Rugby League News | Raidercast

Sat, 13th June, 2026, 10:34 AEST
'First time in 30 years': The injury setbacks behind Raiders debutant… and how close he came to walking away
Vena Patuki-Case makes his NRL debut Saturday after overcoming significant injuries and setbacks during his journey with the Raiders.
Fox League
On Saturday night, Vena Patuki-Case will become the latest Canberra Raiders player to make his NRL debut, earning his opportunity after years of persistence and injury setbacks.
Confirmed to take the field when the Raiders face off against the Parramatta Eels, Patuki-Case's journey to first-grade hasn't been the easiest and is the culmination of determination, hard work and resilience.
In his first match for the Raiders - after joining the club from the Sydney Roosters - the forward sustained a Lisfranc fracture, ruling him out for the remainder of the season at the time.
After overcoming that, his injury woes continued when he broke his leg and in an extraordinary complication, the titanium plate inserted to help repair his leg also snapped.
The freak incident left his treating doctor stunned, with the specialist describing it as the "first time in 30 years" he had ever seen it happen.
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Fri, 12th June, 2026, 12:38 AEST
'Snapped off inside his leg': the injuries the Raiders' latest debutant has overcome
Vena Patuki-Case suffered multiple injuries, including a Lisfranc fracture, sidelining him for nearly two years.
The Canberra Times
Not only did Vena Patuki-Case break his leg, but then he broke the metal plate that was put in to help fix his leg.
But the leg wasn't the worst of it.
First, he suffered a dreaded Lisfranc fracture in his first game for the Canberra Raiders - playing in the under-19 SG Ball Cup having been recruited from the Sydney Roosters.
For almost two years, he sat on the sidelines just trying to get back on the field from those injuries.
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Fri, 12th June, 2026, 12:10 AEST
I didn't think I'd like him. I couldn't have been more wrong on NSW star who became Raiders' 'pulse'
Michael Crawley highlights Hudson Young's relentless dedication to training, often dragging teammates for extra practice regardless of weather conditions.
Fox League
Michael Crawley has worked as an assistant coach at the Raiders, Knights and Cowboys as well as a coaching consultant with the Dragons.
Every single training session, without fail, you can bet your life that Hudson Young will be pulling some poor bugger to the side for extras.
Most times it is his good mate Tom Starling getting dragged along, other times it is his left-edge combination, and every now and then it is some young kid who does not know he should be saying no, a kid Huddo thinks would make a good tackle bag for ten minutes.
The weather does not play a part. Rain, hail, or the freezing Canberra wind, it happens every session of every season. He simply does not miss. Doing extras to him is just like eating, and to be fair, he does plenty of that too.
When I came back to the Raiders for the third time in 2022, I did not think I would like Hudson much. I mean, I liked the name 'Hudson with an H' - it was an old commercial from a time long gone - but the bloke himself used to sail pretty close to the wind on the field. Before I got back to the club, I would watch all the Raiders games and find myself yelling at the television for him to show some discipline. Seriously, I thought he would get marched at any minute and hurt the team with some of the fire he was playing with.
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'First time in 30 years': The injury setbacks behind Raiders debutant… and how close he came to walking away

'Snapped off inside his leg': the injuries the Raiders' latest debutant has overcome

I didn't think I'd like him. I couldn't have been more wrong on NSW star who became Raiders' 'pulse'

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