THE Canberra Raiders will again nominate the Newcastle Knights as their preferred opponent for Wagga's NRL game in 2021 after coronavirus forced this year's clash to be cancelled.
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Last year's grand finalists were set to host the Knights at Equex Centre on Saturday in the second clash of a two year deal to play a home game in the city.
Before the NRL season was suspended, the Raiders and Wagga City Council agreed to postpone the fixture until next year to ensure a crowd can watch the match.
Last year's Raiders-Penrith clash in Wagga was a huge hit with over 10,079 fans packing the venue to watch Canberra's 30-12 win.
The Raiders can nominate a handful of teams for the fixture for submission to the NRL, but the club's chief operating officer Jason Mathie says they will specifically target the Knights again.
Newcastle has an exciting emerging team with big names like Kalyn Ponga, Mitchell Pearce and David Klemmer expected to have them in finals contention.
"We're able to nominate up to four teams and that will still hold true, but we're not even got to put forward four options, I'm going to say (to the NRL) there's a desire to have the Knights again," Mathie said.
"They (Knights) probably would have got their head around it and even made logistical plans, so why reinvent the cart when everyone was happy and just bring it on.
"With the brief discussions I had with the city council we agreed it's probably as simple as asking for the same opposition. They're an emerging and exciting team, we're an exciting team and both are regional clubs.
"Verbally we've agreed with that (with council) and we'll put our requests in for 2021 when the time is right."
Mathie said it was an "easy decision" to reschedule the game to next year in order to ensure fans can attend and the club can liaise with the community and promote rugby league in the region.
"We love coming out there and it was an easy conversation because we want to get the best out of it for all parties," he said.
"That's pretty hard when you can't have a crowd there, we want to show our club and game off."
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