All the pre-game chat at Mudgee’s Glen Willow Sporting Complex on Sunday was about NSW State of Origin candidates but by the 70-minute mark of St George Illawarra’s round 11 clash with Canberra there was just one name on punters’ lips – Matt Dufty.
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The Dragons’ 22-year-old fullback dealt the decisive blow 10 minutes from full-time as he sliced through the Raiders’ right edge, beating Jarrod Croker and Jack Wighton to score a 50-metre special, securing his side’s 25-18 victory.
Dufty’s scintillating effort took Mudgee fans back to February 24 when he gave a cameo of what’s turned into an electric campaign during the Charity Shield against South Sydney.
Sunday’s clash was the definition of topsy-turvy as it featured six lead changes and three tries of over 50 metres and while his side only completed at 72 per cent, St George coach Paul McGregor was stoked to take two points home from Mudgee.
“The sign of a good side is winning when you’re not at your best and we did enough [on Sunday] to win, which was pleasing,” McGregor said.
“Certainly we’ll take a lot out of [Sunday]… I thought we were in the correct state of mind but our execution was a bit off. We were happy to get the two points.
“We’ve bounced back after a loss for the second time this year so that’s pretty important. I thought the control the boys had at different stages when we got good field position was very good.
“I never thought we would lose the game but it was challenging at times when we continued to give the opposition opportunity, through ourselves a little bit.
“They’re a good football team, they’re a dangerous football team but defensively we were just a little bit better.”
Dufty opened the game with a line-break but it was Canberra that opened the scoring in the fifth minute, Orange product Jack Wighton sent a cut-out ball straight onto Nick Cotric’s chest and the young winger out-muscled Jason Nightingale to score.
The Raiders kept coming too but after holding for the best part of the next 10 minutes, a Tariq Sims surge paved the way for Jack De Belin to crash over, although BJ Leilua pushed Canberra in front again not long after.
A pair of Gareth Widdop penalty goals closed the opening stanza, they locked the clash up at 10-10 at half-time.
A Dufty error two minutes into the second half gifted the Raiders territory and that turned into two points, Jarrod Croker slotting a penalty goal opportunity.
Dragons hooker Cam McInnes had been somewhat quiet until this point, but the NSW contender came to life in the 48th minute, kick-starting a long-range try that finished with Widdop diving on a Dufty kick to score.
The Dragons’ faithful weren’t comfortably for long though as Jordan Rapana produced a signature, off-the-cuff effort, taking a quick-tap, catching St George napping and going 50 untouched to score.
Then he was sin-binned, for a professional foul on Nene McDonald.
Another Widdop penalty goal brought it back to level pegging at 18-18, then Dufty scored the match-winner and St George’s mercurial English five-eighth landed a field goal to cap the side’s ninth win of the season, leaving the Raiders four points adrift of the top eight in the process.
Needless to say, Canberra coach Ricky Stuart wasn’t pleased that his side let a lead slip and lost a close game again, it’s become all too common for the green machine.
“We weren’t good enough in the end, we won't improve as a football team until we learn how to close out those games that are tight, we don’t consistently do it well enough,” Stuart said.
“I was pretty happy with the first 40 … it was nice and tough and close. At 18-18, with a player off, we had a play-the-ball on tackle five in front of the goalposts we should’ve kicked a field goal, then we get our man back and we’re a point up.
“We need to be playing smart, and we’re not. We’re putting in ourselves in so many positions this season so far to win games and we haven’t, that’s frustrating like it was last week.
“I sit here, I sound like a broken record every week, we talk about it, we work on it and we’re not doing it.”
- ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS 25 (Jack De Belin, Gareth Widdop, Matt Dufty tries; Widdop 3 goals, 3 penalty goals, field goal) def CANBERRA RAIDERS 18 (Nick Cotric, BJ Leilua, Jordan Rapana tries; Jarrod Croker 3 goals)