Canberra rookie Jarrod Croker re-signed for a further two years on Thursday, keeping him with the Raiders until the end of the 2012 NRL season.

Croker had been contracted until the end of next season, but Raiders officials moved quickly to extend his deal after a brilliant debut season in which the 19-year-old centre played 21 games.

"We've been trying to sort it out for a few weeks now and it's good to get it out of the road and concentrate on the last game this weekend," Croker said.

"I'm only from about an hour down the road (Goulburn) and I've always wanted to stay here.

"I just had to concentrate on playing good footy and let my manager and the clubs sort it out and I'm glad it's been done.

"It's always been Canberra, I love playing for the Raiders and can't wait to finish off this season and get into next year.

"It's a bit unfortunate we didn't get to play semi-final football this year but we've got a couple of years to work on it and hopefully we can be there next year."

Raiders chief executive Don Furner said Croker's retention was part of the club's policy to keep their thriving crop of young stars together well into the future.

"We realised halfway through last year that we have a really good crop of young kids coming through and we want to keep them together," Furner said.

"Having Jarrod now signed up for a further two years is part of this plan.

"The reality is for us is that we are focused on retention rather than recruitment.

"We did have our eye on two players but the reality for us is if we think we have better players here already we'll back them instead."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP