The Canberra Raiders have today confirmed the worst-kept secret in Rugby League, their star playmaker Jack Wighton is leaving the club at the end of the season after over 200 games for the Green Machine.
The news broke last month that Wighton was going to test his value on the open market, and just yesterday Channel Nine's Danny Weidler reported that his landing spot will be the South Sydney Rabbitohs, all of which now appears to be true after Ricky Stuart released an emotional and lengthy statement on the Canberra Raiders website.
โYesterday, Jack informed the club that he would not be re-signing with the Raiders beyond this season,โ Stuart began.
โI want to reassure you all that the club did everything possible to keep Jack at the Raiders and we wanted nothing more than to see him reach 300 games and become a one-club player.โ
โI want to let our loyal members and fans know that I bleed green as much as you do, and as much as it hurts today, our future is still ahead of us, and we will continue on the path we best see fit to give this club the success it deserves.โ
Wighton, who debuted for Canberra debuted in 2012 and has played 225 games for the club so far, winning both the Dally M and the club's Mal Meninga Medal in 2020 along the way.
The 30-year-old also played a vital role in getting the club to its first grand final in 25 years in 2019, falling just short to the Sydney Roosters 14-8. Despite the loss, Wighton still won the Clive Churchill medal.
It is all these accolades and achievements with the Raiders that make his departure so shocking and disappointing to the club's fans, something that Stuart blames on the current contract rules in the NRL that allow players to negotiate with other clubs during the last year of their contracts, as he points out later in his statement.
โAs a club, we believe the current contracting system where players can sign well out from the end of their current contract is flawed. It is not fair to you who I see as our major stakeholders, the club, and as importantly the players. I know it would have been hard for you, our Raiders fans, because I know what the feeling was like for me, to see an image of Jack in a Souths jersey (digitally altered) on the back page of a Sydney paper today,โ Stuart continued.
Wighton is set to play out the remainder of his contract at the Raiders and is named to start at five-eighth to take on the Dolphins at 3 PM on Saturday at McDonald's Park in Wagga Wagga.
