Warrington-bound five-eighth Blake Austin is adamant he still has plenty to play for as he looks to finish his Canberra Raiders stint on a high.
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The Raiders playmaker knows it may seem delusional but Austin won't be packing his bags for England until his season is officially over - and the numbers say Canberra still has "a very small chance" of playing finals football.
Canberra's first task is rebounding from a crushing loss to the premiership favourites to topple the Penrith Panthers at Panthers Stadium on Sunday.
The Raiders are yet to beat a top eight team this season and they will need to beat four finals-bound sides to feature in September.
Provided they win every game along the way, Canberra have to sit on their hands and hope the New Zealand Warriors win no more than two games, while the Wests Tigers can win no more than four.
Austin says he won't be checking out early and neither will the likes of outgoing props Shannon Boyd and Junior Paulo as they look to cap off a forgettable season in style.
"We’ve got five matches to think about before we can worry about taking off," Austin said.
"I’ve said before I want to make sure we have some good memories as a Raider to see out the season. There’s too many people that we owe it too to put in good performances, and that’s we’ll be trying to do.
"It’s hard to really look too hard into the way the season has gone until it’s finished. We’ve got five games to go and the numbers tell us that we’re a very small chance if we can win games of footy.
"It’s been well-written that we haven’t beaten top eight teams and obviously it hasn’t been good enough. We’ve got a game this week against the Panthers and all we can worry about is that."
Austin says the most frustrating thing about Canberra's fall from grace since a stunning run in 2016 has been the unwavering belief the Raiders can beat anyone if they are firing on all cylinders.
The Green Machine hasn't been able to replicate the lofty heights of a preliminary final appearance but their attack is clearly not the problem.
The Raiders sit amongst a trio of top four teams as the second-best attacking side in the competition - one point behind St George Illawarra, one ahead of South Sydney, and two clear of Melbourne.
But Canberra's defence is the fourth-worst in the competition, suggesting the adage "defence wins premierships' is right on the money.
"That’s the frustrating thing, we’re a real shout if we perform the way we know we can against anyone," Austin said.
"Against Melbourne on the weekend we weren’t able to trade sets for long enough periods and you saw what happened by the 80th minute."
NRL ROUND 21
Sunday: Penrith Panthers v Canberra Raiders at Panthers Stadium, 4.10pm. TV: Live on Nine and Fox League.
