{"id":381017,"date":"2026-04-15T17:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381017\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T17:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:28:11","slug":"why-raiders-star-asked-to-be-relegated-to-nsw-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/381017\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Raiders star asked to be relegated to NSW Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raiders star Savelio Tamale<\/a> has reached out to head coach Ricky Staurt to be dropped to NSW Cup<\/a> to reclaim his spark and to get back to his brilliant-best after the side’s win in Perth on Saturday.<\/p>\n

A unique scenario where Tamale pulled up short just before scoring a long-range try spearheaded it, with many speculating if it was a showboating effort, or whether he just accidentally stumbled and almost bombed a 4-pointer.<\/p>\n

Turns out the gifted winger just needs to reignite his kindle, with him and Stuart coming to the agreement that for the short-term success of the Raiders, it’s best for the team if he goes back to NSW Cup<\/a> to help regain confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is a courageous call from the young Dragons junior and shows great maturity to make a selfless decision like this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Matt Timoko has been recalled to the side, with Sebastian Kris<\/a> taking the vacant wing spot, and Stuart verifying with the Sydney Morning Herald that it was Tamale’s decision to make the switch.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Sav’ asked me after the game on the weekend and said, ‘I’m not helping these guys at the moment, and I need to go back and find some confidence in NSW Cup<\/a>,\u201d Stuart said to the SMH.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him we’d worry about it later in the week. We spoke again on Monday. He’s lost a bit of confidence, it’s been building for a few weeks, and he hasn’t been the same confident player he was when he came on to the scene last year and played so well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSav is such a good young guy. I want to get him back as soon as I can.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also want to look after him, and when he’s in this position mentally, he needs to take a step back, nail the basics, enjoy himself and get his confidence back.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’ll be back. He’s a wonderful NRL<\/a> player, he just needs to believe in his ability, and believe he can be the player I know I’ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The talented winger had an incredible rookie season last year before being struck with a serious kneecap injury, which halted his progression for the remainder of his first year in the top grade.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2025, he averaged 150 metres and scored seven tries before the injury which kept him out of the NRL<\/a> for two months, later returning at the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a massive future in the nation’s capital, Tamale may look back at this decision as a pivotal moment to why he goes on to become a long-term star for the Raiders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raiders star Savelio Tamale has reached out to head coach Ricky Staurt to be dropped to NSW Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-381017","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\/381017","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=381017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}