Canberra coach Ricky Stuart thinks his side couldn’t be better placed to make a charge into finals, despite facing the NRL’s toughest run-in,
Of the 12 teams vying for the six up-for-grabs finals spots – Melbourne and Penrith are all but guaranteed qualification – the 10th-placed Raiders will come up against the toughest opposition in their remaining seven games.
The average league position of the sides they are yet to face is 6.57, AAP analysis has found, with tricky clashes against in-form sides such as Manly, Penrith and the Sydney Roosters to come.
But Stuart reckons the coming adversity will hold his players in good stead down the track.
“Nah, its not daunting,” he said on Saturday.
“Looking at it optimistically, it’s probably the best preparation moving into a playoff series.”
The Raiders have excelled at the pointy end of the season in recent times, a fact that gives Stuart confidence.
“We seem to play consistently on the back end of the seasons,” he said.
Stuart said early injuries had hamstrung his side in recent seasons, but the return of those players in later rounds had been the catalyst for a resurgence in form.
“That’s quite a domineering factor there, the fact that we get the senior players back from injury,” he said.
Half-back Jamal Fogarty is one such senior player whose return from injury was key in the Raiders’ drought-breaking win over the Warriors last weekend.
“We need to score more points and I’m hoping that Jamal can have a large bearing over that factor,” Stuart said.
“We’ve had that little bit of bad luck over the few years where we’ve got those early injuries.
“So you lose continuity, you lose rhythm, and let’s just hope we don’t have any more injuries down the back end of the season, and we get some consistency and cohesion.”
Canberra host 14th-placed South Sydney on Sunday, the lowest-ranked opponent in their run-in, but by no means is it an easy task.
The Rabbitohs have won six of their last seven and looked electric since moving former Raider Jack Wighton into the centres.
Canberra captain Elliott Whitehead knows all too well how dangerous Wighton can be.
“He’s one of their big threats and will be looking to come down here and have a big game,” he said.
It’s a big game for Whitehead, too, with the Englishman bringing up a double century of games for the club he joined in 2016.
The 36-year-old, who is playing his final season in the NRL, says he doubted his ability to make it in the Australian league when he first arrived.
“To play 200 for this club and be in that small group of people that’ve played over 200 games is massive and I’m really proud to be part of that,” Whitehead said.
