No second team for Zac Woolford despite family ties to Parramatta Eels

The Eels bundled the Canberra Raiders out of the competition with a 40-4 drubbing in last Friday's semi-final.

The loss left the squad bitterly disappointed and threw up a host of mixed emotions for the Woolford family.

Simon is a Raiders legend who is now working in junior development at Parramatta and took little joy from watching his son's premiership dream come to an end.

For Zac, it was a weird evening but he left the stadium firm in the knowledge he won't be adopting the Eels as his second team.

"No, there are no second teams for me," Woolford said. "It'll burn me whoever wins that ring.

"Dad was obviously pretty disappointed for me at the end of the game, but he also works for Parramatta, so it's a bit of a weird one.

"It's weird but we've had to do it for a while now. When I was at the Bulldogs, he was at the Knights. Now I'm here and he's at the Eels, it is what it is."

While he won't be throwing his support behind the Eels, Woolford is eagerly anticipating Friday night's preliminary final between North Queensland and Parramatta.

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

Riding high after a dominant win over the Raiders, Brad Arthur's side will travel to Townsville confident they can punch their first grand final ticket since 2009.

Woolford expects the Eels to start fast, but said the Cowboys are a chance if they can weather the early storm.

"It's going to be a massive matchup, they're two pretty good packs," he said. "Parramatta obviously have to travel up there, which will be pretty difficult.

"It will be a really good game, which you'd expect from a preliminary final. It wouldn't surprise me to see them beat the Cowboys."

Few could have predicted at the start of the season that Woolford would be lining up for the Raiders in an NRL semi-final.

Having spent a number of years bouncing around reserve grade, the 26-year-old feared he would never achieve his NRL dream.

But a hooker shortage at the Raiders saw Woolford move to Canberra during the season and he made an unlikely debut during Magic Round.

From there, the emerging talent kicked on and featured in 17 games in a lime green jumper.

Woolford now believes he belongs at this level and will use the pain of Friday's defeat as motivation throughout the preseason.

"Playing finals wasn't something I expected," Woolford said. "It was something I really enjoyed, I definitely want more of that in the future.

"I feel like I belong at this level. It's been 17 games now, the boys have been really good in helping me believe in myself and I feel like I belong now.

"The past few weeks have been massive for me. It's given me a taste, now I want to experience the pinnacle of the game and that's win a comp. That's what everyone wants to do and that starts in November."

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