Canberra is determined to keep representative back rower Hudson Young, cooking up a club-record $3.3 million deal that, if accepted, would be the richest in the team’s 44-year history.
Young has been speaking to the Raiders about an extension, but whispers around the club suggest Papua New Guinea may be eager to bring him into their engine room.
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The 28-year-old is a New South Wales and Australian star, and has been one of the better players in the nation’s capital over the last few seasons. It goes to show how much Canberra’s management values his spot on the roster, considering they’ve never tabled such a rich deal to anyone else.
“We are going to do everything we can to keep Hudson,” Raiders chief executive Don Furner said on the situation. “He is a very, very important part of our club and he’s a future leader. I am confident he won’t go to another existing NRL club.”
The Raiders are also eager to hear from Hudson that he wants to continue with the Green Machine. To that end, his manager, Sam Ayoub, met with Ricky Stuart and several others earlier this week.
That is part of a longer negotiation battle that both sides have been working through; the Base understands conversations on that front started six weeks ago.
Numbers-wise, the Raiders are up against it a little, with their $1.1 million-a-year deal simply having to be bigger than Papua New Guinea’s bid because of the tax-free rules the NRL has given the expansion squad. The Chiefs will only have to offer $700,000 to match.
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The Chiefs have already signed several big-name players for 2028 and beyond, including Alex Johnston, Zac Lomax, Jarome Luai, Connor Watson, and most recently Brian To’o.
Matty Lees (from St Helens) has also been signed to play prop as one of the only early forwards.
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