sport, raiders, canberra raiders, raiders, nrl, don furner, jarrod croker, jack wighton, act government, canberra stadium

Canberra Raiders chief executive Don Furner will use his Christmas holidays to begin talks to re-sign Jarrod Croker. Furner will meet up with the Raiders co-captain's manager during the break as the Green Machine look to lock up as many of their off-contract stars as they can before the start of the NRL season. The Canberra Times revealed Furner had already started talks with Clive Churchill Medallist Jack Wighton and now he's doing the same with Croker. It's the first time Croker's been off-contract in his 257 NRL game career. In that time he's become the Raiders all-time leading point and try scorer, and he's on track to climb past Newcastle legend Andrew Johns to fourth on the NRL's all-time points list next year. Croker is keen to extend his time in Canberra beyond his upcoming 12th season. And so are the Raiders. "I'm going to catch up with [Croker's manager during the break], I told Crokes that and he said, 'Good'," Furner said. "I said when I come back from holidays I'll go through everything with Crokes when I get back. That'll be our first meeting." Furner will also meet with Wighton's manager Matt Rose again in the New Year. It's believed Wighton will be looking for a long-term deal to secure his future, potentially as long as four years. The 26-year-old's going into his ninth season with the Green Machine. Rose said he will sit down with Wighton once he's back from his Christmas break. MORE CANBERRA NEWS Wighton had an option in his favour for the 2021 season, but he turned it down because he'd changed management. Plus the Australian international's career has taken off this year. He's made his Kangaroos and NSW debuts, following his successful switch from fullback to the No.6 jersey. Wighton was also the best on ground in this year's NRL grand final. "I haven't had a chance to talk to Jack. Jack's had a big year and finished very late, obviously playing for Australia," Rose said. "Once he gets back from the Christmas break we'll sit down and work out how we move forward and whether that be at the Raiders or elsewhere." Furner said the move to their new centre of excellence in Braddon had been taking up most of his time, but he's also had some progress on the Raiders' deals with the ACT government. Both their stadium and performance deals have expired and need to be renewed. Furner said it would be nice to have them finalised before round one kicks off against the Gold Coast Titans at Canberra Stadium on March 13. The government should have a draft of their stadium deal ready for their next meeting in the New Year. It will contain the provision for the Raiders to take one home game to another city without them having to pay a fine. Canberra were slugged $150,000 by the government for taking a game to Wagga Wagga this year. They'll play another game there in 2020 and will then assess if they take any more away from Canberra Stadium. "There's two. There's the stadium deal - I had a good meeting with them last week and that was promising," Furner said. "I think we're progressing really well there. "Then there's the other one, which is the performance agreement and we've got to catch up with them in the New Year. "Obviously we need one in place, certainly for the hiring agreement, before kick off, so we've got a couple of months there. "We're waiting for them to come back. They're talking to their legals ... they'll send us a draft."

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