The best teams are always the ones rising above adversity, digging themselves out of a hole, and fighting fire with fire.
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Think the competition heavyweights in Melbourne and those representing Sydney's southern and eastern suburbs.
If the Canberra Raiders want to prove they belong in the NRL's top four, star forward John Bateman says the time for a reaction is now.
But they won't do it on their traditional home turf as Canberra prepare to hit the road and take a home game to Wagga Wagga against the Penrith Panthers on Saturday.
Bateman has issued a stern warning to the Green Machine's doubters following their defeat at the hands of a Manly Warringah outfit missing its chief playmaker for the majority - write us off at your peril.
The loss brought down the curtain on Canberra's best start to a season since 2003 but Bateman has no doubts about what his new club can achieve this year - and rest assured they are aiming high.
Now Penrith find themselves standing in the way of a Raiders outfit desperately seeking to bounce back and hold their place in the top four.
"They're struggling a bit and they need to win at the minute, but our goal is to focus on ourselves next week," Bateman said.
"We need to get a win and we need to bounce back from this one, and that's what it's all about. The better teams do that, the better teams dig themselves out of a loss and have a reaction. That's what we need to do.
"It is a blow, losing a game is a blow, you're not going to walk off the field and be happy about it. We all give 100 per cent, but none of us were perfect [against Manly].
"We'll sit down and we will go through video about it. We've got a great team in there, we've had two losses now but don't say we're going to start falling off now. We know what we're about, we know what we can do.
"There'll be quite a few people saying we've lost now but we know what we're about. We're a good team with a good bunch of lads, we had a chat and said we'll get into training on Tuesday and regroup and go again next Saturday."
The Raiders missed an opportunity to move into first on the competition ladder at Brookvale Oval but were forced into an early reshuffle when Jordan Rapana went down with a rib injury.
Bateman shifted from the right edge to the left and into a new position as coach Ricky Stuart looked to cover the gap.
But the English international refuses to look back on that as an excuse given the squad prides itself on depth and versatility, conceding Canberra just weren't quick enough to pull the trigger.
"I suppose when you go into a game and you've got to change what your starting team is... it is a tough one. It's part and parcel of the game," Bateman said.
"You've just got to get on with it, you need to be able to react to that. We probably didn't react as fast as we should have done.
"They'd already done the damage on us, what they needed to I suppose. It was just one of those games. It was just one of those days, it was tough, it was an arm-wrestle game, and they got over the top of us.
"It's part and parcel of it, you're going to win some, you're going to lose some. We've been playing well late, and obviously Manly have played really well to get over us. It is what it is."
NRL ROUND EIGHT
Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Penrith Panthers at McDonalds Park, Wagga Wagga, 3pm.