Canberra are making a serious case to be up there with the best teams in NRL history to have missed the finals.
By stunning premiership contenders South Sydney on Saturday, the Raiders almost assured they will become the first side to score the most points in a regular season and miss the playoffs.
It hasn’t been done since the NSWRFL was formed in 1908.
A number of teams have gone close, but the Raiders are a round away from achieving a slice of unwanted rugby league history.
Their match against the Rabbitohs was the clash of the NRL’s two best attacking teams and it was Ricky Stuart’s men who came out on top, 24-12.
It ensured the Raiders (547 points) extended their lead ahead of Souths (531) at the top of the points for ladder.
Wounded Melbourne are the only other team with a chance to topple the Raiders’ attack, but they would have to make up a huge deficit in round 25.
Unfortunately for Canberra supporters, they will comfortably miss the top-eight as they sit 10th with a 10-13 record, while the Rabbitohs are still a chance to add to their drought-breaking 2014 premiership.
Their Achilles heel has been their defence and their inability to close out games, but it’s turned around in the last fortnight with their victory over Souths backing up a triumph against the Sydney Roosters six days earlier.
But seven defeats by under six points during the season has been their undoing.
Everyone at the Raiders knows they should be playing finals, but Stuart believes their last-season revival can boost them into 2019.
“There’s been only two or three games where we haven’t been into calculations to win a match (during) this year,” Stuart said.
“Not a lot of teams have got that but we’ve got to get more resilience and composure which we showed is in us in the last two games.”
The Raiders’ points differential sits at 27, better than the finals qualified Warriors and Brisbane, who are almost certain to make the eight.