On Saturday Mortimer returned to Carrington Park as a member of the Gold Coast Titans NRL team and once more he was left with that bitter feeling of disappointment. This time it was due to a 40-0 hiding from the Penrith Panthers.

Coming through the ranks with CYMS after getting his first taste of rugby league as a four-year-old, Mortimer has had his share of big games at Carrington Park.

He twice lost Group 10 Junior Rugby League grand finals at the venue, but does have the fond memory of scoring an intercept try when playing at under 18s level in the Bathurst Panthers knockout.

The versatile play maker was also one of 8,872 spectators in the stands at Carrington Park in 2001 when Country defeated City 42-10.

Mortimer’s form for CYMS led him to Group 10, Western Division and NSW Country selection and in turn, those representative fixtures helped him advance even further in his chosen sport.

He played SG Ball for Parramatta in 2007 and two years later was part of their NRL grand final team.

Though missing out in that decider, he won one with the Sydney Roosters in 2013 before making the move to the Titans in June last year.

On Saturday the now 25-year-old and his team-mates showed patches of brilliance and actually started the round two match better than Penrith.

But in the end Mortimer, who made 24 tackles and gained 79 metres, and his Titans were outplayed.

It was certainly not the way the green and golds’ junior thought his afternoon would pan out.

He had 15 members of his family, including father Peter, uncle Steve and brother Robbie - a student at CSU - watching him in action. It was the first time he had played at Carrington Park since 2006.

Still, the match was an illustration of how far Mortimer has come.

“It’s is a bit weird to think about it,” he said.

“I saw the City-Country when it was out here and then a year or two later when it was in Orange, that was 2009. That was before I made my [NRL] debut and I went on to play in the grand final that year.

“That was a big change in scene, going from an under 20s boy watching the City-Country in Orange to playing in an NRL grand final that year. It was pretty crazy.”

But Mortimer added with a chuckle that “the 12-year-old me was just as competitive as I am now.”

While it made be some time before Mortimer gets his chance to play at Carrington Park again, he believes bringing NRL games to Bathurst is a good idea.

“There is a lot of support out here for the NRL and I think that is why games are brought out here possibly, because the support here is great,” he said.

“I think it’s enormous to have an actual comp game worth two points out here.”