Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has drawn a line in the sand in the hope ribs and schnitzels can help the Green Machine rise above the controversy that left their season on life support.
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The week that was warranted a beer but the Raiders were content with soft drinks as Stuart took the group for a team pub lunch in a bid to pick up the pieces of their stuttering NRL campaign.
The Green Machine was all smiles at The Duxton on Monday afternoon, a far cry from the shattered faces that saw their season dealt a monumental blow in controversial fashion last week.
It is the perfect tonic for a Raiders side preparing to face the ladder-leading, premiership-defending Melbourne Storm on their home turf on Saturday night.
Stuart says the bus trip home from Canberra's loss in Cronulla was the quietest he has ever been on, which is saying something considering he played 243 first grade games and has coached 378.
But Stuart's decision to take the weekend off and reconvene over lunch is one halfback Sam Williams hopes will help them rebound ahead of a clash with the Storm.
"Obviously you put a lot of work into a lot of these games and to not come away with the result, it’s tough to take," Williams said.
"We’re a professional outfit and we’ve got to be mentally strong enough to bounce back. We came back in here [on Monday] morning with smiles on our faces and try to make sure we’re as professional as we can be throughout the week to get ready for the game."
It is a game Williams perhaps thought he would never play in - less than two years he stood emotionally on the sidelines as Canberra bowed out in the preliminary final at the hands of the Storm in Melbourne.
It was the Cooma junior's final season in lime green before he was due to take an opportunity with Wakefield Trinity in the Super League.
His final season until the Green Machine came calling again.
"That night I probably thought it may well have been my last night with the Raiders," Williams said.
"It was a tough loss for the whole group to take so now to have the opportunity to wear the jersey and represent the Raiders once again down there in a tough environment, they’re a good side and it’s a tough place to play so it’s a challenge I’m really excited about.
"I enjoy every week playing for the Raiders and hopefully this time we enjoy going down there and getting the result."
Canberra are now in the unenviable position of having to win all six of their remaining games and relying on other favourable results to have any chance of playing finals football.
The Raiders sit three wins outside the top eight in 10th spot on the table and will be forced to overcome one of the toughest runs home in the entire competition.
All six of their upcoming opponents are above the Raiders on the ladder, which has left back-rower Elliott Whitehead with one simple objective.
"We’re going to have to go down to Melbourne and get the win. We’ve got six games left now and we need to win all of them and hopefully some results go our way," Whitehead said.
"We’ll be concentrating on what Melbourne do and hopefully we can go down there and get the two points we desperately need.
"It was disappointing to lose on the weekend and we’re in a situation now where we have to win all these games and depend on some other results to go our way.
"We know what we have to do and we’ll just be concentrating on doing that."
NRL ROUND 20
Saturday: Melbourne Storm v Canberra Raiders at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, 7.35pm. TV: Live on Fox League.
