True Blue Aaron Woods celebrates his 250th NRL game this weekend and has nominated one match from this year as one of the biggest highlights of his 12 seasons in first grade.
After 233 games with the Wests Tigers (debuted in 2011), 14 at the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and 73 at the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Woods joined St George Illawarra for the 2022 season allowing him to be part of the much-vaunted ANZAC Day Cup.
“It was a massive honour to play the ANZAC Game,” Woods said of the traditional April 25 match between the Sydney Roosters and St George Illawarra Dragons.
“To go out there and win that match was great. I just love pulling this jersey on and it’s always an honour and a privilege.”
Woods played 14 games for the Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues, including all three in the breakthrough 2014 Origin series when then NSW coach Laurie Daley ended the Maroons eight-year reign.
Woods has played in four NRL finals series, including the 2018 Preliminary Final loss by Cronulla to the Melbourne Storm.
He was also in the front row for Australia’s 2017 World Cup final win over England.
“It’s a nice milestone as a person – you’re happy with one game of Rugby League – but where we are with our season (at Dragons) you just want to win a couple more games,” Woods said.
“I don’t like the limelight myself. I prefer to celebrate other people…. I just want to have a good game and get the two points on the weekend.”
The Dragons want to arrest a three-match losing streak when they take on the Gold Coast Titans at WIN Stadium in Wollongong on Sunday 21 August.
“When you do have those milestone games you love to do them at home in front of your own crowd,” Woods said.
“They are a really good fan-base the Red-V, especially down here in Wollongong so it’s a massive achievement for me to do it as such a proud club like this.”
The 31-year-old wants to extend his time at the Dragons, after signing a one-year deal for 2022.
“Definitely, it’s the club that we can do a lot with,” he said.
“We’ve got some really good young kids coming through and some good senior players, especially our captain Ben Hunt.
“He’s one of the form players of the competition – he’ll probably win the Dally M that’s how good he’s been playing. I get a massive boost playing with him every week.
“We’re the type of group that wants to win every game – especially these last three – and finish the season on a high.”
After the Titans in Round 23, the Dragons play the Tigers (Round 24) and the Brisbane Broncos (Round 25).
