Jack Wighton doesn’t like to compare this year to last, but even he can surely see how much his game has grown in the past 12 months at five-eighth.

Tuesday will mark one year since last year’s decider, where Wighton became just the fourth player in history to claim the Clive Churchill Medal in a losing team.

It will also be just three days until a highly anticipated grand-final rematch, with one of Canberra or the Sydney Roosters’ season to end at the SCG.

Raiders players have been desperate to move on from October 6 last year. As Wighton puts it, it’s “old school”.

But the five-eighth’s improvement since then is one of several reasons for hope for the Raiders this weekend.

While in 2019 he was doing it all himself, he has already laid on more tries and just as many linebreaks for teammates in the shortened 2020 season.

His game sense also showed when he caught Cronulla out with a quick tap early in the second half to give Canberra a lead they never relinquished.

“I don’t know (how I compare to last year), I can’t remember yesterday,” Wighton said.

“But my big goal was that there was a lot of talk about first-year luck

“My point was to stand up for the boys and take away that (talk of) first-year luck.

“I work very hard for everything I do, so to get any luck and consistency I am very proud of that.”

Wighton prefers to put the spotlight elsewhere ahead of this weekend, labelling Canberra’s “strike power” across the park as the reason they can beat the Roosters or any team when they are on.

But just as impressive as his own form has been his combination with halfback George Williams in recent weeks.

When Canberra slumped to seventh on the ladder after nine rounds this year, there were questions over whether they were too similar to shine together.

In reality, it was just teething problems.

The Raiders have since won 10 of their past 12, with the dangerous pair scoring 14 tries in that time and setting up just as many.

Williams is looking nothing like an English halfback in his first year in the NRL, threatening to become the first British playmaker to succeed in Australia for decades.

Both scored doubles in the knockout win over Cronulla, each providing one try for the other as well as coming up with solo efforts.

“They’re combining very well together considering they’re a brand new halves combination,” coach Ricky Stuart said.

“We hope we can have a number of years ahead of us with those two as the halves combination.”