Golden point glory helps vindicate Raiders’ three-year wait and $2m contract call

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Raiders coach Ricky Stuart enjoyed the best of both worlds after getting soaked to his socks standing on the sidelines at Brookvale on Saturday night.

Canberra’s greatest No.7 was able to catch up with one of his favourite students, newly minted Manly halfback Jamal Fogarty, as well as revel in the match-winning performance of Fogarty’s replacement, young Raiders playmaker Ethan Sanders, who the Raiders backed in a long-term succession plan many observers feared could cruel them in 2026.

Sanders booted a 35-metre, extra-time field goal to finish a wet and wild contest where both sides recovered from 14-point deficits, with the 22-year-old cutting a serene figure as he took the shot in just his fifth NRL game.

Canberra held an option on Fogarty’s contract last year and could have matched the lucrative $2 million Sea Eagles offer that lured Fogarty to Sydney.

Instead, Stuart and the Raiders backed Sanders to step in with the least experience of any first-choice No.7 this season, having clearly identified him as their long-term playmaker two years ago when signing him as a teenager out of Parramatta.

Ethan Sanders embraces his family at 4 Pines Park on Saturday night.

With a scything try from close range and an admirable defensive effort on Manly’s monstrous back-rower Haumole Olakau’atu, it is so far so good for Sanders after biding his time behind Fogarty, and Eels pair Mitchell Moses and Dylan Brown before that.

“Your dream as a halfback is to be in that position, to kick those goals,” Sanders said after his 81st minute match-winner.

“Obviously there’s a lot of great halfbacks that have been in those opportunities and have nailed a bunch of them, and they’re known for that. So it’s a goal to be one of those halfbacks that’s doing that.

“We weren’t planning on doing it, but we ended up getting a quick play-the-ball and I just took it – I didn’t really think about it.”

Stuart paid tribute to Sanders’ long-term approach to his career before kick-off, saying: “A lot of young players today are too much in a rush to play first grade … I think he’s quite courageous in regards to taking that apprenticeship on last year, to build longevity in his career.”

Ethan Sanders celebrates his first NRL try with Joe Tapine.

After Canberra’s thrilling 29-28 win, he was just as complimentary about both halfbacks, noting Fogarty’s bright moments in his first game for Manly opposite Sanders.

“And Ethan Sanders, I thought his game tonight was very, very mature, well beyond the amount of games he’s played,” Stuart said. “I think that was probably the fifth or sixth game in first grade. He had more pressure on him tonight than any player on the field.”

Given he has been tipped for the top level since impressing as a teenager, Sanders’ slow-and-steady rise in the past three years has been a talking point, seemingly for everyone but him.

“I wouldn’t say I was desperate [to play NRL], I was just learning,” Sanders said of his first year in Canberra.

“There’s a bunch of great leaders in this side; it was just good to sort of pick their brains and be around them 24/7 … To be able to get the halfback role in round one is yet another tick on the goal list.”