Canberra Raiders News

The Canberra Raiders seek to revive their season in Perth, hoping Saturday's match against the Rabbitohs will kickstart their comeback after a rough start.

The Canberra Times

The Canberra Raiders are searching for something to turn their season around, so Hudson Young figures they could use a flight to Perth "as our little Vegas trip ... without the elevator stuff."

Wind back a little more than 12 months. Young and teammate Morgan Smithies wandered across a road to a waiting media pack after the pair had been involved in a scuffle inside an elevator in Las Vegas, where an inflatable baseball bat had been mistaken by hotel staff for a weapon.

It was the story that lit the fuse for the rugby league media cycle, even if it was a mountain made out of a molehill in the Nevada desert. And, to a degree, it galvanised the Raiders and kickstarted their run to the club's first minor premiership in 35 years.

Which brings us to Perth, where the Raiders have touched down, ticked off a selfie with a quokka on Rottnest Island, and turned their attention to fixing a 1-4 start to the season which has them sitting 16^th on the ladder.

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Dragons coach Shane Flanagan faces pressure after nine consecutive losses, while a nearby team also struggles with similar performance issues.

Zero Tackle

You don't have to look too far to see the pressure being applied to Dragons coach Shane Flanagan. All we keep hearing about is that the Dragons have lost nine games in a row, including four at the end of last season.

But eight kilometres away from where the Cowboys slayed the Dragons in Kogarah, there's a team that have lost eight of their last twelve.

Of the two matches they won at the end of last season, one was against a Warriors side that were starting to fizzle out in round 23, the other, against a Penrith side that had rested most of their top liners ahead of the finals. Indeed, when they met three weeks later, the mountain men got their revenge.

Of the two won in 2026, they have scraped home against the Dragons in Golden Point, and just beat the Raiders. Yes, the same Dragons that are at the bottom of the ladder without a win and the same Raiders who sit just above the Dragons in the standings.

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Xavier Savage will miss a month due to a syndesmosis injury but avoids surgery after a recent game.

Zero Tackle

Canberra Raiders winger Xavier Savage will avoid surgery, but is still set to miss the next month of action after suffering a syndesmosis injury.

The flyer, who has scored three tries in five games to date in 2026, suffered the injury during Sunday afternoon's loss to the Newcastle Knights at McDonald Jones Stadium.

The Raiders, who have lost four of their first five this season as they attempt to back up last year's minor premiership, will now need to turn things around without Savage.

The Canberra Times are reporting that after scans taken this week it has been determined he will avoid surgery, but will need to spend about a month on the sidelines.

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