Canberra Raiders on hunt to bolster fullback depth to cover Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad

The Canberra Raiders will look to bolster their fullback stocks boosted by the knowledge they've got a couple of young guns already in the No.1 wings. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad will return to New Zealand to be closer to his two young sons at the end of the NRL season, having signed a three-year deal to return to the New Zealand Warriors. Nicoll-Klokstad's just returned from a hamstring injury and came off the bench to play the finals six minutes of the Green Machine's controversial 12-10 loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons before last weekend's bye. But he's been named at fullback in the Raiders' NSW Cup side that will play Mounties in Sydney on Sunday. Xavier Savage has retained Canberra's No.1 NRL jersey to face the Melbourne Storm at Melbourne on the same day. Raiders coach Ricky Stuart wanted to give Nicoll-Klokstad a full game rather than have him sit on the bench and potentially go unused against the Storm. The return of outside back James Schiller (shoulder) from injury has allowed to him to take Schiller to Melbourne with the NRL side and send Nicoll-Klokstad to Sydney to get minutes under his belt. While Raiders chief executive Don Furner said he leaves selection to Stuart and his coaching staff, he said there was too much on the line for the Raiders to simply focus on development and Stuart would pick his best team. The Raiders sit 11th on the ladder, but are just one win outside of the top eight with eight games remaining to earn a finals spot. "They'll pick the best person for the job, that's what they'll do," Furner said. He said they would look to bolster their fullback stocks to replace Nicoll-Klokstad. But he said they had good, young talent already waiting in the wings. Savage has played 10 games this season, mostly as Canberra's custodian, and has shown he has a bright future in the NRL. His blistering pace can create something out of nothing - scoring four tries in his past six games - as he continued to work on organising the Raiders' defence and removing the errors from his game. MORE RAIDERS NEWS Canberra has also signed Cronulla's Harold Matthews captain and Australian schoolboy representative Chevy Stewart, plus they have Albert Hopoate on their roster. Furner said it was up to the coaching staff as to whether they'd be happy to go into the 2023 season without bolstering their fullback depth. "We'll just invest in our future and we'll look around," he said. "We've got young Xavier, we're bringing a young guy in from the Australian schoolboys championships called Chevy Stewart - a fullback, young guy - we're bringing him in. "We've just got to keep looking as well." There's not a lot on the market when it comes to fullbacks at the moment, although there's a few coming off contract at the end of next year. But the Nicoll-Klokstad situation highlighted how quickly things can change. The New Zealand international wanted to be closer to his two sons. It's a similar situation Warriors fullback Reece Walsh has found himself in and why he didn't want to remain in New Zealand beyond the end of this season. He'll now join the Brisbane Broncos on a three-year deal to be closer to his daughter. "That's right. They were both almost the same situations just different cities," Furner said. NRL ROUND 18 Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm at Melbourne, 4.05pm. Raiders squad: 1. Xavier Savage, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Matt Timoko, 4. Sebastian Kris, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Ryan Sutton. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. James Schiller, 16. Adam Elliott, 17. Corey Horsburgh. Reserves: 18. Brad Schneider, 19. Ata Mariota, 20. Corey Harawira-Naera, 21. Emre Guler, 22. Albert Hopoate. Storm squad: 1. Ryan Papenhuyzen, 2. Nick Meaney, 3. Marion Seve, 4. Justin Olam, 5. Dean Ieremia, 6. Cameron Munster, 7. Jahrome Hughes, 8. Jesse Bromwich, 9. Harry Grant, 10. Nelson Asofa-Solomona, 11. Felise Kaufusi, 12. Kenny Bromwich, 13. Josh King. Interchange: 14. Tyran Wishart, 15. Tui Kamikamica, 16. Alec MacDonald, 17. Jordan Grant. Reserves: 18. Jayden Nikorima, 19. Chris Lewis, 20. Tom Eisenhuth, 21. Young Tonumaipea, 22. Bronson Garlick. We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: