'A little hair cut, but not Armageddon': Canberra Raiders ready for NRL football dept cap cut

But things like pre-season camps to Queensland and getting to away games a few days early might be a thing of the past.

The NRL football department cap looks set to be reduced by $1.2 million to $5 million, although some of that will be due to things like player welfare no longer falling under it and the introduction of an upper limit on how much of the senior coach's salary gets counted.

Raiders chief executive Don Furner has been budgeting towards the reduced amount for the past month and was confident there wouldn't be wholesale changes in their football department.

In further good news, it's believed veteran Sia Soliola is locked in for next season with details being finalised, while talks are looking positive for winger Jordan Rapana to do the same after his management met with the Raiders in Sydney on Saturday.

But the Raiders are still waiting for the NRL and Rugby League Players' Association to finalise next year's salary cap.

There's still a few things being tweaked when it comes to the cap on football department spending, but it looks set to drop to $5 million.

Furner said that's what he'd been working towards and it was much better than what many thought it would be when the coronavirus pandemic first forced the NRL into lockdown.

"We think we're going to be right on. Some things we'll have to cut back on," he said.

"There might have to be some wage cuts. They're currently looking at two things which will have a big impact on it, which is the medical and welfare.

"Welfare's wages are in at the moment, but they're now saying welfare's wages shouldn't be in.

"We'll cut it fine, but it's a million-dollar difference. We planned on that about a month ago.

"I don't think there'll be a lot of pain in terms of loss of jobs or massive slices of wages.

"There might be a little hair cut, but not Armageddon that it looked like four to five months ago."

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

Having spent most of the season travelling up and back to away games on match day means there might be less demand to travel early in the future, with the additional spending included in the football department cap.

Pre-season camps are also included, which means they could also fall by the wayside.

The Raiders have spent time on the Sunshine Coast in the pre-season in the past and traveled to Auckland early to face the New Zealand Warriors last season.

"We've been pleasantly surprised with the in-and-out [trips]," Furner said.

"They'll be certain [things] like pre-season camps for $100,000 somewhere - at a resort on the Gold Coast - we won't be doing that sort of stuff."

NRL ELIMINATION FINAL

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Cronulla Sharks, 5.40pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad 2. Semi Valemei 3. Jarrod Croker (c) 4. Jordan Rapana 5. Nick Cotric 6. Jack Wighton 7. George Williams 8. Josh Papalii 9. Tom Starling 10. Dunamis Lui 11. John Bateman 12. Elliott Whitehead 13. Joe Tapine. Interchange: 14. Siliva Havili 15. Sia Soliola 16. Hudson Young 17. Corey Harawira-Naera. Reserves: 18. Sam Williams 19. Kai O'Donnell 20. Michael Oldfield 21. Matt Timoko.

Sharks squad: 1. Will Kennedy 2. Sione Katoa 3. Josh Dugan 4. Jesse Ramien 5. Ronaldo Mulitalo 6. Connor Tracey 7. Chad Townsend 8. Braden Hamlin-Uele 9. Blayke Brailey 10. Aaron Woods 11. Briton Nikora 12. Wade Graham 13. Toby Rudolf. Interchange: 14. Siosifa Talakai 15. Scott Sorensen 16. Andrew Fifita 17. Jack Williams. Reserves: 18. Teig Wilton 19. Braydon Trindall 20. Mawene Hiroti 21. Bryson Goodwin.