BY DAN

The recruitment rumours are rumbling with the news that the Raiders are in the process of locking down Daine Laurie on a multiyear deal, as reported by the Daily Telegraph.

Laurie, most recently of the Panthers and Tigers, is a mercurial and occasionally brilliant talent. He’s been looking for a consistent starting spot his whole career, going through periodic exposure at the Panthers to build up a reputation before transitioning to lower-status clubs in search of permanence.

Laurie’s brilliance is best deployed at fullback, but he can offer coverage in the halves if needed, and is a useful utility if you want to use him there. He has his downsides. He’s not the most defensively reliable fullback – a position where that role has a heavy responsibility. And he tends to shine when the attack is tailored to him, but fade when it isn’t.

To this end he makes sense as a backup to Kaeo Weekes, and practically stamps the cards of Chevy Stewart’s departure. They’re stylistically similar, even if Laurie is not the athlete that Weekes is (though no slouch). It would make sense in terms of the fullback role at the club being a certain type of player over the short-to-medium term. The club clearly values a mobile, ball-playing fullback type. Laurie loves a bit of ‘eyes up footy’, something Weekes has repeatedly stated is one of his favourite aspects of Canberra’s style.

Laurie is also only 26, which feels strange given how long he’s been around first grade. At that age he still has his best footy ahead of him, and he’s unlikely to be content sitting on the sidelines. But his best positions – 1, 6, and 14 – are already covered by stronger options on the roster. Faced with the choice between depth in the NRL or a move to Super League, it makes sense to take the NRL option until opportunities run out.

To this end it makes sense as a deal for the Milk. Go out and get talent that is searching for a home and a pathway to its potential. The old low-risk, high-upside play. If Canberra aren’t sacrificing anything significant, either in terms of roster spots or cap space, then it’s just a talent acquisition. Given all they really need this off-season is a halfback, this is more about adding talent and trusting Stuart to mould it to the team’s benefit.

That presumes a couple of things. Firstly that they can keep Jed Stuart around on a developmental deal. As we noted here, Canberra will only have two spots in their top 30. We had assumed one was for Stuart, and one was driven towards getting an experienced seven to backup Ethan Sanders. Laurie’s acquisition would take one of those. Perhaps the Raiders have assumed Stuart will stay on a supplemental deal, or risk Dad not buying him Maccas on the way home. Perhaps the Raiders are recalibrating their halfback search. Perhaps there’s more roster change to come.

The real challenge remains fitting Laurie in without jeopardising bigger retention calls like Ata Mariota. Let’s assume the deal isn’t big enough to do that.

It’s a slight departure from the Raiders’ recent approach of going all-in on youth. They’ve picked up another young prospect in Campbell Munn from Manly, but Laurie’s signing suggests they may now be more focused on balancing youth with experience. Chris Hutchison may be moving faster than we realised.

Either way, using a roster spot on Laurie is surprising but mostly welcome news. If Canberra have convinced him to come as a depth option, that’s shrewd business. The bigger question now is whether his arrival reshapes how the Raiders prioritise their final roster spot — and if the halfback hunt remains front of mind.

Do me a favour and like the page on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or share this on social media because love is true and heaven is a Raiders victory. Don’t hesitate to send us feedback (dan@sportress.org) or comment below if you think we are stupid. Or if we’re not.