Raiders urged to stick with young halves despite slow start

The Canberra Raiders have been urged to stick by their young halves pairing despite their side’s slow start to the season.

The Raiders finished minor premiers in 2025 for the first time in 35 years, crashing out in the second week of finals.

Heading into 2026, the Raiders’ only major squad change was the departure of Jamal Fogarty to the Manly Sea Eagles, with 22-year-old Ethan Sanders promoted to starting halfback, partnering with 21-year-old Ethan Strange.

Following the Raiders’ 32-12 loss to Newcastle on Sunday, pressure has begun to mount on Canberra, as the slump to second-last on the ladder with one win, better than only the Dragons who remain winless to start 2026.

However, premiership-winning halfback Chad Townsend believes Sanders, only eight games into his NRL career, will be a better player down the line if the Raiders’ stick with the young halfback through his early learning curve.

“Sanders, after that round one game where he kicked that field goal, he probably hasn't had his best couple of weeks,” Townsend said on SEN League.

“I think Sanders defensively, he missed a couple of tackles yesterday when they had a man in the bin and Dane Gagai gave him a big couple of ‘don't argues’ in the chest.

“There's no doubt, as a young half, you're always gonna get targeted with your defence.

“You've got to get your body in front. You’ve got to give a genuine attempt, and hold on and wait for help.

“So Sanders (is) learning that the NRL, it is the toughest competition in the world, and sometimes you have really good weeks, other times you take some lessons.

“It's a good learning curve for Sanders and the demands of the NRL defence at this stage of his career.”

The Raiders’ halves pairing of Sanders and Strange is the most inexperienced and youngest-on-average in the NRL, with 58 games between them.

Despite their poor start, Perth Bears assistant coach Ben Gardiner also believes the Raiders must persist with Sanders and Strange, backing coach Ricky Stuart to turn the club’s fortunes around.

“I think that long-term (Sanders and Strange are) their answer, and Ricky (Stuart) better than anyone knows halves, and he'll know whether they're up to it or not,” Gardiner told SEN 1170 Mornings.

“He's made the decision in the pre-season that they are up to it.

“Unless they commit the time to it, they'll swap someone else in and they'll have the clunkiness that they've been having in attack anyway, so they're better off persevering with it.

“I even felt it last year at the Panthers where Blaize Talagi was new, (Nathan) Cleary hadn't trained through the pre-season, nor had Dylan Edwards, and so there was this clunkiness around the combination and they’re world-class players.

“These are two young guys coming through and building their game.

“Obviously they're gonna get brilliant coaching from Ricky cause he's a mastermind of rugby league… and I think that there's growth there.

“I think people would be frustrated with how they're going because other players are overplaying as a result of it, but I think that they've got to stick with it.

“The realism is what else do they have? Like, do they have other halves to come in?

“These guys are the ones that need to do the job for them.”

If the Raiders wish to return to the heights of their 2025 campaign, their fortunes must turn around quickly, beginning with the Rabbitohs in Perth in Round 6.