And if he can bring his own running game on top of that then they'll be even more potent.

Wighton's become the barometer of the Green Machine - if he's purring, then so are they.

He showed that in the Raiders' final pre-season trial - an 18-16 win over the highly fancied Manly at Gosford on Friday night.

While Wighton got off to a shaky start - with an intercept pass and a dropped ball leading to the Sea Eagles' opening two tries - he went to another level after that, scoring one and setting up another in a display backed up by his typically strong defence.

The former Dally M medallist had a disappointing year last year by his own lofty standards, which was backed up by the statistics and saw the Raiders slip from a preliminary final team to missing out on the finals.

He scored fives tries last season, down from 13 in 2020, had 1758 run metres compared with 2244m, and his kick metres were down from 6089 to 5069.

Wighton did have slightly more try assists in 2021 (10 up from eight) and more offloads (10 up from five).

The 29-year-old looked a lot more like the 2020 version of himself in the Central Coast trial, which boded well for the Green Machine.

And he put the credit for that with Fogarty's arrival.

Now it's about being ready for round one at Canberra Stadium against Cronulla on March 11.

"It's good. He takes a lot of pressure off with the kicking and stuff," Wighton told Fox League.

"I just get on the kick chase and back him him up in areas. I'm looking forward to starting the year with him big time.

"We've just got to focus on working together, using both sides of the field. He'll take a lot of pressure off me with his organising and that. I can't wait for round one."

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said they got through the game unscathed - good news given prop Corey Horsburgh copped a heavy hit to his ribs.

There were a number of promising signs in the trial with Corey Harawira-Naera, Matthew Timoko and Joe Tapine all playing well - the latter scoring a try.

Nick Cotric also returned to the Raiders wing with a try, while Canberra have a potent hooker pairing of Josh Hodgson and Tom Starling.

Xavier Savage started at fullback, but also spent time on the right wing - a spot up for grabs following Jordan Rapana's suspension.

With incumbent custodian Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad set to leave his COVID-19 isolation this week, Stuart said the New Zealand international was the frontrunner to wear the No.1 jersey against the Sharks.

"I'm leaning towards [Nicoll-Klokstad] because of his experience and I'm as excited as everyone else about Xavier Savage," he said.

"But I've got to look after Xavier too - that's my job and responsibility and I'll do that. I'll ease him into the NRL - whether that's game one who knows.

"He's certainly a talent, but he's also a guy I'm going to take great care of because his longevity is important not round one, two, three or four."

NRL ROUND ONE

March 11: Canberra Raiders v Cronulla Sharks at Canberra Stadium, 6pm.