Sam Backo uniquely approached the Raiders, ready to play first grade despite not being signed.
Sam Backo was cut from a different cloth than the average NRL player.
Legend has it that in 1983, Sam Backo walked into the Queanbeyan Leagues Club office of Don Furner, the Canberra Raiders coach at the time, and said he was ready to play first grade.
The Raiders hadn't signed Sam, but he had been on their radar since 1981.
As then secretary manager John McIntyre remembers, Sam was playing for the Valley Statesmen in the local second division as a teenager after coming back to Canberra from North Queensland.