NRL draw 2025: Canberra Raiders to travel 48,000km in opening 12 rounds of the competition

Canberra has been handed a horror start to 2025, with Ricky Stuart’s men set to clock up 43,000km of travel before the halfway point of the season. See the nightmare schedule.

Ricky Stuart has been left furious by a Raiders draw for next season which he says is the worst he’s received in 22 years of first grade coaching.

In a horror start to the NRL season, Stuart’s men are set to clock up to 48,000km of travel in the all-important early rounds of their 2025 campaign.

Following a 26,000km trip to Las Vegas to help launch the NRL season against the Warriors in round one, the Raiders will then pack their bags from the Nation’s Capital for games in Townsville, Darwin, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Auckland in the first three months of the season.

They will play at home at GIO Stadium just five times in the corresponding first 12 rounds.

It is the most exhaustive away schedule of any of the 17 clubs, with the Sharks also forced to overcome a potential Vegas hangover after being drawn to play the Cowboys in Townsville in round two before travelling to Canberra and Perth in rounds five and six.

Yet it’s the Raiders arduous travel that has led Stuart to question how the Raiders have been dealt such a torrid draw.

Ricky Stuart and the Raiders will hit the road in 2025.

“I find it inconceivable that someone could think it’s fair to ask our players to travel to Sydney, Townsville, Darwin, Gold Coast and Brisbane in the space of six weeks. Then we’re off to Auckland soon after and you can add a trip to Mudgee (against Penrith) later in the season also,’’ Stuart said.

“It’s the most imbalanced draw that I’ve had since I started coaching.

“I’ll get labelled a whinger. I’m okay with that.

“Because I know that every other coach, outside Andrew Webster at the Warriors, would feel the same way if they were handed this.

“We’re being asked to do upwards of 40,000km of travel when some other teams have got 7000km. I will keep standing up for my club and players whilst ever I am their coach and this is wrong what they have been handed.

“It smells of “oh well, it’s only the Raiders’.

“I can’t complain about Las Vegas, we put our hand up for that and are excited by it. But what follows on after that has left me stunned.’’

Stuart said he has scheduled a meeting with his high performance team on Friday in a bid to map out how the club intends to tackle their time on the road.

“Do I really need to remind the NRL that this is a high performance industry that we work in?,’’ Stuart said.

“I’ve got a meeting with my high performance team tomorrow (Friday) to map out every intricate detail on how we combat and protect our players from being susceptible to injuries with this amount of time away in hotels and planes.’’

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo said he could appreciate the Raiders frustration.

While confirming the NRL would look to work with the Raiders on their upcoming travel stress, Abdo also pointed out the club’s favourable 18 seven-day turnarounds between matches - the most of any other team.

“Ricky is entitled to his commentary and I understand his position,’’ Abdo said.

“The fact remains the draw is an extremely complex process and the Raiders have many positive elements to their draw, including turnarounds between games. “We will continue to work with clubs on any measures we can undertake to ease the travel challenges as much as possible.”