Returning Raider Josh Hodgson inspired his side to a 48-12 flogging of the Wests Tigers on Sunday, sending a message to the rest of the NRL that Canberra is still a major contender this season.
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The Englishman was brilliant in his long-awaited return from a knee injury after a near seven-month layoff, breathing fresh life into the Raiders season while delivering a damaging blow to the Tigers' finals aspirations.
Sunday's win meant Canberra leapfrogged the Tigers into ninth position, and they now sit two wins outside the top eight with enough time to bridge the gap with their general fit and healthy.
Both clubs now sit on 14 competition points and while the Raiders are threatening to mount a charge to the finals, the Tigers are rapidly heading in the wrong direction after a third-straight loss and easily their worst defensive showing of the season.
They also appear to have lost Mahe Fonua for a significant chunk of time after the damaging centre suffered a suspected broken arm.
Hodgson was injected into the game after 24 minutes following the sin binning of Blake Austin, and set up a try almost immediately.
From there he controlled proceedings until coach Ricky Stuart pulled him off with 10 minutes to go. During his 46 minute stint in front of 10,237 fans at Campbelltown Stadium, the Raiders outscored Wests 32-0.
"Yes, he is that big a difference to the team," Stuart said. "Definitely we have missed Josh as any football team would miss their world class players.
"I said all along that we were never going to use it [Hodgson's injury] as an excuse. We wouldn't be where we are on the table if he had have been playing at the start of the year.
"We're a lot better than where we are on the table but that's our job now, to get up the table and the only way you do that is by winning games."
Hodgson set up three tries in his return from the ACL injury he suffered for England during last year's World Cup, putting Josh Papalii over in the first half before laying on a pair for Joe Tapine as the Raiders ran riot after the break.
The Tigers held a 12-10 advantage at half-time but completely fell apart to suffer their second worst ever loss at the venue in the joint venture's history.
"We totally lost focus and lost contact with the game and they smelled blood and they took it," Tigers coach Ivan Cleary said. "Our control in defence I didn't think was probably there all game. It was certainly not what we wanted it to be and what we needed it to be against a very powerful team.
"The end of the game, that's more mental than technical and physical. Once we lost contact with the game we lost focus as a group and individuals. When you finish like that that's certainly not what we've been about this year. We've just got to make sure that's an aberration and we get back on the horse in a couple of weeks."
Two quick tries in the first half helped the Tigers to an early lead and when Austin was sin binned, it looked for a moment like the home side was the one about to run riot.
Enter Hodgson. He shored up the Raiders in defence, and provided his side with an attacking weapon the Tigers simply couldn't handle.
"He plays the game how he wants to play the game, he's one of those very few nines who can control a game like that," Raiders captain Jarrod Croker said. "The boys just know what Hodgo's going to bring.
"He's the ultimate professional, you could just see how hard he worked to get back here. We didn't want to put too much pressure on Hodgo today because we knew he's probably put enough pressure on himself.
"Hodgo just slipped in today like he'd never been away, it's pretty freakish the way he did it. It's a credit to him, it's a credit to our rehab staff who got him back."
All season the Raiders have been trying to keep in touch with the top eight, knowing Hodgson was coming back in at the back end of the season.
There is still much work to be done, but Sunday's win gives the Raiders a perfect launching pad from which to build an assault on the finals.
"We've been talking about performance of late, we haven't been talking about wins and losses or winning and losing," Stuart said. "And we'll just keep going down that track, because with Josh back now, Junior [Paulo] will be back next game, we're starting to get our team back. All we talked about this week was being consistent with performance."
