After what can only be described as a scintillating season for Canberra Raiders five-eighth Jack Wighton, New South Wales Blues coach Brad Fittler made what felt like an inevitable decision on Sunday morning.
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The Bloomfield boy is set to return to camp with the Cockroaches ahead of their State of Origin trilogy against Queensland from November 4.
Wighton is one of two Canberra players who will don the sky blue this summer, with winger Nick Cotric making the cut as well.
"[Wighton's] had an incredible season," Fittler said.
"He can play in a few positions, he's been great for us in the past and I thought he was Canberra's best for the whole season."
Fittler waited until the smoke cleared from Friday's preliminary finals loss as the Raiders' season came to a crashing halt on as the Storm continued their run of dominance North of the border.
The Craig Bellamy-led side disposed of the green machine 30-10 after opening dazzling the Suncorp Stadium crowd with three tries in the first 15 minutes.
The loss is the second devastating result for Canberra in as many seasons as as they're a tick over 12 months removed from last year's controversial grand-final defeat to the Sydney Roosters.
Raiders' back rower John Bateman played his last game in green as the Englishman is set to return home.
But, he didn't depart without giving his teammates some kind words at the conclusion of the contest, praising the talent the team has across the board.
"I said to the boys, 'You've got something special here and the sky's the limit'. They just need to work hard and keep going with it."
"You've got a squad there. We beat the Roosters last week and that probably shows we're in a good position and there's young lads coming through who are very good kids."
"You give any team an 18-point start and good luck with it.
"We played Melbourne at their place [in 2019] and we've been behind and we could do it."
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