Raiders beat Eels in golden point thriller

After coming up short all season, Canberra have finally delivered in a cliffhanger, with a Josh Hodgson golden point try giving them a dramatic 28-24 win over Parramatta.

On an afternoon when Eels winger Semi Radradra broke Steve Ella’s 33-year-old club record for most tries in a season, the Raiders were looking to avoid making history of their own on Sunday by becoming just the second team to lose six games in a year by two points or less.

In front of a vocal home crowd of 10,515 and with Canberra flier Sisa Waqa in the sin bin for a professional foul, Parramatta looked headed for victory in the 78th minute as halfback Luke Kelly kicked his team out to a 24-18 lead with a penalty goal.

However, an Edrick Lee try in the corner on the final play of regulation time reduced the margin to two, leaving captain Jarrod Croker with a sideline conversion to send the game into overtime.

But Croker, whose 16-point haul saw him overtake Sydney Roosters’ James Maloney as the season’s leading pointscorer, coolly slotted the goal to set up a grandstand finish.

Croker then positioned himself for the match-winner late in the extra period, only for Hodgson to sell a huge dummy, paving the way for him to scurry over untouched.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was pleased to finally secure a victory in a close contest.

“It was nice to win a tight one for a change,” he said.

“I said through the year, ‘the more we’re in, the closer we are to winning one’.”

Earlier in the match, Radradra equalled Ella’s 23-try mark with a dubious putdown to level the game at six-all.

The Fijian international then broke the record with another contentious effort right after halftime that a drew a `Semi’ chant from the Eels faithful.

The Raiders hit back with consecutive tries to Croker, before the home side regained the lead with back-to-back tries of their own to Junior Paulo and Daniel Alvaro.

Kelly’s penalty goal gave them a six-point advantage, only for the Eels to controversially knock on from the kick-off.

Eels coach Brad Arthur was upset with the decision that allowed the Raiders a chance to force the game into golden point.”

“It’s the wrong decision. Ryan Morgan dived on the ball. There’s no knock on,” he said.

Stay up to date with the latest sports news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest sporting news!