BY DAN

Yesterday it was revealed by the Daily Telegraph and confirmed by the Canberra Times the Canberra Raiders are seeking to extend Savelio Tamale until the end of the 2028 season. Similarly the club is trying to extend Zac Hosking and Morgan Smithies time at the club to the end of the same season. That’s on the back of doing so with Noah Martin last week. This ensured the young prospect would stay with the club until 2028. This was after a grand total of 24 minutes in first grade football.

Tamale has a more established resume than Martin. Anyone with two eyes and a heart will know the Canberra Raiders need to keep Savelio Tamale. To be honest, after watching him play this season what’s more confusing is how they got him in the first place. That bustling power and pace is a rare mix in such a young player. He leads the competition in line breaks and is third in tackle breaks. That’s a weapon you don’t let get into enemy hands.

These contract moves are hardly an isolated incident when it comes to the Raiders talent. Owen Pattie was extended on the same timeline earlier this year, despite never having played first grade footy at the time. Ethan Strange underwent a similar process last year, extending until the end of 2028 on the back of a tiny amount of tape.

Canberra have been doing this for two reasons. One it’s smart work in line with their plan of building around a core of identified talent. Some of this has been ‘bought’ from other team’s pipelines – like Strange, Sanders, Tamale and Stewart. Some of it has been with the club longer (like Pattie and Martin). It’s a plan we all know well by now. There are good things (talent) and bad things (required patience), but for the first time in ages it feels like the Raiders are building to something.

A corollary to this plan is that you can only build with this young talent if it stays with the club. There’s no point building for tomorrow if the pieces keep changing. The ever-present threat of teams snatching up their loot isn’t new to Canberra, but it does have a changing hue. With the confirmation that the Perth Bears are coming in 2027, and the possibility of a PNG team in 2028, there’s 60 new roster spots up for grabs.

By pushing these contracts out to 2028, the Raiders are making a concerted effort to make sure none of their building blocks can be part of some other foundation. That makes sense, and doing so before the Perth, and the PNG team in particular, can offer eye-watering amounts of money makes downright strategic.

Good plan, let’s hope the implementation works out. To an extent there’s a limited amount they can do to manage this. The spectre of the Bears and PNG still haunt all teams across the NRL as they seek to protect the core of their rosters. Canberra are doing what they can, but they can’t protect everyone.

Once upon a time we might have suggested that Canberra’s general invisibility across the league might help. When the Dolphins joined the competition we were worried, particularly at the thought of potentially losing Corey Harawira-Naera, but nothing came of it. But they’re hardly flying under the radar at the moment.

Despite this, all the content about ‘who the Bears are targeting’ that has been splurged out across the league, people on the Raiders roster rarely come up in discussions. You can see some here, here, here, here and here. Canberra players are seldom mentioned, and then often only in passing. Tamale pops up, maybe Hosking, occasionally Mariota.

That may be changing. With the side having some big moments this year, and clearly building for beyond that too, eventually the league will notice, and the Bears and PNG will come knocking. Canberra have a lot of players on the market from 1 November this year (this includes people looking for a team in 2026).

Free agent now (free from 2026): Albert Hopoate, Jordan Martin, Peter Taateo, Manaia Waiter, Danny Levi

Free agent from 1 November: Michael Asomua, Jake Clydesdale, Adam Cook, Zac Hosking, Ata Mariota, Joe Roddy, Simi Sasagi, Pasami Saulo, Morgan Smithies, Chevy Stewart, Savelio Tamale,

It’s a bit more complicated than I’ve put there. The club have said they’re going to offer Bert Hopoate a job of some sort in 2026. Peter Taateo apparently has a club option for 2026. Chevy Stewart has an option for 2027. But that is basically the target watch. Canberra will have some challenges there.

As noted the Raiders are currently focused on Tamale, Hosking and Smithies. Canberra got Hosking because they were willing to pay an obscene amount of money to acquire his services. He’s such an important part of this squad. His utility, his pace through the middle, the flexibility all that provides, has become a crucial part of the Milk’s success. The challenge here is that while ‘overs’ got Hosking to the club, he’s arguably outperformed even that increased expenditure. That’ll make a deal prior to the Bears coming knocking a tad harder.

There are three players in the above list I’ll be watching closely. Chevy Stewart is the most complicated situation. Right now he’s not preferred, and the guy in his spot – Kaeo Weekes – is only 23 and just establishing himself in the league. Chevy is still on 19, and if he’s good enough he’ll find his way into the team. But it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the Bears could make the more certain pathway more desirable.

In addition to Chevy, Simi Sasagi and Ata Mariota will be key players to watch. Simi Sasagi’s future has never looked brighter. Like Hosking he’s established himself as valuable backrow depth and critical utility value. The roster flexibility a player like him provides has a huge, and his improvement in the 18 months he has been with the Raiders is undeniable. At some point he may decide he wants bigger roles that Perth or PNG offer (like a starting job he’d likely spend his whole career fighting Huddo, Matty Nice and Zac for).

Mariota must be kept. With the announcement this week that it would be Josh Papalii’s last in green, the Raiders need to maintain and reload at the position. Ata Mariota is key to the next generation, and his improvement this year has delivered on the faith the club has that he will be great. He’s the only young middle consistently getting picked for first grade, and Trey Mooney’s deal extends to the end of 2027. Here’s hoping the club’s focus turns to him soon.

It’s a long list and a lot of contract work to get through. The Raiders likely won’t keep them all. When you’re adding 60 odd roster spots, more money, and more consistent pathways for first grade, starting jobs and any other variety of opportunities, the risk is always going to be substantial. But it’s smart work by the club that they’re thinking about it already, and have been for some time.

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