{"id":858366,"date":"2026-08-17T10:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858366\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:50:11","slug":"josh-papalii-confirms-career-decision-raiders-to-rename-home-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858366\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Papalii confirms career decision, Raiders to rename home ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canberra Raiders<\/a> veteran Josh Papalii<\/a> has confirmed he will retire from rugby league at the end of the 2026 NRL<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

Papalii, who at one point was never supposed to play 2026 with the Green Machine, was offered a year extension to remain with the club after form good enough to earn him a State of Origin<\/a> recall at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

There was still talk he was looking to play on in 2027 in the English Super League<\/a>, but speaking at a media conference on Monday, Papalii said this season would be his last, meaning this weekend’s game will be his last in Canberra.<\/p>\n

The Raiders host the Brisbane Broncos<\/a> on Friday evenings, before finishing their season with a b ye, and a Round 27 road trip to play the North Queensland Cowboys<\/a> where Papalii will bring the curtain down on an incredible career that will likely finish on 342 games, to go with 24 State of Origins, 11 Tests for Australia<\/a>, and another 13 for Samoa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Papalii, speaking on Monday, paid praise to his teammates who made his career possible.<\/p>\n

“This career is maybe only relaity because of the boys I play with week in and week out, and they are the special memories and bonds I’m going to miss as a player.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure when Friday comes and we get that win, we will have a few beverages, but for now, it’s just soaking in the week and it will be a good time to say my goodbyes to the NRL<\/a> world.<\/p>\n

“When the 2026 season ends, I’m announcing my retirement from the NRL<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

In a touching tribute, the Raiders have confirmed they will rename GIO Stadium to “Papa’s House” for this weekend’s game as a one-off to recognise his career.<\/p>\n

A mural was also unveiled in Canberra at the ground where Papalii has played 157 matches.<\/p>\n

The Raiders also running a mullet competition, encouraging fans to bring a poster on game day and will have a Papalii takeover of the ground on Friday, with fans able to leave messages of support for the prop, or tuck into a limited edition Papa Burger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canberra Raiders veteran Josh Papalii has confirmed he will retire from rugby league at the end of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-858366","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\/858366","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=858366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}