{"id":28577,"date":"2025-07-28T23:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28577\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T23:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T23:00:09","slug":"future-focused-raiders-set-to-enter-talks-with-injured-young-forward-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28577\/","title":{"rendered":"Future-focused: Raiders set to enter talks with injured young forward – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Canberra Raiders<\/a> are reportedly set to hold contract extension talks with a young forward as they prepare for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, the Raiders have undergone an extensive roster rebuild, acquiring several of the best up-and-coming players while releasing some of their veterans, including Jack Wighton<\/a> and Jordan Rapana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While all the chatter has been about the future of front-rower Josh Papalii<\/a> as of late and if he will remain in the nation’s capital for an extra season, the club are quietly set to extend the contract of an international forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With CEO Don Furner confirming last week that the club were set to meet with the management of duo Ata Mariota<\/a> and Morgan Smithies<\/a>, the Raiders are now set to hold talks with two-time English back-rower Matty Nicholson<\/a>, per News Corp.<\/a><\/p>\n

Already contracted to the end of 2027, Nicholson has only played nine matches since he arrived at the nation’s capital, but has shown that he has the potential to be a long-term part of the club’s plans.<\/p>\n

He is currently sidelined with a syndesmosis injury and a fractured fibula.<\/p>\n

\"NRLSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 23: Matty Nicholson<\/a> of the Raiders runs the ball during the round three NRL<\/a> match between Manly Sea Eagles<\/a> and Sydney Roosters<\/a> at 4 Pines Park, on March 23, 2025, in Sydney, Australia<\/a>. (Photo by Jeremy Ng\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The move to extend Nicholson beyond 2027 comes as the club are embroiled in contract talks with Simi Sisagi to extend him on a two-year contract extension until the end of the 2028 NRL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

“We definitely want to keep him, and we’re trying hard to do that,” Furner told The Canberra Times<\/a> on Sasagi.<\/p>\n

“We’re in discussions with him and we’ve started the process for a two-year extension. His versatility is unbelievable.”<\/p>\n

Raiders forward Corey Horsburgh<\/a> said, “We’re lucky we’ve got blokes like Simi that can play multiple positions and do it well.”<\/p>\n

“He can play half, back-row, front row, he can go anywhere at the moment.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got a pretty good squad at the moment, if we can keep all us boys together for some years, I’m sure we’ll have some success.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Canberra Raiders are reportedly set to hold contract extension talks with a young forward as they prepare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-28577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}