This one's (not) personal: Simonsson up against Dufty

Simonsson laid down an early marker to wear the Raiders No.1 jersey for the rest of the year in the absence of Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (neck).

He produced an excellent performance in the 38-16 victory over the Brisbane Broncos at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night, with the Green Machine heading to Wollongong to take on St George Illawarra next weekend.

Off-contract Dragons fullback Matthew Dufty toured Raiders headquarters last week, with both parties weighing up their interest for the 2022 NRL season.

Simonsson laughed when asked whether it was a chance for him to show Raiders coach Ricky Stuart he didn't need to sign the Dragon.

"It's not really a personal battle. I'll just be focusing on doing my role for the team and see how I go," he said.

"He's a great player obviously. He's been a great fullback for a little while now so it will be exciting if I get the nod again to test myself against him and play some footy at fullback.

"Hopefully it will be a good challenge, look forward to it."

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Simonsson had a brilliant night out in his first game in the Raiders No.1 jersey since his one appearance in it in 2019.

He ran for a game-high 253 metres, while also laying off two tries - one to winger Semi Valemei through a brilliant offload - and having three linebreak assists and one linebreak himself.

Amazingly, Simonsson revealed he didn't train at fullback at all during the pre-season and had just one week to prepare for it after Caleb Aekins was dropped to NSW Cup.

He looked right at home chiming into the attacking line on both edges as the Raiders returned to the winners list.

"For a first hit out I was pretty happy, but lots to work on and hopefully just keep improving each game I get," Simonsson said.

"I didn't spend any [time] in the pre-season this year. I just had the last week to train there. Previously the last couple of years I had a bit of time there.

"It's not too unfamiliar with me. I've obviously got some great coaches and I've got Charnze and some other boys to help me out so it's all good.

"I've got to credit our halves, helping me out all week, just telling me where I need to be.

"Sammy [Williams's] a great talker. We had a game plan of how they wanted me to play and I just got on the back of them and they led me around which was helpful."

Simonsson has been speaking to Stuart about how he could get more involved in the game in his previous role on the wing.

He certainly managed that on Saturday.

Simonsson came to the Raiders from the All Blacks sevens program and he felt the ad-lib nature of the modified rugby union game could have helped him in the role - as did throwing the football around when he was a kid.

"Sevens is a pretty off-the-cuff sort of game, there's not a lot of structure," he said.

"You're playing what you see and throwing it around and taking a bit of risk.

"Obviously playing rugby league you've got to complete your sets and there's a lot more that goes into the game.

"I guess that sort of helped. Growing up I just loved playing footy and throwing the ball around, so you sort of learn those things growing up."

NRL ROUND 15

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v St George Illawarra Dragons at Wollongong, 5.30pm.