Canberra's players are adopting a siege mentality as they head into a four-day mini-camp on the Gold Coast ahead of their must-win clash against Brisbane this Saturday.
The away trip also doubles as a chance for the Raiders to prepare for a challenging run towards the NRL finals.
Seven of their remaining 10 games are against sides inside the top eight - and five of their next six fixtures are away from GIO Stadium.
When you add in the fact Ricky Stuart's men have only won two in their last 11 games on the road against the Broncos, the odds are stacked against the green machine.
Buoyed by their last start thrashing of the Tigers at Campbelltown and excellent form of several of their star players over the representative round, skipper Jarrod Croker is backing his side to begin their late-season charge.
"It's a massive game (Broncos) for us, we haven't spoken about it too much yet given we've been away for a couple of days, but we will build up to it this week," Croker said.
"We know how important this game is for us, there's a four-point gap between us and Brisbane and the top eight, so we can't let that slide.
"We haven't had a great record up there so it's going to be a tough ask, but it always is when you go to Brisbane."
Match Highlights: New Zealand v England
Croker expects all of Canberra's representative stars to back up this weekend, including Josh Papalii who was a standout for Queensland in their State of Origin defeat and Elliott Whitehead, who walked away with man of the match honours in England's historic Test win in Denver versus New Zealand.
"Papa, we'll try and manage him throughout the rest of the season, obviously he's going to need some time here and there," he said.
"He had a couple of days off after game one (Origin) and he had another big game on Sunday night, so I'm sure he'll be freshened up and right to go again.
"The way Elliott played for England, the amount of effort is what he puts in for us every week.
"Nobody was surprised to see him get man of the match, he had a blinder over there."
One player looking forward to back-to-back games in the run on side is winger Michael Oldfield.
The 27-year-old scored his third try in as many games for the club during the resounding 48-12 win on June 17 versus Ivan Cleary's side.
With Nick Cotric and Jordan Rapana the established first choice wingers, Oldfield has no choice but to be patient.
"I can't count how many times I've been 18th man, if I got paid for that it would be nice," Oldfield joked.
"It is hard and it's the roller-coaster of footy....it's something I have gotten used to.
"Obviously every opportunity to play first grade is nice..... I'm just going to try and do my best while Jordan (Rapana) is out injured."
