The Canberra Raiders are set to sign rookie of the year candidate Nick Cotric to a long-term deal.

Cotric is currently under contract to the Canberra side until the end of next year.

The Raiders are keen though to lock down the local rookie, with the club aware that they have lost several other local talents in recent years.

“We would love to keep Nick and we are working on that at the moment,” Furner told The Daily Telegraph.

“He is born and bred here and came through our junior system.”

As a way to recompense teams who do develop talent, the NRL is set to rubber stamp a development fee system beginning in 2018.

Under the proposal, clubs that recruit a player will have to pay an additional fee to their rivals on top of the contract.

The main idea of the fee is to reward clubs for producing their own talent, prevent poaching and encourage teams to develop players.