He paid them back in spades with a second-half clinic to lead the Blues to a comeback 24-20 victory over the Queanbeyan Kangaroos at Freebody Oval on Saturday.

The Roos controlled the first-half to take a one-man advantage and 20-10 lead into the break, only for the Blues to run over the top and hold them scoreless in the second stanza.

That was largely down to Campese's influence, with the former Canberra Raiders captain pulling the strings in the No.6 jersey.

He almost scored out of dummy half almost as soon as he returned to the field before producing a lovely chip and chase on the halfway line that he regathered and flicked wide for Thomas Reudiger to score.

Campese put his left winger Brendon Taueki on a break that eventually led to right winger George Stewart scoring in the opposite corner, before he completed the masterclass with a cutout pass for Taueki to score.

But it looked like he could've been the villain at the end of the first half when Roos winger Mitchell Connolly scored in his absence to make it a 10-point game at half-time.

He'd been sent to the sin bin for a goal-line infringement, compounded with a bit of back chat to the referee.

Campese said the win was also inspired by the memory of Anthony "Tucker" Thompson, who died during the week.

"On the field I'm a different human. Sometimes I'm proud, sometimes I'm not - of myself," Campese said with a laugh. "When you're a leader and a coach you're supposed to lead by example and I let them down in that first half.”

The win wasn't without controversy though, the Kangaroos had a try disallowed that would've made it 24-16 with a kick to come and less than 20 minutes on the clock. Roos winger Jed Simbiken appeared to get the ball down after Blues fullback Jake Wheeler was slow in dealing with the danger.

But the officials ruled the ball had gone dead - after it looked like Simbiken had scored. 

Roos coach Aaron Gorrell, who was sporting a nasty gash on his chin from a stray boot, didn't want to be drawn on the decision.

"It's frustrating, but he's made the call and you live with it,” Gorrell said. “There's not much we can do. We still had our opportunities apart from that."

Missing star playmaker Brent Crisp, as well as props Jed Pearce (knee) and Steve Dunn (wrist), Nukurua Ngere, Simbiken, Logan Spander and Connolly all ran in first-half tries to set up what threatened to be the Blues first loss of the year.