BY DAN

The Canberra Raiders have acquired another highly touted youngster to put with its generation next. Myles Martin, captain of the Newcastle Jersey Flegg side, and current member of their top 30 will join the club on a three year deal from 2025.

It doesn’t take a genius to see this as further burnishing of Canberra’s burgeoning youth movement. Martin is broadly the same age as Strange/Stewart/Sanders. Coach Stuart recently remarked about there would be more announcements of young players in the future. Whether Martin is the first of many or not remains to be seen, but it’s clear this is the teams well-identified approach to ‘building through the draftCup’. We recently wrote about the three different generations of Raiders. Right now the youngest is getting all the attention. It could be near half the roster by next season. Literally. Assuming the club keeps Hohepa Puru too, 14 of the top 30 will be 23 and under to start of the next pre-season on 1 November.

Canberra are building this generation but doing it in a multi-faceted way. The failed run(s) at David Fifita and the loss of Jack Wighton have highlighted that proven players aren’t an option in the free-agent market, and that they have to build bottom up. Developing players can mean getting them right at the beginning of the pathway. It can also mean finding players blocked by established first graders. The bottleneck starts somewhere, and Canberra are taking the overflow. Strange and Sanders are both examples of that. Hohepa Puru is another that came to the club blocked from first grade by Isaah Yeo.

Indeed as reported by veteran Newcastle journalist Barry Toohey, the reason that Martin has joined the Raiders is because he’d fallen behind other people in Newcastle’s depth chart. At 20 that barely matters. He’s coming off a significant injury (the same pathway that brought Pasami Saulo to the side) and its apparently hampered his performance this year. Only four games in Cup footy (and only two where he made the field) has been the result. But picking pedigree when it’s undervalued in the knowledge a bill of health, and the opportunity to reach your potential is a good way to claim that sweet, sweet, surplus value for yourself.

Martin is less of a certainty than Strange, Stewart and Sanders. All of those players have been a part of NSW Cup footy last season, and were expected to play first grade this year. All now have. Martin has only played a handful of NSW Cup games, and only limited minutes in those. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a high ceiling, but rather is recognition of where he’s currently at.

And that’s ok. Martin is currently a lock, Canberra don’t need him to be good now. Lock is also Corey Horsburgh, Morgan Smithies and Hohepa Puru’s position. It’s safe to say there’s a bit of competition for him to work through before he’s competing for first grade. Canberra can afford to take the time needed to let him grow. Three years is plenty of time to see if the potential the club has identified can start to be produced.

I’m guessing he’s going to have a top 30 position for next season – that is presumably the reason he’s left the Knights. The Raiders expected top 30 for 2025 is a bit murky, but my guess is that it means even with Sanders and Martin (and keeping Cotric and Puru) they still have two more open spots, but it’s hard to tell (e.g. Corey Harawira-Naera). There is a little part of me that is a smidge worried about what this mean’s for Puru’s expiring deal with the club. He’s got an option for next year. We’ve not heard if he’s picked it up, and as such he’ll be on the market come 1 November either way. Could the club be preparing themselves for their ‘next’ lock in the knowledge Puru is going elsewhere? I hope not.

Much will be made that he’s a Knight, adding him to the pile of self-proclaimed Stray Dogs that have come from the region (Tapine, Young, Starling, Saulo, Sasagi, Levi, Woolford, Hosking have all played football in the Knights system). Partly that’s coincidence, partly that’s related to Ricky Stuart and Mick Crawley’s relationships in the region. I don’t really care where you find talent. The key bit is finding it. Besides, James Schiller is going the other way. Fair trade if you ask me.

But the main game is getting talent. Canberra have made it clear that’s their focus and have put a sizeable bet on the fact that Martin is exactly that.

Do me a favour and like the page on Facebook,  follow me on Twitter, or share this on social media and I’ll sing you a song about the summer’s moon. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not