Thursday, 18 January 2018: Raiders forward Joseph Tapine has availed himself for the club's NRL trials after recovering from knee injury suffered last year in his return to NRL pre-season training this week.

Joseph Tapine of the Kiwis fends against Sika Manu of Tonga during the 2017 Rugby League World Cup match between the New Zealand Kiwis and Tonga. November 11, 2017 in Hamilton, New Zealand.

The Canberra powerhouse rejoined full training this week after admittedly being worried about major knee injury to finish last year’s unsuccessful campaign.
According to Tapine the training is going well after recovery and he is happy to be back in the game and free of injury.
According to his retuning teammate Jordan Rapana, after failing to achieve some targets he had spent the past week in the team's "fat club" with Elliott Whitehead but should not be there for too much longer.
Several players who have returned for preseason training overweight after world cup duties were confronted by Raiders coach Ricky Stuart and are expected to be back in shape in the short term.
According to Rapana, while the team has a point to prove in 2018 after losing last year's finals, everyone is determined to win the premiership this time around.