{"id":353015,"date":"2026-03-29T01:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T01:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/353015\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T01:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T01:39:08","slug":"seven-potential-landing-spots-for-matthew-timoko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/353015\/","title":{"rendered":"SEVEN potential landing spots for Matthew Timoko"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the ongoing surprises to start the 2026 NRL<\/a> season has been the overlooking of Canberra Raiders’ centre Matthew Timoko<\/a> by head coach Ricky Stuart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While a foot injury hampered his preparation for the new campaign, the centre is now well and truly on the outside looking in thanks to the start to the season for his replacement, Simi Sasagi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The utility, who at one point in time was seen as one of the best young halves in the game when he was progressing through the junior system at the Newcastle Knights<\/a>, has become one of the more important players in the nation’s capital for his consistency and his versatility.<\/p>\n

Typically, he has been used in the second-row, but has had no problems slotting in at centre, and has now taken the opportunity presented to start the 2026 campaign with both hands.<\/p>\n

Maybe then it was no surprise during the week that news emerged the Raiders have more or less told Timoko he is free to explore his options elsewhere.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t really up to the club given the centre is off-contract at the end of the season (although has a mutual option for 2027), but it now appears something of a guarantee that the 26-year-old will head for the Canberra departure lounge.<\/p>\n

Timoko, who has played 112 games for the Raiders since his 2020 debut, has been a constant performer over the years for Stuart’s side, and has nine Tests for New Zealand<\/a> to his name.<\/p>\n

That, frankly, makes him the type of player who will pick a up a contract elsewhere, continuing an NRL<\/a> career where he has been underrated at the best of times.<\/p>\n

Here are the most likely landing spots for the 26-year-old.<\/p>\n

7. Manly Sea Eagles<\/p>\n

The loss of Reuben Garrick<\/a> to the Sydney Roosters<\/a> at the end of the season will leave a gap that needs filling for the Sea Eagles as they prepare for life in the post Anthony Seibold<\/a> era.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the club have Tolutau Koula<\/a>, and may wind up shuffling Tom Trbojevic<\/a> into the centres or even the wing with Lehi Hopoate<\/a> pushing for the fullback spot.<\/p>\n

Jason Saab<\/a> is also going to remain in the starting side, but there is definitely a spot up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Manly have a slew of younger talent coming through their system at the moment in what is one of the best era for development at the club in some time, but they could do with another NRL-ready centre.<\/p>\n

Timoko would fill that void fantastically. He would, in all seriousness, be a defensive upgrade on the departing Garrick who hasn’t quite nailed his transition from the wing to the centres at that end of the park, and Manly would lose little in attack with his signing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the ongoing surprises to start the 2026 NRL season has been the overlooking of Canberra Raiders’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-353015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}