CANBERRA are spending some of the money freed up by Todd Carney's sacking on upgrading and extending the deals of promising young players at the club, but there will be enough left over to recruit an established first-grader for next year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And the Raiders believe the entertaining style of football they are playing will help them pick up the right sort of player to add to a team that has been described as the most attractive to watch in the NRL, thanks to a recent run that has taken the Green Machine to sixth place with four rounds to go.
"We're getting plenty of calls from agents who are trying to sell us halves, in the wake of Todd going, but we feel we're OK for halves," Canberra chief executive Don Furner said yesterday. "We'd actually like a second-rower, if the right sort of player was to become available.
"We're not knocking on anyone's door. We're going to sit back and see what happens. There aren't any obvious players available at the moment, in that position, but the way it is in football things happen and players become available, for various reasons. We're not going to spend the money just for the sake of it. If the right sort of player was to become available, we would want to talk to him, but if nothing comes up then we'll hold our fire and continue with the players we've got.
"I'd like to think that the way the Raiders are playing and the potential the team has got for the future would be attractive to anyone who wants to play in a team that is going places, and if we do make it to the finals then it will be a very good advertisement for us, as a club.
"It's probably fair to say that since the club's premiership-winning era of the late 1980s and early 1990s Canberra has had a bit of a problem attracting big-name players from outside of our area, but at the end of the day players want to win and the Raiders are a side that's heading in the right direction.
"We've been concentrating on our very good young players coming through in recent years, but there is room for a good second-rower if one was to become available, either here or overseas."
The only players the Raiders have signed from the outside for next season are Sydney Roosters prop David Shillington and Wests Tigers hooker Stuart Flanagan.
