Mick
Tilse

Michael "Mick" Tilse — foundation player of the Canberra Raiders and a proud pioneer of the Green Machine — passed away on 5 August 2025, at the age of 67, after a long illness. He died peacefully at Scone's Scott Memorial Hospital, surrounded by his beloved family. His passing came just two days after the death of fellow Raiders legend Sam Backo, leaving the Canberra rugby league community in profound grief.

Born in 1958 in the New South Wales Hunter Valley, Mick Tilse grew up in the Scone region and developed into a rugged, strongly built prop forward. After making his first-grade debut with the North Sydney Bears in 1980, he answered the call of history in 1982, becoming one of the founding players of the newly admitted Canberra Raiders — Raider #16 — when the club entered the NSWRL competition for the very first time.

On 21 March 1982, Mick Tilse ran out at Redfern Oval for the Raiders' very first game in top-grade rugby league, a match against South Sydney. It was a moment no amount of time could diminish — the birth of a football club that would go on to become an institution of the national capital. Mick played nine matches for the Raiders in that inaugural season, doing so with the grit and commitment that characterised everything he did.

Though his own first-grade career numbered just thirteen games — he never tasted a win in any of them — Mick Tilse left a legacy far larger than statistics can capture. When his son Dane Tilse pulled on the Raiders jersey in 2006, becoming Raider #263 and going on to play 201 first-grade matches for the club across a decade, Mick and Dane became the first father and son duo in the club's history. A quiet achievement, but one etched permanently into the Raiders' story.

Canberra Raiders CEO Don Furner expressed the club's deep sorrow: "The Tilse name has had a long and proud association with the Raiders. Mick was a foundation player in 1982 and his son Dane went on to play over 200 first-grade games for the club. Mick and Dane have the honour of being the club's first father-son combination to have played for the Raiders."

Mick Tilse is survived by his three children and six grandchildren, who remember him as a bold, very special person — a big presence, a dedicated father, and a quiet part of Australian rugby league history. His number, #16, belongs forever to the story of a club he helped build from nothing.