BY DAN

The Canberra Raiders announced Tuesday they would be without Xavier Savage for the rest of the season.

It is a truly cruel blow. There’s no way about it. Despite his young age, Savage has been a huge part of this team’s performance and culture over 2025. If 2024 was the year he transformed from potential to proven, in 2025 he went from mercurial to reliable. We knew what we were getting each week – hard yardage runs, elite pace, and an occasional stunning moment in the air. Yes he still had moments in defence, but he was not alone in that. He had been in every step a contributor to what has made this Canberra team great.

That makes it so disheartening. In many ways Savage’s progress has been a forerunner to the club. His adjustments in 2024 have been echoed in the rest of the squad this season. After all the work he’s done over the last two seasons, it’s hard not to be sad he will miss out on the opportunity that work will afford his teammates.

We also need to acknowledge that Coach Stuart left Savage on with this injury for a good 15 minutes to end the first half. That’s undoubtedly an error, something that Stuart almost admitted to in the post game press conference. It’s hard to tell if it had any material impact on the outcome or increased the severity, but the duty of care wasn’t met by the coach. I get wanting players to ‘tough it out’, something Stuart has demanded of X in the past. But this was a step too far. Stick will have work to do to repair the trust of Savage, and it’s a blow to his claims of always having the player’s best interests at heart.

It’s all very sad. But it’s also on days like this that you’re glad the Raiders have done their homework this season. Broadly, the Milk are less reliant on Savage’s brilliance. There are plenty of others in this squad capable of game-changing moments. But having one fewer of those players makes the Herculean climb ahead that much harder.

Savelio Tamale is likely returning this weekend, and while he’s not the same player as X, he does offer a brilliant and unique mix of really important yardage and tackle-busting abilities. At the risk of sounding like an insane person muttering the same thing to himself over and over, he led the league in line breaks and tackle-busts before he went down injured. Canberra have missed him terribly over the last 12 weeks. While they’ve only lost one game in that time (FUCKING WHAT HAHAHAHAHA), it has required an adjustment that they’ll be able to move beyond this weekend.

In addition, the growth of Jed Stuart over his time in first grade has been frankly astounding. If you’d asked me six weeks ago if I thought that Jed would be a capable first grader I would have hemmed and hawed. But what we’ve seen in recent times has proven every optimists’ dreams. Jed isn’t an elite athlete but he’s enough of one. And more than that he’s a skilled, intelligent, and thorough footballer. His decision to be under the posts for the Miracle wasn’t isolated but rather indicative of an individual who doesn’t leave the small things to chance. Wonder where he gets that from?

If Tamale is unable to go the likely outcome is Simi Sasagi moves into centre and Seb Kris to the wing. Simi has been so huge for the Milk this season, his utility being so critical in solving in-game problems. They’ll still have that option through the use of Zac Hosking in a pinch, but it does reduce flexibility markedly. If there’s an upside here it has the benefit of solving the problem of how to bring back Marty Nicholson.

Still, while Canberra have answers, this is a problem they wish they didn’t need to solve. They’re already climbing the NRL’s biggest mountain. The incline just got steeper.

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