2025 NRL Team Previews

Canberra Raiders NRL 2025 Team Preview, Predictions & Player Movement

Jeremy Darke

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Last updated: 07 Feb 2025

Jeremy Darke 07 Feb 2025

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Canberra Raiders predicted to finish fourteenth in the 2025 NRL season
Key player Joseph Tapine aims to shine, needing to avoid suspensions.
New challenges arise with veteran departures and defensive vulnerabilities.

Canberra Raiders predicted to finish fourteenth in the 2025 NRL season. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

NRL 2025 Team Previews, Predictions & Player Movement: Canberra Raiders

NRL 2025 Team Previews, Predictions & Player Movement: Canberra Raiders
Where the Canberra Raiders finish in 2025: 14
Projected Win total: 9
Best contender for Dally M: Joseph Tapine
What’s to like
What’s NOT to like
Canberra Raiders Offseason Player Movement
Canberra Raiders Predicted Starting 17

Where the Canberra Raiders finish in 2025: 14

There is a change of guard in Canberra with veterans like Elliot Whitehead and Jordan Rapana moving to the U.K to play out the rest of their careers.

This brings uncertainty over a club that has unexpectedly been in the mix for the finals over the past three seasons, narrowly missing out in 2024 which was an achievement in itself for their young group.

Ricky Stuart will always get the most out of his men, however, this will likely be a year of development and learning for the Green Machine as they will struggle early on finding their leaders who will take them to the next level.

Projected Win total: 9

The Raiders over-achieved on the Pythagorean win expectation last season by three, winning 12 games with a projection of 9. This season the data pegs Canberra with 9 wins once again and with a real regression expected by the Raiders in 2025 this total feels about right.

Eight of 12 wins by the Raiders were by 4 points or less in 2024. More often than not, when a team wins the majority of their games by one score, they will generally fail to repeat that feat the following season.

Best contender for Dally M: Joseph Tapine

With Elliot Whitehead moving on, it will be up to Joseph Tapine to step up and be the fearless leader. The New Zealand international won his third straight Meninga Medal in 2024 as the Raiders best and fairest and he will be more needed than ever.

2025 could be the season that sees Tapine as one of the true elite forwards in the NRL, however, if he is to win the Dally M he will need to stay out of suspension trouble.

What’s to like

The Raiders have a young core that showed glimpses of excitement in 2024 that saw them beat a few of the big guns of the competition.

Consistency from their spine of Kaeo Weekes, Ethan Strange, Jamal Fogarty and Tom Starling could see them really light things up offensively, especially if they get their flyers like Xavier Savage and Matt Timoko involved early.

What’s NOT to like

The Raiders conceded 30+ points 8 times in 2024 which shows that they had a tendency to give up when the game was out of reach which is not a quality that Ricky Stuart would have liked to see.

Winning tight games was a specialty for the Raiders last season, but just as mentioned above, the likelihood of that happening in 2025 is slim, especially losing their key veterans that lift in those situations.

Canberra’s depth will be tested this season if injuries come in and they do not have the experience and class to cover the inevitable, just yet.

Canberra Raiders Offseason Player Movement

Ins: Ethan Sanders (Eels), Myles Martin (Knights), Savelio Tamale (Dragons).

Outs: Elliott Whitehead (Catalans Dragons), Nick Cotric (Catalans Dragons), Zac Woolford (Huddersfield Giants), Adrian Trevilyan (Northern Pride), Jordan Rapana (Hull FC), Hohepa Puru (Sharks), James Schiller (Knights), Peter Hola (Norths Devils), Emre Guler (Dragons).