Canberra’s grinding style and ability to win close games means coach Ricky Stuart feels like his team has been playing finals all season.
Hitting the most important fortnight of their campaign where victory against Brisbane on Saturday night or Cronulla the following week would ensure a top eight berth, the Raiders boss hopes it’s readied them for knockout football.
Not even the absence of key Broncos playmaker Adam Reynolds can avoid the visitors from being viewed as underdogs, although the Raiders might be quietly confident of an upset win after knocking their opponents off in Brisbane earlier this year.
With a victory in the next two weeks, they would become just the sixth team in 14 years to make finals with a negative points differential.
They’ve also won a staggering 11 games by single-digits this season, a mark only bettered by one team in the last decade - the 2017 Sydney Roosters (12).
Admitting his team has been far from pretty, Stuart hoped they can continue to make ugly look beautiful with a stirring win against the Broncos.
“It's certainly part of the DNA, and something I like to have as a coach,” he said.
“If you can't find the grit, can't find the grind in your team, you're going to be in games where it's needed and if you haven't trained it, talked it, if you haven't mentally prepared for it, you can't get it.
“It's just been one of those seasons ... we've had opportunities to go from 12 (points in front) to 18, or 18 to 24, and the opposition scores, and then they score again and they close the gap.
“But it's just another game now, it's a new week, a new game, and it's a situation where we've got to be at our best because we're playing a very good football team.”
Penrith’s loss on Thursday night opened the door for the Broncos to win their first minor premiership since 2000, with wins against the Raiders and Melbourne sufficient to secure them top spot.
Canberra centre Jarrod Croker noted while his side had relied on narrow wins, the Broncos had been ruthless and put teams to the sword, highlighted by a 54-10 shellacking of Parramatta in their last outing.
"They've been good consistently, they haven't had an off day, they back themselves, and they execute more often than not," Croker said.
“We've just got to drag them into our game ... we're probably at the opposite end of the spectrum where we've grinded and had those tough slog wins, they've had a lot of big wins and put a lot of points on teams.
“It'll be one or the other on the weekend.”
