Ferguson retained by Raiders

Canberra bosses have shown faith in bad boy centre Blake Ferguson by re-signing him for a further two years. 

Ferguson, who was disciplined in March for flouting a club alcohol ban, has agreed to stay with the club until the end of the 2015 season.

“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.”

Ferguson has a number of disciplinary breaches to his name, receiving a $10,000 fine and suspension for the incident with Josh Dugan in March.

Dugan was later sacked but Ferguson is adamant he is working through his well-publicised battle with alcohol.

“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.”

He added: “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.”

“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.”