Canberra NRL forward Josh Papalii says he's been given more than he wanted in his recently signed Raiders contract after controversially backing out of a deal with Parramatta.
The 20-year-old enforcer found himself in a tug-of-war over his services after signing a three-year, $1 million deal with the Eels.
But the deal had some wiggle room and the Raiders had up until round 13 to make a counter offer.
Despite agreeing to the terms of his new Raiders contract before their round-one loss to Penrith, Papalii has only just put pen to paper on the deal in the past few days.
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He said the process had taken a little longer than expected so that CEO Don Furner could make some final adjustments for both him and his family.
"I have actually got more than I wanted so I'm pretty happy," he said.
"I was in the media cloud for a moment there, but I was always focused on the Raiders and doing good for the Raiders."
He said he was happy to put the saga to bed so that he could concentrate on getting the Raiders back on track after a dismal start to the season, which has them on the bottom of the NRL ladder.
While Papalii admits the Raiders' situation after two heavy losses looks pretty dire, it isn't one the club hasn't been in before.
"The previous years, we haven't had a good start, but you know, we'll get out of it," he said.
The Raiders take on St George Illawarra - who are also winless - on Sunday afternoon in their first home game of the season.
"Everyone is saying it's a guaranteed win but the way that we've been going, it's not that way at the moment," Papalii said.
"It's a bit daunting at the moment but, if we just focus and train hard, we'll get the two points this weekend."
