Joseph Tapine wants a contract extension in the nation's capital.
That is the shock revelation which has surfaced on Monday, with his manager Jim Banaghan reportedly wanting to kick off talks with club chief executive Don Furner and the recruitment staff immediately.
Tapine, who may miss a handful of games this year due to border rules in Queensland and Victoria for unvaccinated persons, captained the Maori All Stars on Saturday night to bring the curtain down ahead of the season kick-off.
RELATED: Tapine a key for the Raiders - six learnings from the All Stars
He struggled to find a consistent place in Ricky Stuart's struggling green machine last year, playing 19 games, with eight of them from the bench.
Of the remaining games, he only played more than 50 minutes on four occasions, with a Round 9 effort against the Newcastle Knights seeing the barnstorming middle forward play just 27 minutes.
It led to an outburst from his wife on social media at the time, suggesting Tapine should be playing plenty more minutes than he was.
Tapine, who started his career with the Newcastle Knights, has played 159 NRL games, including 120 of those at the Raiders since 2016, while he has also represented New Zealand 11 times and will likely travel to England for the Rugby League World Cup at the end of the year.
Tapine's manager, Jim Banaghan, told The Daily Telegraph that he doesn't want to leave the club.
โJoseph has never ever expressed a desire to me that he wanted to leave,โ Banaghan said.
โI actually want to talk to Donny about an extension.
โI get expressions of interest all the time from around the traps. They all ring and say โhowโs he going, keep us in mind if he would like a change.โ
โKirsten has a great job in Canberra and Joseph is really happy there.โ
Tapine's next clash will see him run out for the Raiders in a pair of trials over the next fortnight against the Sydney Roosters and Manly Sea Eagles, before Stuart's side takes on the Cronulla Sharks in Round 1.
