The 2021 Canberra Raiders season was the 41st in the club's history. Coached by

Ricky Stuart Ricky John Stuart (born 7 January 1967) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is the head coach of the Canberra Raiders in the NRL and a former rugby league footballer who played as a in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. He ...

and captained jointly by

Jarrod Croker Jarrod Keith Croker (born 11 September 1990) is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who is the captain and goal-kicking for the Canberra Raiders in the NRL. He has played his entire career to date with Canberra, with whom he be ...

Josh Hodgson Joshua Hodgson (born 31 October 1989) is an English rugby league footballer who plays as a hooker for the Parramatta Eels in the NRL. He has played for the England Knights, England and Great Britain at international level. He has previously ...

and

Elliott Whitehead Elliott Whitehead (born 4 September 1989) is an English professional rugby league footballer who plays as a forward for the Canberra Raiders in the NRL, and England and Great Britain at international level. He previously played for the Bradf ...

, they competed in the

2021 NRL season The 2021 NRL season was the 114th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 24th season run by the National Rugby League. Teams The lineup of teams remained unchanged for the 15th consecutive year. Regular season Ladd ...

, placing 10th out of 16 teams and thus failing to make the finals.

Season Summary

Canberra looked to capitalise on their successful

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

campaign, however they fell apart mid-season from heavy losses to other teams such as the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith ...

and

South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are a professional Australian rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen pla ...

, losing five games in a row and being demolished by underdogs the

Gold Coast Titans The Gold Coast Titans are a professional rugby league football club, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australia and New Zealand's national rugby league club competition. The ...

. Rumours of a player-coach riff between Stuart and a certain amount of players led to the stand-down of Josh Hodgson as captain and the departure of English import George Williams. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the NRL relocated to Queensland to play the rest of the season. This was further setback with the lockdown in Brisbane and 11 other LGAs in June. Multiple injuries to players such as youngster Xavier Savage and hooker Tom Starling threatened to derail their season, but they were successful in gaining wins in the second half of the year, with defeats of Manly, Cronulla and Parramatta successively. They came close to reaching the top eight, however a loss to the

Roosters The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

in Round 25 sealed their fate.

Results

Ladder

2021 Squad

Transfers

Losses: Gains:

2021 Meninga Medal Award Winners

NSW Cup Player of the Year – Kai O’Donnell NSW Cup Coaches Award – Matt Frawley Geoff Caldwell Welfare & Education Award – Elliott Whitehead Gordon McLucas Memorial Junior Representative Player of the Year - Trey Mooney Fred Daly Memorial Club Person of the Year – Grant Hogan NRL Rookie of the Year – Harley Smith-Shields & Matt Timoko NRL Coaches Award – Tom Starling Meninga Medal – Jordan Rapana

References

{{Reflist Canberra Raiders seasons Canberra Raiders season