BY DAN

Last week’s dalliance has proven fruitful, with reporting emerging that Kaeo Weekes will be joining the Raiders on a two year for the 2024 and 2025 season (update: now official from the club). He’s hardly the experienced player many would have assumed the Raiders were in the market for, and that can be confusing. Why go to market for young talent when you have young talent at home?

As we said previously Weekes is an intriguing pick: an each-way bet providing coverage for both Chevy Stewart and Ethan Strange as they seek to transition to first grade. The Raiders see him this way too, according to the good people at the Canberra Times. Rather than lock him down as a five-eighth, or a fullback, they want it all (including, as the Times reported, as potential hooker depth). It’s understandable. There’s plenty of upside to what he offers, and much more dynamism than the Raiders offered at any of those positions during the 2023 season.

He provides a good fit at his preferred positions. At the back he’s insurance in case Chevy isn’t physically ready, Xavier is shifted permanently to wing (or never gets it, whatever ‘it’ is according to Stuart) and Jordan Rapana and Seb Kris prefer to go back to their actual positions than cover for a misshapen roster. At six he’s a good facsimile for Ethan Strange, at least in the role he would play and how he’d fit as a secondary ball-player alongside Jamal Fogarty.

While the 12 games under his belt hardly makes him the hardened veteran the Raiders had been trying to get their hands on, he’s been in and around first grade squads for multiple years now. I’m not sure you can draw too much from what he’s shown at Manly. He’s either fit in alongside dominant ball-players or in team’s completely bereft of them thanks to Origin. While he’s only 21 this will be the first time he might be a more permanent part of a structure, able to establish a continuous role. If he’s going to be ready for first grade Canberra are likely to be the people that find out.

It’s an intriguing micro-trend when considered in conjunction with the signature of Simi Sasagi, another player off no fixed positional abode. Forgive me for combining hope and confirmation bias, but it may indicate that the Raiders have identified a lack of flexibility in their roster throughout 2023, forcing them into playing a very specific style and having no option to play a more ‘pace and space’ approach. Sasagi will provide mobility on the edge, Weekes potentially dynamism through the spine. Combined with a hopefully returning Corey Harawira-Naera and the coming era of Hohepa Puru, and the Raiders could shift rapidly from being the cumbersome battering ram of the competition to something more agile, with more options in the kit-bag. If this is the case it’s not only good for the immediate team, but proof that the front-office is more flexible than we give it credit for (still as flexible as an old man picking up something off the ground, but it’s better than the Frankenstein’s monster we’d assumed).

Having someone competing for multiple positions also gives Stuart something he always desperately craves – competition. We seem to write about this every off-season, but it’s a common thread in signatures that don’t otherwise have a clear pathway to first grade. Stuart wants people that will push players to earn their spots. Weekes will do that, for Ethan Strange, for Chevy Stewart and Xavier Savage, and apparently even for the four hookers on the wider roster.

It’s not necessarily the most inspiring or big splash pick up that many would hope the Raiders could have made in the post Jack world, but of course here in reality we always had a hunch something like this would be the outcome. On paper Willie Mason will be ready to fire out his takes but of course Canberra made less with more this season, and more with less in the past. A chance at something a bit more structured, with opportunity for young talent to flourish may be just what the Milk need.

I have seen suggestions from paid idiots talking heads that Stuart is putting Weekes at the front of the queue for five-eighth and I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that. Strange has been identified by Stuart, by the departing Matt Frawley, and the club more broadly as a big part of the Raiders future and I find it hard to believe that Stuart would be discarding him before the show even started. Almost nothing has changed since Sticky said Strange was ‘ready’. It may afford Strange more space for the ups-and-downs of young players. It may just be back up.

Equivocating about Stuart’s choice of language aside, Weekes is a good signing. At the very least he gives the Raiders more young talent, and another dart to throw the big board with ‘far out we could use a half’ written above it. Maybe he’s just another ship passing in the night or maybe he becomes more while he’s at Canberra. The Raiders have plenty of opportunities and little written in stone for the short to medium term. A player can make a name for himself.

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