Canberra no longer have control of their NRL finals destiny, but skipper Jarrod Croker insists he is proud of his side’s fighting qualities during a frustrating season.
The Raiders need to beat Newcastle at GIO Stadium on Friday night and upset Melbourne in a tough final-round away trip next week, as well as have other results go their way to squeeze into the top eight.
“That period where we lost a couple in a row, a lot of teams would have thrown it in but to the boys’ credit they toughed it out. It’s round 25 and we’re still hanging in by the skin of our teeth,” Croker said on Thursday.
Out to end the Raiders’ hopes is a Knights side in better from than when they stunned the Raiders 34-20 in round 10.
Before Melbourne overpowered them last week, Newcastle had won three in a row for the first time since the start of 2015.
But they’ll travel to Canberra without five-eighth Brock Lamb (knee), Sione Mata’utia (concussion) and Luke Yates (ankle), while the Raiders are unchanged.
Croker admits his side didn’t cope with the Knights’ youthful exuberance when the two sides last met.
“That energy they bring and a lot of young kids that bring enthusiasm, it can be hard to handle sometimes and we didn’t handle it last time we played them up there,” Croker said.
Few people predicted Canberra would miss the finals, but after losing eight games by six points or less they have earned the dreaded “mathematical possibility” tag.
Knights coach Nathan Brown has labelled the Raiders as the competition’s unluckiest team, but Croker doesn’t agree.
“We’ve been in situations where we’ve put ourselves in with a chance to win it and didn’t do it,” he said.
“I wouldn’t call that unlucky.”
Mark H
Guest
Spot on Gary. It seems to me that after coming close last year they came into this season expecting great things to just happen without effort. A better coach would have kept them humble and focussed on making their own luck...
Swannies
Guest
Raiders will probably win their last two matches and be left wondering what if? But they will bounce back in 2018 and take a lot out of this this season. I expect their halves to develop into a more attacking combination next season.
Gary Harvey
Guest
It is really really hard to say that the Green Machine has been unlucky this year. To start with they have had a great run with injuries. They also got to play the Cowboys without JT, the Storm without Smith and Slater (for half the game anyway), and the Doggies with most of their team injured. They lost close games because they have switched off (Penrith in round 14) and have been unable to lift mentally when the pressure is on. Line speed, enthusiasm and good decision making make some teams seem "lucky", and the opposite may be interpreted as bad luck.Having said that they now need some results to fall their way, and I hope that the footy Gods look down favourably on them.
Wild Eagle
Guest
The Raiders have missed such a great chance to win a title this year. If they played up to their potential I would place them at around 2nd in line to win the title. Most of the top 8 have very little chance to win the big one this year I reckon and the Raiders at full throttle could really trouble the Storm. They played the first half of the season like they getting advice from the village idiots best friend and look to have blown their chances.