The hard-as-nails Canberra Raider feels the NRL team's ability to beat the Canterbury Bulldogs despite missing a raft of stars will help the club's long-term constitution.

The only thing missing from Bateman's return from a broken head was a cape - scoring a try and getting through a mountain of work in an 80-minute performance fresh off a plane from England.

His try was a cracker. Double soccer. Gut-busting sprint to blow Raiders flyer Bailey Simonsson away.

He'd paid good money to fly back to play the Bulldogs. No way the young whipper snapper's stealing his four points.

Bateman missed just four weeks due to the fractured eye socket he suffered against the Penrith Panthers and has been a key reason behind the Green Machine's return to the pointy end of the NRL ladder.

But the 25-year-old England international was caught short following the pre-game warm-up, vomiting on the field before the game.

Rather than a sign he'd lost fitness while recovering from surgery, it's simply part of his pre-game routine.

It could even be a Bradford thing, with fellow Pom Elliott Whitehead also partial to a warm-up barf.

"I do it every week to be fair. I do it normally in the toilets, with Elliott normally beside me," Bateman laughed.

"It's a nervous-excitement thing. Or a Bradford thing, you could call it that."

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The Raiders were without six stars through a combination of injury and State of Origin.

While they should get the latter back to face Wests Tigers on Friday, they look set to lose Hudson Young (suspension) and Corey Horsburgh (elbow) to again deplete their stocks.

But Bateman said winning under adversity was massive.

"Any win can breed confidence can't it, especially with the numbers that we're down at the moment - a couple of blokes playing Origin, which is fantastic for the club," he said.

"The lads that came in did really good. It does breed confidence. They're the wins that you remember in the season. They're the wins that add up for you and take you to the top eight or top four."

NRL ROUND 13

Friday: Canberra Raiders v Wests Tigers at Parramatta Stadium, 7.55pm.