Inside the Canberra Raiders 2008 Toyota Cup premiership, and the move that won a title
It’s taken 11 years, but the Raiders are back on the season’s biggest day - and once again, they’re bringing the pride of Goulburn with them.
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Mick Picker, who got the whole thing started with a kick, doesn’t remember who called it G-town.
Jarrod Croker, who threw the last pass, reckons he doesn’t remember either.
“I know one of us got a tattoo of it though” said the Canberra stalwart.
“And it wasn’t me.”
As the Raiders prepare for their first grand final in 25 years, Saturday marks exactly 11 years since their last premiership in any grade, a stirring golden point victory over the Broncos in the first ever Under 20s grand final – and they won it with G-town.
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It was a cross kick, in the 87th minute of play, from Picker to Croker around halfway. The then 17-year old found backrower Jarrad Kennedy in support and the backrower raced the final 25 metres to score, securing a 28-24 victory and the premiership.
The competition ran for another eight years, but no grand final ever matched the drama of the first with two star-studded rosters having it out on the season’s biggest day.
No less than 22 of the 34 players who took the field went on to play first grade.
There was Josh Dugan, the best player on the team, man of the match in the grand final, and a player fans have come to know very well in the years since.
Daniel Vidot, once a hulking winger, now an aspiring WWE superstar, was there too, as was Shaun Fensom, captain of the team in relief of the injured Joel Thompson, and who will be there on Sunday as part of the parade of retiring players.
There was Travis Waddell and Justin Carney, Jarrad Kennedy and Nick Skinner, Drury Low and Picker himself, who scored two tries that day.
The Broncos had names like Josh Hoffman, Alex Glenn, Jharal Yow Yeh, Josh McGuire, Andrew McCullough and Dunamis Lui – the latter will follow Croker out as a Raider on Sunday.
But all these years later, Croker is the only green man left, the only one to graduate to the biggest stage with the Raiders, and he’s got the chance to come full circle and make the magic of G-town come again.
“I said to someone the other night, he’s one of the last men standing,” Picker told The Daily Telegraph.
“There’s not many left in the NRL, let alone playing for Canberra.
“I’ll never get back there. I’ll be back there on Sunday but I won’t be running out there, but Toots will get that feeling again.”
“The boys like to pull it up and give me shit about it, but it doesn’t matter if I’m getting shit or not, I still get goosebumps.”
The 2008 Raiders were a red hot side, minor premiers by a clear five points and big favourites heading into the season finale.
They’d gotten a boost earlier in the year when Croker, then just 17, led a contingent of players coming up from SG Ball, turning a classy side into a full-fledged powerhouse.
Picker, a clever five-eighth who went on to play a handful of games for the Raiders in 2011, is a year older than Croker, but the two played plenty of junior footy together in Goulburn and are still mates to this day.
“We spent a fair bit of time together off the field as well,” Picker said.
“He’s a year younger but he’d always come and play up. On and off the field we were always hanging about.
“We knew each other well, what we could do, and he was always there when you needed him.”
Croker remembers he and Picker were forever kicking for each other, chipping and chasing and the like. That’s where G-town came from – and Picker and Croker only added it to the playbook the week of the game.
“We used to do edge vs edge at training, the other side had Joel Thompson, Dan Vidot, half the time they were too good for us,” Picker said.
“So we just said we had to do something different, so we’ll do this G-town. It worked at training that week, cause you’ve got those moves, that you do at the end of games.
“It was supposed to go to Mick Brophy out on the wing, Broph still talks about it. He reckons he got robbed of being a part of it.”
It’s taken Croker 11 years to get back to ANZ Stadium on the season’s biggest day, but he still remembers those days fondly.
“It was an awesome time, I was only 17 and I probably took it all for granted a bit, how easy it was, cause we had such a good side,” Croker said.
LISTEN! In the season finale, Matty Johns is joined by James Hooper and Paul Kent to go over this Sunday’s grand final, plus how the build-up to the NRL’s biggest weekend can weigh on the favoured team (and how the Roosters are counteracting it!).
“We had blokes who could win games on their own, with their own ability.”
After the match, a jubilant Picker declared he and Croker would never have to pay for a beer in Goulburn again – but it hasn’t worked out that way.
“I coached there for a couple of years, I had to pay for them all,” Picker said.
“He might get them for free, but I don’t.”
Not so, says Croker. Even the town’s favourite son has to fork out for a cold one at the Hibernian every now and then.
“I have, I’ve paid for plenty. But it was a good couple of weeks (after the grand final)” Croker said.
“We were all good mates in that side, we enjoyed each other’s company and we enjoyed that victory.
“I made some lifelong friends from that team, I still see a lot of the boys around.
“It’s a special bond, winning a grand final.”
“Hopefully we get a win on Sunday and I won’t have to buy a beer in Goulburn for a while.”
Croker’s home town is still close to his heart. He won a first grade premiership with the local side, the mighty Goulburn Stockmen, when he was just 16 and according to Picker he’s always around the place.
“He’s never left his hometown, he’s there most days a week if he’s not training. He’s just Goulburn,” Picker said.
“You see him all the time, he’s a deadest local.
“That’s the big thing for Goulburn, he’s so approachable, he’s just an everyday sort of fella. He’s never changed one bit.”
A fleet of buses, organised by Croker’s father, will be heading up to Sydney on Sunday, with Picker in tow, to support the pride of G-town.
“All the boys are coming up, all the family,” Croker said.
“I know there’s a sign saying they need to turn the lights off when they leave Canberra – they might need to turn them off in Goulburn on the way.”
“I haven’t taken any of this for granted. It’s been a long, long time – that was my last grand final. I’ve enjoyed every little bit of it.”
A few of the beers enjoyed afterwards might have to be VB’s — Victoria Bitter will make sure the electricity used at ANZ Stadium on the night is 100 per cent offset by solar energy.
It’s part of an ongoing green initiative, with VB to be brewed with 100 per cent offset solar energy from 2020 onwards.
THE 2008 TOYOYA CUP GRAND FINAL
Canberra: 1. Josh Dugan 2. Drury Low 3. Jarrod Croker 4. Daniel Vidot 5. Michael Brophy 6. Michael Picker 7. Matt Smith 8. Andrew Edwards 9. Travis Waddell 10. Nick Skinner 11. Jarrad Kennedy 12. Zac Merritt 13. Shaun Fensom 14. Brock Dunn 15. Justin Carney 16. Todd Rheinberger 17. Levi Freeman
Brisbane: 1. Josh Hoffman 2. Mitch Rivett 3. Will Tupou 4. Brendon Gibb 5. Jharal Yow Yeh 6. Jared Kahu 7. Ben Hunt 8. Josh McGuire 9. Andrew McCullough 10. Mitchell Dodds 11. Matt Handcock 12. Troyden Watene 13. Alex Glenn 14. Michael Spence 15. Dunamis Lui 16. Guy Ford 17. Tom Butterfield
Raiders 28 (M. Picker 2, D. Low, J. Dugan, J. Kennedy tries, Dugan four goals) def Broncos 24 (J. Yow Yeh 2, B. Hunt, M. Spence, B. Gibb tries, Hunt two goals) after seven minutes and 25 seconds of extra time.