Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart is confident Hudson Young will remain in the nation's capital beyond his current contract, despite the star back-rower's future dominating headlines in recent months.
Young, who has been sidelined since Round 20 with a season-ending Achilles injury, remains contracted to the Raiders until the end of the 2027 season.
However, unless he agrees to a new deal before November 1, the NSW Origin representative will be free to negotiate with rival clubs on the open market.
The Raiders are understood to have tabled the biggest contract in the club's history to retain Young, with a reported three-year extension worth $3.3 million.
Rather than immediately accept the offer, Young put the deal on the back burner and was granted permission by Canberra to travel to Port Moresby for a week and exclusively negotiate with the incoming PNG Chiefs.
The Chiefs were subsequently understood to have put forward a three-year deal worth around $900,000 per season, with tax-free incentives also potentially available.
However, the proposed figure was deemed below Young's market value and would not be registered by the NRL's salary cap auditor.
The Chiefs have since pulled their interest, and Young will no longer meet with the 2028 expansion franchise before November 1, with concerns his signing would place significant pressure on their salary cap.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding his future, Stuart believes Young's brief exploration of the PNG opportunity will ultimately end with him remaining a Raider.
"I'm happy that we're in a very strong position to keep him," Stuart told The Canberra Times.
"As he said to me, he doesn't want to play for any other NRL club, but he wanted to weigh up the option to visit PNG because there's a lot of money on offer.
"Then basically, when he had to guarantee that he was going to go there before he got over there, it was out of the question for him.
"I understand why Hudson wasn't as enthusiastic about the offer when he wasn't given the chance to go and explore the living arrangements, the facilities, because he basically had to tell them that he was going to guarantee the fact that he was going to be going there.
"And that wasn't ever the situation with Hudson.
"It was a matter of him actually going and exploring, and seeing what the arrangements were."
With the PNG option now off the table, Stuart expects the situation to be resolved quickly, insisting Young has no desire to test his value elsewhere.
"Hudson won't go to market. He doesn't want to play with any other club. He's a Raider," Stuart said on Friday.
"I can't see why it won't be wrapped up very quickly," he said.
"And it needs to be to put Hudson's mind at ease.
"I think the club has done a really good job in allowing Hudson this window to explore something which is very, very unique.
"They're certainly chasing the right player in Hudson, but fortunately he's going to be with us."
