The Rams stretched their unbeaten run to seven games with a dominant 30-4 victory over the lacklustre West Belconnen Warriors in the Canberra Raiders Cup at the Phillip Oval "graveyard" on Sunday.

Woden have stormed into the top four and sit just three points behind the second-placed Warriors. It is a remarkable turnaround considering they won just one of their opening five games.

The Rams' spine was balanced on one leg during a forgettable start to the season that looked to have dashed their finals hopes before Woden were even able to mount a charge.

Halfback Lincoln Withers spent almost two months on the sidelines after round one, hooker Adam Lucas suffered a similar fate after round four, and deputy rake Kosta Posantzis was ruled out for the season after round three.

But the Rams are back. Lucas is firing and so is Withers - despite persistent jokes about the 37-year-old not being able to play 80 minutes being revived after he was taken from the field with a head knock in the final stages against West Belconnen.

The Rams have often been a bogey team for some of the competition heavyweights but have fallen agonisingly short of finals berths - now Barnes hopes that can change.

"We just had Michael Geiger play his 50th game, Josh Pheeney played his 50th game a few weeks ago, Jeff Morgan played his 50th earlier," Barnes said.

"Those players that have been here for quite some time have got a lot of first grade under their belt now, so they’ve got the experience hopefully to close out close games and do all those things.

"There’s still a long way to go in the competition so we’ve still got to keep turning up week in, week out. That is our focus, that’s been our aim ever since I started coaching here.

"Hopefully we get there but we’ll just have to keep turning up every week and putting our best foot forward."

The hosts kicked clear in the third minute and wouldn't relinquish the lead with the Warriors offering little to challenge a rampant Rams defensive line.

Back-rower Michael Gilmour was superb as the Rams celebrated Barnes' birthday with a win, while debutant Dan Desmet impressed as he became the fifth member of Woden's 2017 under 18s premiership-winning side to crack the top grade.

Barnes is refusing to get ahead of himself and dream of what could be Woden's first finals appearance since 2009 because they will have to get there without one of their biggest names.

Cleve McGhie has joined Cabramatta in the Ron Massey Cup in a deal the Monaro under 23s staple hopes will launch him on a path towards bigger things.

"That’s what we talk about all the time, for the players that we’ve got, we’re here to help them progress their careers whether that is locally or off elsewhere," Barnes said.

"I’m obviously disappointed for us as a club that we lose Cleve, he’s such a key player and a great bloke, but rapt that he’s got an opportunity, as it was for Jack Hickson last year and other ones that have had it in the past.

"We wish him the best, we’ll probably miss him but we’ve got a lot of guys here that will step up and hopefully fill his shoes a little bit.

"We had five people out from last week to this week and the guys that came in stepped up and did a fantastic job. That’s something we pride ourselves on."