BY DAN

Canberra’s chase for a replacement for Jack Wighton is about as active (at least publicly) as a hungover sloth waiting for the delivery guy to bring that sweet relief.

When they first started this chase there were a host of options – almost too many to consider within these pages. Since then they’ve quietly been eliminated like they were being hunted by the Bride. Ben Hunt’s relationship with the Dragons was repaired. Luke Brooks signed with Manly. Blake Taafe with the Dogs. Lachlan Lam extended with Leigh. If Jonah Pezet, Jack Welsby, or Luke Metcalf is being pried out of their existing contracts there’s been zero noise (nor, theoretically, should there be, given they’re not allowed to speak to rival clubs, something that apparently doesn’t count for David Fifita).

Well kiddo at this moment this the Raiders at their most masochistic. If work is being done on what next it’s happening behind closed doors. But it seems most likely Canberra are playing the waiting game (and I know you wanted to play hungry hungry hippos), hoping that a relationship is ended, or key decisions are made that mean young players have to look elsewhere. Maybe Jonah Pezet doesn’t want to wait for 2026 to get a permanent shot at first grade? Maybe the Raiders can do the deal that brings Ethan Sanders to town early (which *almost* happened recently if it weren’t for a sour Eels exec standing in the way). If a solution is on the way I’m no better informed than you. In the meantime we get to feel that slight sting of hope, mixed with a tinge of sadness and the knowledge that it sits outside Canberra’s control.

As Don Furner on the Raider Nick and Night podcast recently that

It honestly changes week to week. You’re looking at someone, you’re looking at someone else, someone else gets injured, someone gets let go, a coach gets the sack and someone’s got a get out clause in their contract. It changes so quickly….We have a revolving hit list, and we have a revoling list of our own forward planning and it literally changes weekly.

Don Furner Jr to other other Raider Nick

This is the challenge. Now that Jack is gone, Canberra is at the whim of the fates. The outcome is unknown – or at least uncertain. They could unearth a brilliant option we hadn’t thought of (or had but assumed impossible). But you can’t rely on it. As we’ve seen with Hunt, and Fifita, those options to blow their way out of the joint haven’t helped the Raiders. But what else around?

And we’ve seen how this fluidity manifests. The Raiders were linked to Jarome Luai, a linkage that was borne from the theories of Danny Weidler, was repeated by the histrionics of NRL360 and then finally in the farce of Dane Eldridge’s parody-taken-too-literally. The Raiders Raise has been put to full effect in the linking to Ezra Mam, who would be excellent at Canberra but isn’t coming, because the Raider Raise is god and I am but it’s broken vessel. When you have spare cash and need it makes for easy column inches. But it apparently doesn’t bring a half to town.

The key here is not to panic, and the good thing is the club has so far not thrown money at imperfect options. Many of the solutions that have existed would have relied on paying elite money to players with role-player upside. That’s not sustainable way to build a premiership side. You end up with too much roster and cap space dedicated to solid players while still looking for your high-end talent at other pay grades. Paying out on that now just because you’ve got the cap space is like buying a high status car that actually isn’t good but just costs a lot (i’d name a car but the fanciest car I’ve ever owned is my 2005 Golf. My guess is a Saab. Do they still exist?).

But being disciplined about where you throw the money puts you in a position where you’ll have to make do with the car you have at home in the meantime. Matt Frawley is my Golf. Hopefully the club knows that Frawley isn’t a solution for anything other than spot fires and mentoring young halves in Cup footy. On the aforementioned podcast Furner suggested it was likely they’d need to go the youth route. This is definitely a risk but one worth taking. It’s pursuit will be bumpy – the next young half to have a seamless and uninterrupted integration into a first grade squad will be the first – but the options Canberra has there are more appealing than much of what is now available in free-agency.

Ethan Strange is a more upside option than Frawley. There would be questions about his physical readiness, not to mention ability to make the dramatic jump from Cup footy to key first grade cog (and if there’s chaos all around him as last week, it’s hardly a useful place to develop). They say the game is faster, and it requires faster decision-making and creating. If he comes to the club early Ethan Sanders might well be a future star (and would be an easy fit with Fogarty) but hasn’t played first grade, and while he looks *fucking incredible* in any game I’ve seen him play it’s a lot to ask for him to solve a problem at just 19. Furner also admitted that Brad Schneider remains a possibility which is nice, but seems to fly in the face of the noise around Strange and Sanders.

None of those solutions scream “premiership winning five-eighth” in 2024. If Canberra are keen about contending next year they’ll need to stay in the market. The options in that market are now extremely thin, and with Strange and Sanders now essentially in the pathway, any decisions about who to bring in needs to be made with them in mind (to an extent – there’s no guarantees in football). That means bringing someone like Schneider back home, or paying overs to bring Jonah Pezet in, feels unlikely because these are long-term plays and the club has those options on deck. But the medium term options have long been swallowed by a market that moved with more desperation than the Milk.

There are options still out there that could fill the role in the medium term, though it’s hard to tell how realistic they are. So much is dependent on what shakes out after the season. There’s no shortages of places that players will fall out of. Knights are bringing English star Will Pryce into a system that will then need to shed a halves option – could Tyson Gamble be the mid-term solution? The Dogs are bringing Blake Taafe and Toby Sexton and seem keen on treating their roster like NRL CEO rather than an actual team (though the main chase there may be for Ray Faitala Mariner). The Warriors will probably sign Luke Metcalfe in the long term, but that means you can probably make a play for either Ronald Volkman, Te Maire Martin, or the returning Chanel Harris-Tavita. Schneider could still be an option, and in this pages we’ve learned never say never. And it’d at least have more upside than Frawley.

None of these should excite you but sometimes there aren’t perfect options. The idea of waiting in vain and embedding that awful ‘transitional’ term in the description of the roster because a good six option hasn’t been found is as disappointing as it is understandable. It may even be the right decision – this team might be loading up a run for two years time, timing the peaks of Young/Horsburgh, the ending prime of Joe Tapine, with the emergence of the next generation. It’s a tough job being CEO.

If only Jack had stuck around a few more years. He’d be a pretty handy bridge to the next generation.

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