'I don't think the boys know': How Raider tackles Ramadan and footy

Ramadan began on Monday evening and for the next month an estimated 1.8 billion Muslims around the world will be fasting from sunrise to sunset.

It's considered the most holy month on the calendar for the religion, where fasting is accompanied by prayer, reflection, and time with community and family. At the end of Ramadan, the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast (Eid al-Fitr) is a three-day celebration.

Guler, who is of Turkish origin, doesn't claim to follow the fasting tradition as strictly as Sonny Bill Williams famously did during his playing career. However, the 26-year-old does observe Ramadan the best he can, fasting during days off or when he has a lighter training schedule.

"I don't think any of the boys know to be honest," Guler said. "I don't really say anything. Maybe a couple know, but I haven't spoken to the coaches about it."

On days when he does commit to the fast, Guler makes the most of the evening hours to get food and hydration in his body, and he isn't worried about it affecting his performance on the field.

"You can eat in the middle of the night, but you fast through the whole day - no water, no food," Guler said.

"We fast for 30 days. It's hard with big days... I try to do it all but it's pretty tough when we've got games."

Guler said he does want to do it properly though, as he better manages the fasting along with his footy duties.

"I'm just trying to get more experience in it and work around my schedule, but I think the better I get at it, I'd love to do it even on our big training days and stuff like that," he said.

The forward is eyeing another strong showing this Saturday when the Raiders host Wests Tigers at Canberra Stadium.

Last week Guler helped set up a Hudson Young try and he said that play highlights how he intends to take his footy to another level this season, as the Raiders aim to improve on their lacklustre 2023 attacking stats.

"When I was young fella coming through, I threw the ball around a bit more but then I tried to be more safe when I was just finding my feet [in the NRL] ... but I need to do that a bit more," he said.

"The more I do that, the boys around me we will know that I've got that in me, so everyone else can play off the back of it.

"That's something that we need to work on. We didn't score too many points last year and the games we won, we didn't win by much.

"So we need to sharpen that up and Sticky [Ricky Stuart] has done a great job this pre-season so there'll be plenty more [points] this year."