Jarrod Croker says sweeping changes at the Canberra Raiders have given the club a chance to rejuvenate, but it's the familiar feeling of finals-type hype he hopes his teammates get from the NRL magic round.
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Croker was in Brisbane on Tuesday to help launch an eight-game, four-day bonanza scheduled to be played from May 9-12 at one venue, which the Raiders haven't won at since 2010.
The Raiders will play defending premiers the Sydney Roosters and the festival atmosphere with close to 50,000 fans is expected to resemble something similar to the finals.
Croker and the Raiders will be trying to force their way back into the top eight next year having missed the finals in four of the past five seasons.
But the big crowds, the anticipation and the intensity of hectic weekend of rugby league will be a road test for the Raiders and their finals aspirations.
Canberra has won just one of its past 11 games in Brisbane, but they hold no fear about playing the Roosters at the intimidating Suncorp Stadium.
"The players are all pretty pumped about it - it's something different and change is as good as a holiday," Croker said.
"I'm excited about it. I know it's worked in the Super League [in the UK] and you'd think there would be 40,000-odd every day of the weekend, so it's big-game atmosphere and they're the ones you want to play in.
"There are some guys who haven't played in that sort of finals or big-game environment before. It's exciting and gets your focused. You take it all in."
The Raiders returned to pre-season training three weeks ago, but Croker is still building up his workload after suffering a season-ending knee injury in August.
He will be back to full duties when the team returns after a break for Christmas. However, the skipper says he can already see changes in attitude and preparation.
Brett White and Andrew McFadden have teamed up to overhaul the Raiders' leaky defence and the club also has a host of new back-room personnel to add a fresh edge.
The Raiders had an independent party conduct a review of the club's football department after failing to make the finals this year. The findings were presented to the board last week, but are yet to be made public.
"There's been a lot that's changed, to be honest," Croker said.
"There is a lot of personnel change. We've got a new weights coach, new GPS people, new strappers, new assistant coach ... fresh faces and some young kids in the squad as well.
"We've changed everything up. We're doing different fitness tests, different drills and [McFadden] and Whitey are doing all of the defence. They're changing that up and making it very clear of what our roles are.
"It's all been different and it's been good. Everyone feels like we're starting again, we've stripped everything back and we're all going from square one to be on the same page."
