"I reckon it was a two-point field goal. We were just happy with the one, just happy I got it. A bit later it'll be 50 out, 60 out," the West Belconnen Warriors halfback grinned.

A 77th-minute Roberts field goal has gifted West Belconnen a stirring 33-30 comeback victory over the Gungahlin Bulls in their Canberra Raiders Cup opener on Saturday.

The Bulls looked nigh on unstoppable in the opening stages at Gungahlin Enclosed Oval. First it was fullback Kane Allan, then it was fleet-footed front-rower Willie Delamere.

The Warriors went into the half-time break staring down the barrel of a 20-6 deficit against a club which looked destined to break its premiership drought before COVID-19 struck last year.

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But right when it looked as though the Bulls would make a statement about making up for lost time, the visitors lifted as centre Riley Thomas stepped his way over the line.

Suddenly the Warriors had a pulse. They scored three of the next five tries, and Roberts' perfect record with the boot levelled the ledger at 30-apiece heading into the final 15 minutes.

Take a moment to wipe the rain from your brow and you'd have missed the fatal blow. From 40 metres out, Roberts hammered home a field goal to give his side a one-point lead.

Any hopes of Gungahlin's last-ditch resurrection were dashed when second-rower Lucas Thomson was sin-binned for a swinging arm. West Belconnen counterpart Tim Middleton was subject to the same fate for his role in the ensuing melee.

But that was all fine by Roberts, who chewed up the final seconds before nailing a penalty goal to push the margin to three.

"I said to the boys, I'm sort of the old head now, and it's just about attitude. We only had the one trial so we were coming in underdone," Roberts said.

"We could make every excuse on why we weren't prepared if we got beaten, so I got into the boys about how it's an attitude thing. If you want to turn up and do the hard yards for each other, we can get through it. The easy stuff will win games these days, so keep turning up with those little efforts.

"That was the speech before the game and it was the same speech at half-time. I was confident in the boys that we could turn it around, and we did.

"Our bench was massive, to come on with the impact they did and roll through the middle, they set us up for those big plays that we were able to finish in the end.

"It's tricky with the comp this year. We've got next week off, it's stop start, it's not ideal but you've got to ramp up and look at it as a four-point game. It's a long two weeks until the next one so you want to go out a winner. If you lose, it's a long week off, training is a lot harder.

"Every game is going to be important, it'll be pretty tight towards the top end and that's where we want to be, we want to be in the mix. We'll take those ones while we can."

AT A GLANCE

Canberra Raiders Cup round one: WEST BELCONNEN WARRIORS 33 bt GUNGAHLIN BULLS 30 at Gungahlin Enclosed Oval; GOULBURN CITY BULLDOGS 38 bt BELCONNEN UNITED SHARKS 14 at NSWRL Bruce Headquarters; WODEN VALLEY RAMS 16 bt QUEANBEYAN BLUES 6 at Phillip Oval; TUGGERANONG BUSHRANGERS 40 bt QUEANBEYAN KANGAROOS 6 at Greenway Oval.

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