To borrow a line from Raiders hooker Josh Hodgson, captain Jarrod Croker says the Green Machine can't afford to "kick stones" with their campaign almost reaching the sudden death checkpoint nine weeks early.

Sam Williams and Brad Abbey perhaps have more to prove than any other with the Raiders looking to keep their season alive when they face the Canterbury Bulldogs at Belmore Oval on Saturday night.

Croker hopes the pair can provide an injection of enthusiasm and control into a Canberra outfit whose nightmare record in close games has put their season on life support.

"It’s not ideal, coming in more often than not talking about the same thing. It gets quite frustrating," Croker said.

"We can’t sit there and kick stones, one thing we can’t do is sit there and sulk about it, we’ve got to move on. If we get ourselves in the position again we’ve got to do everything we can and do everything at our own cost to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"No good whingeing about it, no good sitting and sulking about it, we’ve just got to move on. It’s quite frustrating sometimes but we keep saying it’s not from a lack of effort or anything like that.

"We can’t look at the big picture too much, we’ve put ourselves in this situation so we’re the only ones that can get ourselves out of it."

One loss would almost be enough to see the Green Machine's season flatline, with Canberra needing at least eight wins and other results to go their way in the final nine rounds.

Croker says Canberra's mindset doesn't change as they look to creep back into the finals picture - because winning is the plan every time they take to the field - and he hopes Williams can take control in an audition to be a long-term starter.

"He’s got a good opportunity. He’s a really good player, Sammy, he is one of the smarter players I have ever played footy with," Croker said.

"He’s got such a football brain and he has played a lot of first grade, a lot of NRL, he has been around a long time and every time he has got his opportunity he has taken it.

"I’m hoping he does the same this weekend and having [Aidan] Sezer and Hodgo there playing the footy they’re playing will definitely help Sammy."

Abbey will look to lock down a place at fullback with regular custodian Jack Wighton's immediate future hanging in the balance as he prepares for sentencing in November after pleading guilty to assault and public urination.

"He probably didn’t expect to get his opportunity - if you asked him this time last week, he wouldn’t have thought he was playing," Croker said.

"The fact that had two days of preparation for an NRL game and to come out and play like he did is a credit to him. He fit straight in.

"If he hadn't have trained so hard through the pre-season and trained so well while playing for Mounties and being behind Jack, he wouldn’t have been able to do that on the weekend. It was good to see and hopefully he just grows another leg and goes again this weekend.

"He’s a good fella Abs, he really [bought] into our culture when he came down here so the boys all enjoy him around. For somebody who works so hard, it’s just good to see him get that opportunity and he took it last week."

NRL ROUND 17

Saturday: Canterbury Bulldogs v Canberra Raiders at Belmore Sports Ground, 7.35pm. Live on Fox Sports.

Raiders: 1. Brad Abbey, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Michael Oldfield, 6. Sam Williams, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Dunamis Lui, 9. Josh Hodgson, 10. Shannon Boyd, 11. Joe Tapine, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Siliva Havili. Interchange from: 14. Blake Austin, 15. Junior Paulo, 16. Liam Knight, 17. Sia Soliola, 18. Jack Murchie, 19. Charlie Gubb, 20. Royce Hunt, 21. Craig Garvey.

Bulldogs: 1. Will Hopoate, 2. Brett Morris, 3. Kerrod Holland, 4. Marcelo Montoya, 5. Reimis Smith, 6. Lachlan Lewis, 7. Jeremy Marshall-King, 8. Aiden Tolman, 9. Michael Lichaa, 10. Danny Fualalo, 11. Josh Jackson (c), 12. Rhyse Martin, 13. Adam Elliott. Interchange from: 14. Fa'amanu Brown, 15. Clay Priest, 16. Ofahiki Ogden, 17. Greg Eastwood, 18. Asipeli Fine, 19. Matthew Frawley, 20. Francis Tualau, 21. Josh Morris.