Canberra Raiders Cup: Late inclusion Mick Picker steers Tuggeranong Bushrangers to win
It was supposed to be a day to celebrate Lincoln Withers' grand return to his junior club, but instead it was a bloke with one training session under his belt that stole the show.
Mick Picker only turned up to his first Tuggeranong Bushrangers training session on Thursday night but it was enough to help his side to a 34-18 win over the Woden Valley Rams at Greenway Oval on Saturday.
Bushranger Atu Tupou in action.
Photo: Jamila ToderasPicker played a key role at halfback while star fullback Michael Brophy turned back the clock with two tries in a "grinding win".
Woden were right in the contest until Tuggeranong kicked clear with a couple of late tries to cap off an effort coach Justin Giteau admitted was not one for the highlight reel, but one to be proud of nonetheless.
"Mick Picker just turned up on Thursday to training so it was tough," Giteau said.
"A lot of the boys hadn't played together so they needed to play tough and have a go. They managed to do that.
"I've been working on him for a few weeks, three or four weeks actually. We just got it over the line this week which was good.
"He's a massive addition to us, just an experienced head that can control the game for us which we probably lacked last year.
"We just have a lot young kids, so it's no fault of their own, they just haven't learnt yet. It's good to have Mick around, he guides them around and the rest of the boys grew off the back of that.
"He was talking about going to Bathurst but something happened there and he didn't end up going, I think it might have been a bit too much travel for him. I got hold of him and we worked out an agreement for him to come and play with us."
Ex-Goulburn captain-coach Picker doused the hype surrounding former NRL and Super League player Withers' return to Woden - his junior club, and the club his sons play for.
The 36-year-old spent the past few seasons at the helm of the Gungahlin Bulls but was lured home to play halfback under the the eye of Rams coach Ash Barnes.
Barnes was impressed by Withers' return to the blue and gold but admits the Rams have plenty to work on having shot themselves in the foot with repeated defensive lapses.
"It was really tight for most of the game, it was an arm wrestle between the two sides," Barnes said.
"They did a really good job to get away with the win. They scored some good tries and they're quite a good side.
"There's a lot of positives that we can take. We're disappointed, we've got high expectations of ourselves for this year. There's a few things that more individuals probably need to work on and fix and we can improve from that first up effort."
Meanwhile, the Goulburn Bulldogs opened their campaign with a 30-24 win over the Belconnen United Sharks, and the Queanbeyan Kangaroos escaped with a narrow four-point victory over the Gungahlin Bulls.
AT A GLANCE
Canberra Raiders Cup: round one -
GOULBURN BULLDOGS 30 (P Cooke 2, T Crome, F Paletua-Kiri, D Stephens, J Whittaker tries; J Fattore 3 goals) bt BELCONNEN UNITED SHARKS 24 (C McAskill 2, D Eason, B Sione tries; A McDonald 4 goals)
TUGGERANONG BUSHRANGERS 34 (M Brophy 2, J Mitchell, B Murray, L Tuicakau, J Pollard tries; J Mitchell 5 goals) bt WODEN VALLEY RAMS 18 (S Maloney, K Posantsiz, K Vaetoe tries; M Geiger 3 goals)
QUEANBEYAN KANGAROOS 34 (L Ingram 2, J Ayers, J Hitchins, S Meke, J Dent tries; B Crisp 5 goals) bt GUNGAHLIN BULLS 30 (S Bramich 2, J Fa'amoe Ioane, L Skidmore, B Wood tries; J Scholes 3, J Fa'amoe Ioane 2 goals)
QUEANBEYAN BLUES 23 (Jake Wheeler, Terry Campese, Larry Manu, Adam Misios tries; Campese 2, Zachary Patch goals; Campese field goal) bt YASS MAGPIES 18 (Jacob Toppin, Shaun Davis, Tom Warner, Jesse Collins tries; Toppin goal).