Canberra are adamant their grand-final heartbreak will be the catalyst for another tilt at the NRL premiership as they prepare to bolster their squad with England halfback George Williams.
Raiders co-captain Jarrod Croker says their devastating loss against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday night is just the beginning of a successful era at the club.
The Green Machine were playing finals for the first time since 2016 and their first grand final in 25 years but fell 14-8 after James Tedesco scored the match-winner in the 72nd minute.
“It was such a great year for the club and Canberra itself. It’s been so good and it’s such a strong culture we’ve built,” Croker said.
“The way we’ve gone throughout this whole season and the way we got here, if we fluked it and got here from eighth and won our last six or seven games, it’d be a different story.
“But I feel like we’ve earned the right to be here. We’ve did enough to get ourselves in a position to win that game, I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t believe it.
“We’re never dead. All week we spoke about going to the 80th minute. We didn’t get the result but we’re one of the better sides going the distance which is something we’ve never been good at.
“We know if it’s a long game we’re going to be in it and we were in it up to our eyeballs, right until that 80th minute.
“It’s in our DNA now and I’m sure it’s only going to get better. We’ve turned this green jersey into a tough, scrappy footy side.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the boys.”
Canberra could lose Jordan Rapana, Joey Leilua and Aidan Sezer in the off-season but they’ve signed Williams.
It will take the Raiders English contingent to five, with star second-rower John Bateman saying there’s no club he’d rather play at following his contract controversy last week.
Bateman also backed the club to return to the grand final next year.
“There is a special bunch of players here. We’ll go on for years to come and we’ll be in positions like this again and we’ll get the win, I’m 100 per cent sure about it,” Bateman said.
“The culture of the people who come through this club is special.
“We’ve had a special year, obviously we’ve not got the win we really wanted to get at the end and that’s what people get remembered for but we’ll remember each other for what we have done.
“You take more from the games you lose, you learn what you’re about and we’ll take a lot out of tonight, there were some special moments in that game. We were close, very close.
“It’s a very long season but we’ll get back on board and come back next year.”
