Canberra forward Shaun Fensom says the team will use their final bye this week to lick their wounds before attempting to save their season against lowly Newcastle at home.
After stunning many in their rise to fifth spot on the NRL ladder at the conclusion of round nine, the Raiders have since dropped five of their past six matches and are now just one win above last-placed Manly.
Fensom said this week’s rest is the perfect opportunity for the team to re-assess their form and nurse their minor injuries.
“We only just had a bye two weeks ago as well but in saying that, we’ve had two really tough games the last two weeks,” he told AAP.
“We had that one against the Cowboys where we lost by one point and then we travelled to New Zealand and lost in another physical game.
“The boys are feeling the soreness, but it’ll give us a couple of weeks to rest up.”
The 26-year-old identified their upcoming clash against Newcastle, who have now lost 10 of their past 11 games, as a chance to get their season back on track.
However they’ll have to do it at home, where they have won just one of six games at GIO Stadium this year.
In fact, of the past 22 games at their own ground dating back to August 2013, the Raiders have managed just five victories.
“It’s a must-win game for us,” Fensom said.
“Obviously (the home record) does hurt because you want to go out there and perform for your home fans and get as many wins as possible at home.
“This season we haven’t done as good as we would’ve liked at home, but we’ll be out there next week doing our best to win the game.”
GTW
Guest
The Raiders haven't won many games, but have performed better than most beaten teams each weekend, with the exception of last weekend and in the Rorters game. Ricky is fighting a fight that many of the coaches of the bottom 8 teams should also be fighting. The refs do their reviews of the upcoming game and have a perception of what is going to happen. They then look for things to happen and penalise teams at that time. If the same penalties where to be awarded against both teams, on the same tackle, and the same field position, that's fine. Then again, the penalty count could be 10-10 but still vastly favour one team i.e. the away team gets a penalty on tackle one 10 metres from their try line. The home team gets a penalty on the fifth, 30m out. The penalty count is 1-1 but the score is probably 6-0 and the home team has made 10 less tackles, as they get another 6 after scoring. Repeat this 3 times and the game is almost gone. The referees are not cheating, there's no chance that is happening. However, they shouldn't even be looking at the ladder or reviewing who stands off side or leaves their hands on the ball in the ruck. They shouldn't be listening to the future immortals like Smith or Thurston during games. If you're a Rorters supporter, I'm sure you wouldn't see any problem with the refs. Last year the Rorters were purposefully giving away penalties close to the line in order to slow the game down. Their superior roster could handle the added defensive pressure; the poorer teams would just let in more tries if they tried this strategy. Since the Raiders are generally playing teams lower on the ladder in the remainder of the year, maybe they'll get some 50/50 decisions. I'd like to see that!
Samtwocan
Guest
We see it every year ... A couple of teams that aren't expected to do much come out of the box flat out and surprise everyone and then fulfil their true potential by losing the majority of the games in the second half of the season. I feel there will be a few more dummy spits from tricky before the year is over ..
Kirk
Guest
Raiders have had a tough draw so far. They also just can't seem to get a win at home. I think they have one of the softer runs to the finals so hopefully can string some wins together.