Next year, people mightn't have remembered, but it's the 30^th anniversary of '94, so we are going to be requesting a home game against the Bulldogs," Mathie said.

"The 30^th anniversary of 94 is going to be great for our team. I think we've got a really good record of celebrating anniversary events as a club and we haven't been able to celebrate the 94 one in recent times; we have for 90 and 89.

"So we will definitely be doing some activity around that ... 93-94 Raiders was just considered an awesome team."

The Raiders also want to host one of the big-drawing clubs.

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"Traditionally, we always look, from a commercial reality, we would love one of the big teams," Mathie said.

"South Sydney, Parramatta, Penrith in recent years - we will be requesting one of those.

"The way it works is every team puts their submission in, the game goes and has a look - because there might be some alignments with what other teams are requesting - and they come back to you and they spit out the draw once they get ground availabilities, conflicting arrangements with Super Rugby, AFL and all that stuff."

NRL ROUND 25

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Canterbury Bulldogs at Canberra Stadium, 4.05pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Jordan Rapana, 2. Albert Hopoate, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Matt Timoko, 5. Nick Cotric, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papali'i, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Corey Horsburgh. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Emre Guler, 16. James Schiller, 17. Ata Mariota. Reserves: 18. Trey Mooney, 19. Matt Frawley. 20. Ethan Strange. 21. Brad Morkos. 22. Adrian Trevilyan.

Bulldogs: 1. Jake Averillo, 2. Blake Wilson, 3. Jacob Kiraz, 4. Braidon Burns, 5. Josh Addo-Carr, 6. Matt Burton, 7. Toby Sexton, 8. Max King, 9. Reed Mahoney, 10. Liam Knight, 11. Viliame Kikau, 12. Corey Waddell, 13. Ryan Sutton. Interchange: 14. Kyle Flanagan, 15. Luke Thompson, 16. Raymond Faitala-Mariner, 17. Tevita Pangai Junior. Reserves: 19. Harrison Edwards, 20. Kurtis Morrin, 21. Jayden Okunbor, 22. Hayze Perham, 23. Reece Hoffman.

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