Canberra Raiders legend Glenn Lazarus has declared the Green Machine will be "a dead set threat" to their rivals if they can sneak into the NRL finals.
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Lazarus believes Canberra "are capable of doing anything on their day' and is adamant they can mount a late charge into the top eight.
But the Raiders will be forced to do it the hard way with star second-rower Josh Papalii facing up to three games on the sideline with games against Melbourne and Cronulla looming in the next three weeks.
The Raiders will decide whether or not they will fight the charge on Monday in a bid to save their fading finals hopes with Lazarus refusing to write off their premiership chances.
"It only takes one win to turn a season around - we've seen at Origin level it takes a moment," Lazarus told Fairfax Media.
"The Raiders haven't played poorly but it's just a 'here we go again' sort of thing. Winning will change their attitude.
"Obviously there is going to be no truer test in that than this weekend up against a full strength Melbourne side.
"If you look on paper Canberra are a pretty good side but of course games aren't won on paper. They're won with the right attitude.
"Everyone is suggesting Melbourne are going to be hard to beat this year so it will be a great test and a great opportunity to really stamp a sense of 'we're going to make a real go of this'.
"It looks as though it's going to come down to Penrith and Canberra to get that eighth spot and I honestly believe Canberra are capable of doing that."
Raiders five-eighth Blake Austin admits the Green Machine would have been in "dire straits" if not for a last-ditch golden point victory over St George Illawarra that kept their season alive.
It ended a four-game losing streak and while it wasn't Canberra's prettiest win, the two points is all that matters.
However the Green Machine's season is still hanging by a thread, and one loss could be enough to see it flat line as they remain caught in a logjam two wins outside the top eight.
"It's a lot better than losing, that's for sure," Austin said.
"It is good to sing the song and hopefully that can breathe a little bit of life back in us. If we had have lost tonight it would have been dire straits, but if we can head into Melbourne next week with a win [it's] going to be positive.
"It hasn't even sunk in that we won a close one, we just feel like we won a game of footy. We had to win in any way we could and that's what we did.
"It's something that we can build on and something I really enjoyed."
They will be forced to do things the hard way, needing to win at least six of their final seven matches with one of their best players facing three weeks on the sideline.
The NRL match review committee slapped Papalii with a possible three-game ban for a grade two shoulder charge on former teammate and St George Illawarra fullback Josh Dugan on Friday night.
Papalii was fresh off a State of Origin series win with Queensland and the Raiders were hoping to call on his experience during the tough run home that pits them against the top two sides in the competition.
But instead they could be without the star second-rower for up to three weeks, although Papalii will only cop with a two-match ban with an early guilty plea.
