The Raiders aren't the only ones anxious about the finals this weekend, with preparations already under way at Rydges Eagle Hawk Resort, the Green Machine's home away from home for the past three local matches.
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The team will be staying the night before Sunday's bout against Cronulla, a home game practice since the players beat Brisbane last month.
Making sure the team's favourite chicken pasta is on the specially designed menu is one of the small touches put in place to make the team feel at home, along with the personalised cards resort sales manager Alyssa Dominioni leaves in each room. ''They're just little notes saying welcome, all the best for the game,'' she said. ''It's very exciting, we love having them here.''
While the typical guests at Eagle Hawk vary from wedding parties to politicians, none has been as exciting for Ms Dominioni, who has been a Raiders fan since moving to Canberra three years ago.
Ms Dominioni and colleague Sally Beattie are among the 23,000 ticket holders who have already secured a seat at Sunday's game.
About 1500 tickets remain in the Canberra Stadium inner bowl, with standing room tickets to go on sale once they've been snapped up.
Staying a few kilometres from the players' own homes is a tactic that helped the Roosters win a premiership in 2002, and legendary fullback Brett Mullins hopes it will help the Raiders follow suit.
Desperate to solve his side's horror form at home this year, Raiders coach David Furner took his team down the Federal Highway on the eve of its round 22 victory over Brisbane at Canberra Stadium. The tactic again paid off for the Raiders when they bunkered down there before subsequent home wins over the Roosters and Canterbury.
Mullins played his final season at Bondi in 2002 under Ricky Stuart, and has a premiership medal which proves it's more than a gimmick.
''We stayed around the corner for home games, from memory we did it for most of the back end of the year,'' Mullins said yesterday.
''I think so [it helped] bring the guys together, we'd hang out in each other's rooms, have a meal together or be up on the roof passing a footy. It worked for Ricky at the Roosters, so hopefully it works just as well for Dave.''
Canberra were rated a $17 chance to make the top eight just five weeks ago.
Since then, they won five straight matches to become one of the NRL's finals dark horses.
