By stunning premiership contenders South Sydney 24-12 at Canberra Stadium 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 in 110 years.

The Raiders (547 points) extended their lead ahead of Souths (531) at the top of the points for ladder in a battle of the NRL's top two attacking sides. Melbourne are the only other side that could give them a shake.

But Canberra's finals hopes evaporated long ago. They sit 10th with a 10-13 record, while the Rabbitohs are still a chance to add to their drought-breaking 2014 premiership.

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.

Shutting down the Cook

Have the Canberra Raiders just given NRL finals-bound clubs the recipe that could shut down the Cook in the kitchen?

South Sydney Rabbitohs rake Damien Cook has emerged as the heir apparent to Cameron Smith's green and gold No. 9 jersey and he was quickly identified as the man to stop by Raiders coaching staff this week.

He showed glimpses of class but the Raiders were desperate to get in his face whenever they could to nullify his impact.

Nullify him they did, which Raiders skipper Josh Hodgson believes went a long way to deciding the contest in a 24-12 triumph at Canberra Stadium on Saturday.

"We spoke about him during the week, he has had a fantastic year, he’s an Origin nine and he is lightning quick," Hodgson said.

"If he sees a spot in behind the ruck he is going to go, so we worked on that during the week. The coaching staff, that was probably the first thing they brought up during the week and I thought we were good."

But South Sydney's rivals can't afford to get too excited - they've still got the likes of the barnstorming Burgess brothers and Greg Inglis on the books.

Back on track

Ricky Stuart concedes sometimes you're going to fall off track - no matter how tight the "brotherhood" at the club is.

That's exactly what has happened to the Canberra Raiders this year. The Jack Wighton saga dragged on for months and will do so for some time yet, high-profile players were dropped and injuries ravaged the club.

But Stuart says "we get back on track really quickly here at this club", which he believes was shown when the Raiders stunned South Sydney to send Blake Austin, Shannon Boyd and Junior Paulo out winners at home.

"It was the three boys that are leaving us, we’ve got a real brotherhood here. We’ve got a very special culture and a very special bond here at the club," Stuart said.

"Sometimes you fall off track, but we get back on track really quickly here at this club. It’s a credit to what Josh [Hodgson] has done, it’s a credit to what Jarrod [Croker] has done as leaders, and we played for those three boys today.

"It’s lovely they could go out knowing they played their last game here and they played really big parts of that win."

They still have to get up for one more game in lime green before officially calling full-time on their careers in Canberra - against the finals-bound New Zealand Warriors next Friday.

With AAP