Blake Ferguson re-signs with the Raiders until 2015

The Canberra Raiders have received a boost ahead of their round nine match against the Newcastle Knights at Canberra Stadium, with Blake Ferguson confirming today he has extended his contract with the club until the end of the 2015 season.

Ferguson had an option on his contract for the 2014 season and agreed to take up that option and extend his contract through to the end of the 2015 season.

An excited Ferguson said he’s keen to make sure he remains focussed on his career and said he knows he has to continue to work hard if he is to achieve his long term goals.

“I’m very excited. It’s good news for me extending until 2015 and I’m very happy with it,” Ferguson said. “I just want to keep moving forward with some of the things I’ve been working on both on and off the field.”

The decision to remain in Canberra was an easy one according to Ferguson and he said he never considered moving to another club as Canberra is now his home.

“I’ve got plenty of mates here in Canberra and I’ve just bought myself a property down in Woden, so it feels like home in Canberra and I don’t want to leave,” he said. “The clubs been really good to me over my time here and I want to repay them by playing well and being a part of a team that’s going well.

“We’ve got some great players here at the club and its exciting times, there’s plenty of young talent coming through and I know we can be a team can make the finals if we keep working hard each week.”

Ferguson said he is still working hard on his life away from football and said that part of his life is something he will continue to work on as hard as what he does on the training park and field.

“I’ve been doing plenty of things outside of football to help me and I’ve been working with the coaches and senior players to make sure I’m focussed,” he said. “I’ve been working with some counsellors as well to talk about a few things and they’ve been giving me some tools to work on outside of footy which has been a huge help.”

Raiders CEO Don Furner said the club had shown faith in Ferguson by re-signing him for an extended period and said he had some great representative incentives in the contract which he believes Blake will achieve if he continues developing like he has.

Ferguson has also played his best football under Coach David Furner and wishes to continue to do so. This was made quite apparent when he requested a release clause in his new contract should David Furner not be the Head Coach in either seasons 2014 and 2015.

He had a similar clause in his Cronulla contract under then Coach Ricky Stuart. Ferguson and his Manager Bobby Sutherland felt that the stability Blake feels under a Coach he wants to play for is an important part of his achieving success on and off the field.

“It is always pleasing when the player indicates he is keen to re-sign and stay at the Club and that’s exactly what Blake said a few weeks ago. This is a sign of the feeling of unity within the Club. Blake and Bobby only spoke to the Raiders and made it clear that he was happy in Canberra and did not want to shop around to other Clubs, provided we came up with the right deal, which I am glad to say we did.

“He’s one of the most exciting talents in the game at the moment and we want him to continue to improve as a player and a person.”