Ethan Sanders kicked a long range field goal in the opening set of extra time to snatch a 29-28 golden point win for the Raiders in an epic clash with Manly at 4 Pines Park. For a 22-year-old halfback just five games into his NRL career, it was a moment of pure class that silenced the Brookvale crowd and announced the Raiders' new halfback to the competition.
The match was a lesson in how quickly momentum can shift in rugby league.Manly led 14-0 inside 20 minutes before five unanswered tries flipped the script for a Raiders' 28-14 advantage. For Canberra supporters watching their defending minor premiers start so badly, those opening minutes must have felt like a cruel echo of last season's early exit from the finals series. Yet the Raiders' response showed character, and perhaps more importantly, showed thatafter scoring before halftime the Raiders piled on three tries in seven minutes to take the lead.
The twist that gave this fixture added narrative weight involved Jamal Fogarty, the halfback who had guided Canberra to last season's minor premiership.Jamal Fogarty will play his first game for Manly against his former club, becoming Sea Eagle #664. It was Fogarty who forced the golden point with a penalty goal after the siren, havingforced golden point with the last kick of normal time after Canberra players were ruled offside on his two-point field goal attempt.
But Fogarty's dramatic intervention proved just a prelude.Sanders, the Raiders rookie who has replaced Fogarty that stepped up to win the game for the Green Machine. In golden point, teams get one set of six tackles to break the deadlock.After a late Sea Eagles flurry forced the contest at Brookvale Oval to extra time, 22-year-old Sanders needed just one attempt to seal the 29-28 round one win.
There is a school of thought in sports that young talent thrives under pressure because it has yet to understand its own limitations. Sanders seemed to prove the point.Exciting young halfback Ethan Sanders looks to step up in the incoming 2026 NRL season as he attempts to make the vacant seven jersey his own. Joining the club from the Eels in 2025, Sanders made his Raiders debut against the Roosters where he helped steer the side to a two-point win from halfback. His composure on the biggest stage yet suggests Canberra has found a long-term solution at halfback, even if the path to securing that role was unconventional.
For the Raiders, the win mattered considerably.Ricky Stuart's side became the first Minor Premiers to be booted out of the NRL Finals with successive losses, so they have a point to prove in '26. One game into the new season, they have already made that point emphatically. The team that stumbled when it mattered most last September showed it has genuine substance beyond the narrative of youth and promise. This was not a lucky win; it was a team fighting back from genuine adversity, executing well when execution mattered most.
Whether Sanders can sustain this level remains an open question. Five NRL games is not a career. Yet what unfolded at Brookvale Oval on Saturday night suggested that whatever the Raiders have built, it extends well beyond the departure of one accomplished halfback. The Green Machine may have lost Fogarty, but in golden point, they found something equally valuable: a halfback who does not flinch.