Kaeo Weekes is a different kind of fullback. He’s got an error in him. He can chime in on a backline movement, but no one would claim he’s Reece Walsh. He’s no brute, but he makes brutish try-savers when he has no right to. Most of the time he’s in the right spot for kicks, then sometimes I’m pouring over tape trying to identify just where the heck he was before a grubber-try is scored. It can be confounding.
But then he’ll get the ball, beat a tackle and *whooooosh*. He’s gone, your heart is racing, and the Raiders have scored a try from absolutely nowhere. Remember this?
That’s Kaeo Weekes in a single play. A nothing run, a little space, beat a tackle, pull off one of the great bobbled-ball into shake-and-bake moves in history, schooling Jack Wighton no less. It’s electric. It’s brilliant. It doesn’t happen every play but it happens more than you realise, and not enough to be sated.
This is obviously nothing like Dally M winning fullback James Tedesco. He’s all hard work. Yardage carries. Ever-presence through the middle of the park. Connecting shift movements outside the primary ballplayer.
Nor is it anything like Scott Drinkwater, a dragonfly, bouncing in and out and roundabout defenders, hurling passes like they’re babies from burning buildings. Sometimes he makes impressive tackles in defence, sometimes he stands motionless as runners go past as though he’s been distracted.
Being like other fullbacks isn’t the aim for Weekes. In the Canberra Raiders offence, having someone who can make a mountain out of a molehill of possession is a perfect fit.
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Weekes is not a fully-formed product. He still has room for improvement, most noticeably in his comfort and ability to create as a secondary option outside of Ethan Sanders or Coby Black on the right, as well as his consistency under the high ball. In 2026 he scored the fourth most tries of any regular fullback. He was also second in tackle busts and sixth in line breaks. But he fourteenth among starting full backs in try-assists, twelfth in line-break assists and eleventh in possessions.
Weekes’ difference from other leaders at his position does not make him less valuable to the Raiders. Canberra’s future hooker and halfback will both be ball dominant players. There is only so much ball to go around. This means that the players that fit in at fullback and five-eighth have to be effective without bulk possessions.
Let’s break it down like this. In 2026 the Raiders spine averaged a tick under 232 touches a game. 112.5 of those were for the rakes. Of the remaining 120 touches, the halfback ate about half of them (60.25 per game to be precise). 60 touches a game is left for the starting five-eighth – the Australian and New South Wales representative Ethan Strange – and the fullback. When you account for kick defusal and yardage carries, that means there’s only a few touches for the fullback in a game where they can make something happen.
In those circumstances it’s incumbent on the six, and moreso the one, to be incredible efficient in their usage.
This is also why Coby Black and Ethan Sanders can’t play together, so stop pitching that like its fantasy football. There’s only one ball, and only so many times you can touch it. They’re both ‘touch the ball multiple times a set halves’, and you already have arguably the best ‘I only need it occasionally’ six in the game.
They don’t get the luxury of working over a backrower through 80 minutes of trickery and subterfuge. In a game where most teams average around 45 sets a game, the Raiders fullback (and six) touch the ball 30 times each.
And when you consider what Weekes can do on a per possession basis it makes clearer how effective he is in limited opportunities. Of fullbacks, he scored the second most tries on a per-possession basis in 2026, behind Storm jitterbug Su’a Fa’alogo. On try assists he jumps from 14th in the league in aggregate, to 10th on a per possession basis. For line-break assists he makes a similar jump (up to 10th in the league). While these statistical improvements seem small, they reveal that much of gap between him and the elite is born through volume rather than quality.
There might be a tendency to wonder what would happen with more opportunity? Could Canberra get Kaeo more ball and the same outcome result, just with greater volume? I doubt that would be the case. A good piece of evidence is the fact that in 2024, starting as a lead ball player for the Milk actually led to Kaeo totaling less tries, less try assists, less line-break assists and less tackle busts.
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Importantly, that is something that is unlikely to be tested in the current set up. With Owen Pattie and the starting seven taking three-quarters of the spine’s opportunities, the Raiders will always need a fullback who can take a small opportunity and make it a big one. Who can turn a defensive slip into 100 metres of heaven.
Kaeo Weekes may never be the perfect fullback. He may never combine Teddy’s effervescence, or Drinkwater’s creativity. But he’ll make the touches he gets golden. And that’s all the Raiders need.
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