Tongue is a 10-year veteran at Canberra, making his debut in 2000 and winning the Raiders'
Rookie of the Year award after joining the club in 1998. He spent the majority of his early years moving between the backrow and the interchange bench. He established his position within the side in 2005, and in 2006 Tongue broke the record for most tackles in the regular season with 1,087. The next highest ranking player was
Nathan Hindmarsh with 911. Tongue was also voted the Raider's
Player of the Year in 2006. At the end of the 2008 NRL regular season, Tongue was awarded
Dally M recognition for
Lock of the Year and
Captain of the Year after leading the Raiders to 6th on the competition ladder. Tongue was also named in the
Prime Minister's XIII at the end of 2008. Tongue was selected in the
City vs Country match on 8 May 2009. In this game he scored a rare try in a 40–18 defeat. In his 200th game for Canberra, on 28 August 2010, a Tongue supporter commented on the opposition (
North Queensland Cowboys, through its player
Willie Mason) in a sexually suggestive crowd poster shown prominently at the stadium and in TV coverage: "Who needs a Big Willie when you have a great Tongue?". In this game, Tongue returned to the side, and suffered another injury, in a 48-4 high scoring win over the Cowboys at
Canberra Stadium that had the Raiders join the top 8 teams in the competition and join the finals rounds for the 2010 competition. Tongue announced his retirement on 17 August 2011. ==Post-playing career==