Jarrod Croker buried his semi-final demons long ago, but he put a final nail in the coffin on Saturday night when he booted the Canberra Raiders to a drought-breaking preliminary final berth.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Croker was just seven years old when Ricky Stuart led the Raiders into their last preliminary final 19 years ago. Most of his teammates didn't even know who Ricky Stuart was in 1997.
But the 26-year-old inspirational leader said the Green Machine had the belief it could topple anything before it as it sets its sights on a Melbourne Storm showdown next weekend.
Croker stepped up as the man of the moment in the dying minutes against the Penrith Panthers, kicking two penalty goals at the death to secure a 22-12 win at Canberra Stadium.
Croker had a chance to do the same six years ago but his last-minute penalty against the Wests Tigers in 2010 sailed wide and the Raiders fell short of a preliminary final spot.
But older, wiser and emerging as an courageous leader, Croker stepped up just a few blades of grass away from the memories of the past and said his team was ready for the Storm challenge.
"They were a lot easier kicks this time ... I could have kicked them right-footed this time," Croker grinned after the match.
"I've moved on from [2010]. I've just got to keep working hard, I went through a bit of an ordinary patch four or five weeks ago but I've been doing a lot of extra kicking the last few weeks.
"I'll keep practising and knocking them over. I didn't know 1997 was the last time, but I knew it'd been a while.
"It's massive for Canberra, the community has been unreal and have really jumped on board. It's so pleasing, it's good to be a part of."
The Raiders had to withstand a second-half onslaught from the Panthers as the visitors rallied from 18 points down to close the gap to six in the dying stages.
Croker was given a chance to boot the Raiders to a match-winning lead after Aidan Sezer was taken in a high tackle with six minutes left and then put the icing on the cake in the last seconds with another shot.
Jordan Rapana scored a first-half try that saw him draw level with Raiders champions Noa Nadruku, Brett Mullins and Jason Croker for the most tries (22) in a single season in Canberra's history.
Hooker Josh Hodgson's performance typified the Raiders' never-say-die attitude. The English rake overcame an ankle injury and then had to battle a stomach bug.
But the Raiders say their belief never wavered despite being surprisingly written off when they lost to the Cronulla Sharks last weekend. The loss to the Sharks was their first defeat in 11 weeks.
"Every minute of semi-final football and big game experience, these guys are learning," Stuart said.
"It's only the squad of players that believed we were going to be playing semi-final football this year. We've had belief in ourselves all season, that's what's got us through and has given us extraordinary resilience. I'm very proud."
AT A GLANCE
CANBERRA RAIDERS 22 (Blake Austin, Jordan Rapana, Jarrod Croker tries; Jarrod Croker 3 conversions, 2 penalties) bt PENRITH PANTHERS 12 (Tyrone Peachey, Dallin Watene-Zelezniak tries; Nathan Cleary 2 conversions) at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night. Referees: Ben Cummins and Gerard Sutton. Crowd: 21,498.
