But the Cooma junior admits the Green Machine's on-field revival made it harder for him to turn down a two-year offer in Canberra to move his career to England.

Williams finalised a one-year deal with Wakefield on Thursday night and will move to England in November for the next phase of his career.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart backed Williams to make his mark on the Super League, insisting the 25-year-old deserves to be playing first grade after spending the past 12 months as a Canberra understudy to Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer.

Williams had options to remain in Australia, but was content with his decision despite knowing the Raiders is capable of winning a premiership in the coming years.

"I've always wanted to live and play in England so that was an incentive," Williams said.

"Obviously I want to get a bit more first grade time as well so I'm pretty excited to get over there and have a crack.

"It was always going to be tough because this is home for me and the Raiders have been so good to me. I love going to training every day.

"I didn't take it lightly. But I weighed it up and it was the best thing moving forward. I would have loved to have stayed in different circumstances and there's no reason one day I can't be back here."

Williams is the first player to take up an opportunity elsewhere while there has been speculation about the futures of Paul Vaughan and Shaun Fensom as the Raiders build competition for NRL spots.

Williams, 25, was used largely as a back up to Austin and Sezer, but stepped up to fill the void when Austin broke his hand on the eve of the finals.

He was named the NSW Cup player of the year, and was a crucial part of the depth Canberra had built to restore their premiership credentials.

"I spoke to Sam briefly the other day and he deserves to go somewhere to play first grade," he said.

"Whether that's the NRL or Super League, he's a first grade player. I was just very, very privileged and fortunate to have first grade player as part of our depth and back up to Aidan and Blake.

"He did a wonderful job for us this year and was part of our progress in the competition."

Stuart addressed the players at a season review meeting on Friday morning before sending the squad on holidays to regroup for a premiership charge next year.

The Raiders are still hurting after their preliminary final heartbreak against the Melbourne Storm last weekend and being denied the chance to play in their first grand final since 1994.

The Raiders' depth was one of the most important cogs in the team's on-field success and their best regular season in 21 years.

Players including Williams, Shaun Fensom, Paul Vaughan and Jeff Lima spent most of the year in the NSW Cup with Canberra's feeder team Mounties as they battled to win NRL selection.

There has been speculation that Fensom and Vaughan are also being pursued by rival NRL clubs offering first grade spots, but both have contracts for next season in Canberra.

Williams played for the Catalans Dragons in the Super League in 2014 before returning to the Raiders, playing 23 games in the past two seasons.

The Raiders could turn to young gun Lachlan Croker to play the back-up role next year after he recovers from a knee reconstruction.