With 175 NRL players free to negotiate for the 2026 season, the Raiders need to stick to their recruitment strategy

A few years ago, it was far more prevalent than it is now, but if you watch the media over the next couple of months, you will see that the practice of playing the Raiders off against other clubs is still happening.

It goes like this: a player agent will contact the Raiders and say, “We represent this player at a rival club. Are you interested?”

The Raiders will respond, “He’s a good player, but we’re not interested”.

The next thing you know, there are reports quoting the player’s manager saying that talks have been taking place with the Raiders, and the player is seen as being in demand.

Over the years, the Raiders have been used in this way because they often had to pay over the odds to entice players to move from the coast.

In many respects, this is why the club has gone in a different direction; instead, the club signs young players with potential rather than paying over the odds for top-line players from rival clubs.

Ethan Strange and Kaeo Weekes are both a case in point.

The hope is that both will eventually become representative players.

It is a sound strategy given the difficulty of attracting big-name players to Canberra, which was far easier prior to the Queensland teams entering the NRL.

What has emerged is the importance of having representative players in teams at the back end of the season.

The Raiders had only one player in Origin this year, Hudson Young, who was dropped after getting limited opportunities in game one of the series but is in the Kangaroos squad, while Joe Tapine and Matt Timoko are playing in the NZ team in the Pacific Championships.

In contrast, the premiers, the Penrith Panthers, are close to making up an entire team of representative players, including the current captains of both Australia and New Zealand.

It is obviously where the Raiders should aspire to be, but it won’t happen overnight.

Player managers will no doubt be looking to tap into those aspirations in a bid to inflate their players’ prices.

And news that the Raiders could have plenty of room in their salary cap for 2026 with the departure of Corey Harawira-Naera and potentially Josh Papali’i means Canberra will have money to spend and may be open to paying over the odds.

Of the players from rival clubs coming onto the market, the Raiders might have an interest in Newcastle’s Leo Thompson, who could be forced out through salary cap issues at the Knights.

Thompson, who spent time at the Raiders in 2020 and 2021, could be seen as a replacement for Josh Papali’i, while the search for a hooker continues.

The Raiders were tracking Tyran Wishart for a couple of years but dropped their interest when Wishart was effectively contracted to the Storm until the end of 2026, with Melbourne having an option in their favour beyond next season.

In many ways, it’s akin to a game of chess.

Unless a player is keen to come to Canberra and not use the club to inflate their price, the Raiders need to hold their nerve.