BY DAN

In confirmation of the rumour from a fortnight ago, Daine Laurie will be joining Canberra on a multi-year deal, as reported by Code Sports (update: now official).

The length of the deal hasn’t been confirmed (as far as we’ve seen), but I’d be surprised if it’s truly multi-year. More likely it’s a short-term punt from both sides – a one-and-one with a mutual option for the second year. Laurie’s betting that a good season earns him a better deal elsewhere; the club’s betting they’ll get surplus value from a cheap contract.

This remains a fascinating bet on talent. When we first wrote about Laurie, we called him “mercurial”, which is code for a player who mixes flashes of brilliance with maddening inconsistency. At his best, he makes you wonder why he’s not starting every week. At his worst, he makes you wonder why he is.

He’s still relatively young, which is striking given how long he’s been around. At 26, he’s theoretically entering his prime – talented, short on options, and eager to prove he belongs. That’s the Raiders’ bet: take the talent, presumably cheap, and make the best of it. We’ve seen that approach work for them before – see Weekes, Hosking, Sasagi et al. When the cap’s tight, cheap punts are how you fill out a roster.

So a punt on Laurie is fine. I presume he’s being brought in to cover fullback, and perhaps five-eighth in a pinch. It’s not a bad style fit. He’s a similar style fullback to Kaeo, minus the insane speed, and he can do the job as a secondary ball player on a right side shift. 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.

The club clearly values that style in their fullbacks, and they’ll want to make sure that if Weekes misses time in 2026, there’s a like-for-like replacement ready. Laurie also offers utility value – a skill Canberra has developed well in recent years, and one that was critical to their 2025 success.

As we’ve noted a few times this off-season, this likely signals the end of Chevy Stewart’s time with the club, a view reinforced by Cody Ramsey’s move from the Dragons to the Roosters. There’s a genuine opportunity for Stewart at the Dragons, and he could be their full-time No.1 before long. He’s too good to be watching first grade, and while I’d love to keep him, I wouldn’t blame him for looking for a clearer pathway.

I don’t think this ends Canberra’s wheeling and dealing just yet. The top 30 remains in flux, and it’s unclear how many open spots the Raiders have. Don Furner has said opportunities are sparse and the cap space tight, but they still seem to be hunting a halfback. Even if there isn’t an obvious roster spot, a successful chase for Pezet could open one up via Ethan Sanders’ departure. More realistically, they’ll be looking for a backup No.7 behind Sanders – though those options are few and dwindling.

Either way, using a roster spot on Laurie is a worthy gamble. He’s got all the talent in the world, most of the time. Assuming he’s been brought in for fullback depth, it’s smart business. The question now is how the Milk manage their halfback depth.

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