{"id":863345,"date":"2026-08-21T15:46:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863345\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T15:46:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:46:16","slug":"nrl-2026-canberra-raiders-legend-josh-papalii-opens-up-on-final-home-match-in-career-raw-admission-fox-league-exclusive-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863345\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Canberra Raiders legend Josh Papalii opens up on final home match in career, raw admission, Fox League exclusive, nrl news"},"content":{"rendered":"

An emotional Josh Papalii has opened up on the overwhelming scenes surrounding his last home match in the nation\u2019s capital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Announcing his retirement from the NRL earlier in the week, the Raiders veteran front-rower ran out in front of the Canberra faithful for the final time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Speaking to Fox League\u2019s Eloise Soher after the match, Papalii revealed just how emotional the occasion became as his family and friends lined up the tunnel to farewell the club great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the walkout for me (was very emotional),\u201d the former Queensland Maroons forward said on Fox League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t even breathe walking out to my kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing my family and my wife and parents in the tunnel and all the people that I love and have been in my corner for so many years (was amazing). <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the cornerstone of my career, and they\u2019re the people you fall back on when things are tough<\/p>\n

\u201c(I) just really appreciate all the love that Canberra has given me and hopefully I\u2019ve served this club well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raiders lose in Papali’i send-off match | 05:26<\/p>\n

Featuring in 341 matches for the Green Machine since his debut in 2011, the future Hall of Famer reflected on the pride that came with pulling on the Raiders jersey for the final time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be pride in the jersey,\u201d Papalii added.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go out there and you try and represent your last name on your back and the badge you wear on your heart. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe pride was definitely there. I think a few executions (were not) there in the game, but that\u2019s footy. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to the bye now and celebrating with all my family and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maguire praises Broncos’ resilience | 05:07<\/p>\n

Continuing to speak about the people closest to him, Papalii stated his family had always been at the heart of everything he had done throughout his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family mean the most. Hopefully I\u2019ve served them well. That\u2019s all I\u2019ve ever tried to do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

This place means the world to me. <\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully I can hang around and serve this club that has helped me through the tough times, and I\u2019m forever in debt to this club.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An emotional Josh Papalii has opened up on the overwhelming scenes surrounding his last home match in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-863345","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\/863345","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=863345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}