BY DAN

Rugby league is a game built from collectivism. Sacrificing your wants to the needs of the group. Working together, finding ways to cage the demon inside you that wants to do it all themselves. And it works, for the most part. And while Ethan Strange’s development will naturally involve him taking more responsibility for the collective, the Canberra Raiders would be well served to not restrain him with the chains of responsibility.

Ethan Strange is already a gamebreaker. With a rare ability to explode out of dead footy. A hop to his left, a earthquake jolt back to the right, a fend worthy of Atlas, and he’s gone. His game is more than a step-and-go. Each game he seems more comfortable reading the play, working options and schema towards moments in games in a way that would make Walter Mishel proud.

And the dividends are plain for all to see. Dally-M Five-eighth of the year, Kangaroo tourist, top try scorer for the team, leading the team in line breaks, second in try assists, the most line-breaks and tackle-busts of any five-eighth in the competition. He is not yet fully formed, and yet he is already a weapon.

A good part of the reason he’s been so exciting over the last two seasons has been because he’s been supported to do what he does best. With Jamal Fogarty in the team he was left to focus on working with experienced players on the left, not relied on to drive the attack (for example, Canberra scored more tries on the right in 2025), but instead a bonus cherry on top. Even when Fogarty was out in 2024, Strange was almost quarantined from having to do too much structured work; the club instead sacrificing first Kaeo Weekes, and then Jordan Rapana, to the gods of playmaking.

That will obviously change in 2026. Jamal Fogarty has walked out the door, and a rookie half eeks his way into the role. Ethan Sanders has played four games of NRL, and it’s unfair to expect him to strut into the job like he’s been doing it all his life. That’s what we likely be needed if the Raiders are going to continue on the trajectory established in 2025. But of course that road will be bumpy. The expectations on Sanders should be low, but he has been cursed by the nearness to greatness the Raiders were. As soon as potholes emerge demands will be made, first on him, and then on other players, to perform roles and perhaps miracles.

This will impact Strange through a desire to want him to take control of more both from us, the club, and perhaps even him. You can imagine it. A slow starting Raiders experiencing some growing pains, a commentariat looking at Strange’s ability and doing their best impression of Numberblocks. Two plus two equal Ethan Strange: game manager. A man with his competitive streak, a taste of success in 2025 and with the lessons learned from an eye-opening Kangaroo tour, may not accept the jolts and tremors of learning as readily.

That’s not his job, and not what makes him great. Giving him too much ‘organisational’ responsibility is a risk. He can play a role for sure, and contribute to a team effort. And even if things are going smoothly, he’ll have more touches, and more of a role in the attack than he had in 2025. That’s unquestionably a good thing. But if he becomes too focused on game managing it will undermine what makes him great – swooping in like a sudden breeze and leaving the opposition with their dress around their ears.

That’s a challenge. There’s a tendency when we get a new toy to want to use it for everything. You can see this in football and in wider society (ChatGPT, can you tell me if Ethan Strange should game manage?). When we get a tool that is exceptional for one thing, we sometimes try to make it more than that, to not embrace what made it great. The Canberra Raiders need to be wary of this when it comes to Ethan Strange.

That’s not to say he won’t make this transition naturally. Most five-eighths who start in this mold take a bigger role over time. Laurie Daley sat outside the best halfback of the modern era before transition to a more dominant role at the end of this career. Cam Munster was the epitome of dynamic runner, physical specimen, tactically …raw?, before basically playing halfback for the Storm this season. The examples are endless, and in his final form it will be the step he takes. But rather than force Strange into this role it’s better to set him up to succeed, even it does mean that lessons being learned elsewhere can’t be compensated for. It’ll be better for both Sanders, and Strange, in the long term.

Ethan Strange doesn’t need to be everything. Not yet anyway. Not when he’s already so much. The temptation to load him up and hope he can carry the weight risks turning a weapon into a metronome. That’s not how or why he changes games.

The challenge them becomes resisting the urge to cage the best. Let Sanders learn, the bumps come, and let Strange be the sudden wind, the explosion, the person who flips the game on a whim. History shows the rest will come with time.

If Canberra are intent on maintaining a long horizon for their success, they will continue playing to Strange’s strengths. Not away from them. Because the next level for Ethan Strange isn’t about becoming ordinary. It’s about becoming unstoppable.

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