Now everyone wants a piece of the Canberra Raiders coach and his team for the right reasons.

Everyone wants to know how Furner managed to remove his head from the coaching chopping block and turn Canberra's season around.

That's why the phones have been ringing hot at Raiders HQ this week ahead of their round 26 clash with the Brisbane Broncos tonight.

That's why they were farewelled by the lights of TV cameras at Canberra Airport yesterday and were greeted by more as their plane landed in Brisbane.

All of a sudden the Raiders are the darlings of the NRL.

The 40,000 spectators expected at Suncorp Stadium will be the biggest crowd the Raiders have played in front of since the 1994 grand final.

If they beat the Broncos, their spot in the top eight and a semi-finals berth will be secure.

What a difference 55 days can make. Just don't expect Furner to enjoy telling you about it.

He hates talking about the past. He's reluctant to reflect on his team's transformation from an underachiever to, dare we say, a title contender on the eve of such a crucial match.

But he insists he has always had faith in his players, even when his team lost four games in a row and tumbled down the NRL ladder.

''It's like when you go to a carnival and you've got a line up of ducks and everyone grabs an air rifle,'' Furner said. ''You're an easy target [when you're a losing coach]. You get knocked down and then you have to get up again.

''You just keep going around and around and I can't control that. It's probably an unfortunate nature of the game.

''We've made some mistakes this year and they were hard lessons for a team and hard lessons for a coach.

''But I've always believed in the way we've played, I've always believed this team deserved a spot in the top eight.

''Now we have to earn that spot, the job's not finished.''

There must have been times when he doubted the job would ever be close to finished.