Raiders hooker Tom Starling has praised the selfless act of a teammate who requested his own demotion from first grade, saying it highlights the ultimate team-first culture built under Ricky Stuart.

Canberra host the Melbourne Storm on Friday night, with Starling believing his team can banish the demons of last year’s NRL finals heartache and get their 2026 season underway in earnest with a victory.

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The Raiders will be without winger Savelio Tamale, who approached Stuart mid-week requesting to be dropped to NSW Cup while he rekindles his confidence.

Starling joined the chorus of Canberra support for a young player putting the team ahead of himself.

“We all love Sav, he’s going to have a stellar career and he’s going to be an international,” Starling reflected. “He’s got a big career ahead of him. He will be back, he will get his confidence back up and will be back with us in no time,” Starling told foxsports.com.au.

“That’s the culture that Sticky’s built here. It’s about the team, putting the team first. A lot of the players are like that.

“Stick goes above and beyond for everyone. He’s a real player’s coach and he looks after everyone. I’m sure you could go speak to everyone one in our team, Stick has gone above and beyond for every one of us.

“We try to repay him the best we can, with good performances and by being the best player and teammate that we can. It shows the maturity in Sav, and the conversation he can have with his coach, and how comfortable he is in speaking to Stick about that. It was really brave of Savvy to do that – a lot of players wouldn’t have.”

Raiders hooker Tom Starling.Source: Getty Images

The Raiders are two wins from their first six matches this NRL season, boasting a new-look squad that is yet to reach the lofty form that carried the side to a minor premiership in 2025.

However, Starling believes Canberra has turned a corner following last week’s high-scoring win against the Rabbitohs. He has credited the Raider’s burgeoning spine combination and the steady hand of Stuart – and is adamant the best is yet to come.

“We’re not hitting the panic buttons just yet,” Starling said ahead of tonight’s clash at GIO Stadium. “We know when we get our style of play, we’re hard to handle. We believe we’re the best team in the comp when we put our game on – it’s just a matter of fact of doing that.

“It’s quite an easy fix to be honest with you: there are areas of the game where we’re not executing. We need to be much better. It’s the simple things – finishing our sets off well and making sure we’re winning our contact.

“We’ve got a sense of urgency to get better and we know we’re right there. We know with one game we can turn our season around and get better. That’s sort of what we did last weekend.”

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Canberra is coming to grips with a new-look spine this season headed by debutant half Ethan Sanders. The 22-year-old came into the starting squad at the beginning of the year to replace Manly-bound Jamal Fogarty, with incumbent five-eighth Ethan Sanders switching sides to accommodate Sanders’ left boot.

Starling said Canberra displayed their “best half of footy all year” in the opening stanza against the Rabbitohs, before allowing Wayne Bennett’s side to get back into the contest. He credited Sanders as a big driver in the win, especially his talk on-field: belying his young age with the ability to steer around some of the Raiders’ most capped players into position.

Starling believes an early season scalp such as the Storm would instil the Raiders with the belief once again that they’re a top NRL side – having failed to fire when it mattered in last year’s finals series.

Melbourne is staring down the barrel of a fifth-consecutive loss, but travel to Canberra boasting a strong record at GIO Stadium.

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“They’re still the Melbourne Storm,” Starling said. “Sure, results haven’t gone their way but they’re a dangerous side and you’ve just got to look at their spine – they’re an international spine. They have a really good forward pack as well.

“We don’t just forget about last year, we know what we can do as a team with some new chess pieces. We know we can get better and take some extra steps.

“It’s not the start of the season that we wanted, I’d love to be sitting here saying we’d won (every game). We’ve just got to make sure we get better. We left 2025 behind us but we still do draw on the confidence from what we produced last year.

“It would be really good for us to start knocking off some high-ranked sides, and while Melbourne aren’t high-ranked at the minute, they’re a good quality side and everyone knows that. It’s a big test for us, we’ll have a big crowd at GIO and a nice, dry track.”