The drunken late-night altercation involving Canberra’s Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies in a Las Vegas hotel was the first big rugby league story of the year.

It was also the moment that galvanised the Raiders, helping propel them to the NRL minor premiership and a sold-out qualifying final clash with the Broncos at GIO Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Young and Smithies sheepishly fronted TV cameras in Vegas after it emerged they had been involved in a fight outside their room.

The skirmish spilled into an elevator at Resorts World, and security staff, watching on CCTV, feared an inflatable baseball bat was a more serious weapon and that the pair were about to inflict some real damage.

Young was the one who picked up the phone to confess to coach Ricky Stuart – a notoriously hardline c

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