Tallon Smith
A hat-trick to winger James Croker helped the Goulburn City Bulldogs secure their third win of the 2025 Canberra Raiders Cup season with a 28-12 victory over the Belconnen United Sharks at NSWRL HQ Bruce on Saturday afternoon.
The moment of the match came in the 44th minute when, with the scoreline at 14-6 and the Sharks attacking to close the gap to two, Croker picked off a pass on a left side raid to race 90 metres for his second and extend the margin to 18-6.
The Bulldogs closed the match out from there, conceding just one more try and adding two further of their own to record the 16-point win.
Goulburn coach Brian Gray said that he was pleased with the effort from his side, particularly their defensive performance.
“I was really happy with our defence yesterday,” he said.
“We conceded 12 points, which was by far and away our best defensive effort, and we did it with 12 players for a big portion of the game.
“So plenty of positives out of yesterday.”
After a difficult campaign for the Goulburn club, Gray said that the feeling of finally picking up their third win of the season will bring a big confidence and morale boost to the squad.
“The two competition points have been pretty elusive for us, and I think our last win was in round five,” he said.
“We just lost a bit of confidence, I think, around what we were doing.
“[The win] put some smiles back on faces yesterday and we can move forward now.”
The win was made all the more remarkable considering the Bulldogs played the majority of the game with 12 men, even dropping down to 11 for a short period as players were sent off and sin binned.
Gray said that despite the poor discipline displayed by his side at times, those who remained on the field lifted to secure an unlikely victory on the road.
“Discipline wasn’t at the forefront for us yesterday and it’s been a bit of a problem earlier in the season,” he said.
“That was the most pleasing part of yesterday, as I mentioned earlier, [it was] our best defensive effort all season and we did it with 12 and sometimes 11.
“It’s a very even competition from one to nine and it’s tough to win with 13, let alone to win with 12 or 11.
“We proved to ourselves we can do it now and we’ve just got to bottle and replicate that and repeat it in the final five rounds.”
In other Canberra Raiders Cup action on Saturday, the Tuggeranong Bushrangers secured a 26-12 win over West Belconnen to close within a point of the top five, while the Queanbeyan Blues defeated Gungahlin 42-30 and Woden Valley beat Yass 40-6.
Next weekend’s matches see Gungahlin tackle Belconnen, Queanbeyan Roos face Tuggeranong, Yass take on West Belconnen, and Goulburn host Queanbeyan Blues.
Battlers For Bush Footy 