Chevy Stewart Waits

Chevy Stewart and the Canberra Raiders have picked up his mutual option for 2027, per the Canberra Times.

This is a surprise. Stewart was a highly sought after junior. He seemed the heir apparent in 2024, but dropped down the depth chart in 2025 because of the emergence of Kaeo Weekes at fullback. With this giant rock in his pathway to first grade, we just assumed he would look for another way to first grade. Rumours have come up on occasion, such as at the end of last season when it seemed a lock he would leave for St George, yet at every opportunity he continues to stay in Canberra.

A convenient explanation is that Stewart’s performance hasn’t met the hype around his arrival in Canberra. While I can see the argument, I’m not convinced that’s the case. Yes he did have an imperfect start to his first grade career. A few dropped bombs, some poor positioning on grubbers, ineffective in yardage – shock horror he was a 19-year-old fullback. But since then, and particularly during this season, he’s shown consistent development and performance in NSW Cup.

He gets through good yardage work. He’s improved in his kick positioning and under the high ball. He’s sound in defensive organisation. In attack he has consistently been a threat – he’s broken 91 tackles in 14 appearances this year (6.5 per game and most in the competition), to go with nine tries and ten line breaks and eight try assists. He’s averaging 163 metres a game. These are all career highs (even the countables, with weeks to go in the season), demonstrating not only the excellence but the trajectory of development.

If there was an intelligent critique of Stewart previous to this year, it’s that perhaps he didn’t have the elite skillset necessary for first grade success. That is, yes, the talent was there, but would it be sufficient to differentiate himself from the rest of the talent that finds its way to first grade? Did he have an elite speed and agility like Kaeo? Was his ball-play at a sufficient level to be a difference maker?

To me these critiques felt presumptive and slightly to the left of the point. We tend to view players’ physiques as complete when they enter first grade. Sometimes they are – Nic Cotric, Ethan Strange, players like this are beasts from the moment they pull on a first-grade jersey. But biology is a funny thing, and young men grow and grow. Shit, Kaeo Weekes was stuck behind an all-time fullback of his own at the same age.

We also tend to view people through the obstacles in their way. Stewart isn’t the same kind of player as Kaeo. Few players are. He was a different archetype, and while it’s unfair to put him int he same shape as James Tedesco, it was clearer that was a more appropriate way to think of him. And agility and ball play can be something harder to notice, and take longer to develop, than top-line speed.

Stewart at 19 is different to Stewart at 21. This year he’s looked not just stronger, but also quicker. No better was this demonstrated when he cooked the field for the Raiders final try in NSW Cup on Saturday evening. To see him streaking away was more in the mould of Weekes or Savage in open field, such was the immediate gap he put between him and chasers. He’s also looked more settled as a decision-maker outside Cody Black and Ethan Alaia, and more effective in yardage.

It does make me wonder what I’ve missed with Chevy. In my view he’s well above the level in NSW Cup, and if not for Kaeo Weekes’ stunning 2025 would be pushing for a consistent spot in the Raiders’ first grade squad. Sure, the pathway at St George closed when Scott Drinkwater signed there this offseason, but is there not another team ready to take a shot on the talent?

And whatever you want to call the incident with him and the pokie machine, that isn’t a sufficient explanation. Perhaps it was in terms of timing; coming just at that point of the off-season where teams are looking for options beyond their immediate starters. But to suggest such a small story would deter investors seems over the top.

A more likely explanation is that fullbacks seem to be in high supply at the moment. There isn’t a first-grade team without an established first choice at the position. There’s only 17ish jobs in the league, and every team likely has someone not playing the position who thinks it’s their best.

That’s not a strong argument for why the Bears or Chiefs haven’t been interested. The Bears, for example, will start Mason Barber in 2027. The Chiefs seem to be shopping at the high end of the market and may promise someone like Joey Manu the money instead.

Or maybe Chev is just refuting offers. Maybe the money the Raiders signed him on, a speculation that the investment in talent would deliver more immediate rewards, is more than he can currently get on the open market. Maybe he just wants to play footy with his good mate Ethan Strange.

Only time will tell, but for now the Raiders should be grateful that the trust in their system is enough to keep a talent like Stewart at the club. It’s not proof, but it does indicate that their communication of expectations, their commitment to development, and their clarity of pathway have all been sufficient to keep Stewart.

He may never reach his potential at Canberra. I know the club has looked at him for other positions, but from my view it’s clear his best position is fullback, and using him elsewhere would be an ill fit. He could be stuck behind Kaeo Weekes for the length of this option and end up looking elsewhere in twelve months’ time. By then Canberra will have done little but develop someone for another team’s benefit.

But for now having talent is better than not. Stewart is definitely that. Whether he ever gets the shot to prove it in first grade is another question.

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