Hodgson was a revelation in his first NRL season last year and the 26-year-old is the last key piece of the puzzle to lock up after a raft of player re-signings over the off-season.

Fresh from helping England to a series win over New Zealand, Hodgson isn't going anywhere but isn't in any rush to get a deal done.

"I don't know what the panic is really, I'm happy here and I'll talk to the club in good time," he said.

"I won't be asking around or knocking on doors to go anywhere else.

"There's still a long season ahead and enough time to sit down and have a conversation about how long I'm staying here for.

"I've not spoken yet [to the club], but there's no reason for anyone to worry."

The Raiders have hooker options in Kurt Baptiste and Newcastle recruit Adam Clydsdale, but Hodgson's ability to play other positions could give the Raiders flexibility given interchanges have been cut from 10 to eight, and if injuries arise during games.

"We're fortunate with Hodgso he can play other positions," Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said.

"We can still have a hooker on the bench for Josh, because he can also play seven-six or he can play lock.

"Having eight interchange and even going to six which is the speculation, having the ability to play in the halves or at lock gives you that utility value, and you can have fresh legs coming on into nine."

Hodgson is working on becoming an 80 minute hooker, a goal he achieved in a handful of games toward the end of last season.

"Obviously I'll have to see how the body feels when we play in the reduced interchanges and the shot clocks [before scrums and line dropouts] this year," Hodgson said.

"I like to stay on the field as much as possible so if that's an option I'd definitely like to do that.

"But I've always said if it's best for the team for me to come off and have a breather for 20 or 30 minutes, whatever helps us get the win."

Canberra's much-improved depth even has captain Jarrod Croker looking over his shoulder.

The centre needs 91 points to beat David Furner's club point scoring record, but he highlighted the rise of youngster Brenko Lee as a reason to avoid complacency.

"Brenko Lee is training really well, it keeps me on my toes and it's the same with everyone else, there's that much competition," Croker said.



"We're looking to start well and we need to win at Canberra Stadium. We want to get the fans back and get the place pumping again."

The Raiders have been anointed as one of the potential big improvers this year, in particular by Canterbury coach Des Hasler.

But Croker said higher outside expectations wasn't any different to the goals set behind closed doors.

"There's going to be expectation and we put it on ourselves, we want to play semi-final football," Croker said.

"Des is pretty good at throwing the buck onto someone else isn't he, he's probably just covering for his own team there.

"People can talk about us all they want, but at the end of the day we just have to go back out there and perform."