Overachievers. Surprise packets. Dark horses.
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Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has heard it all before. Ask the man himself and not one of those tags is truly fitting.
Confident a 25-year wait can be put behind the club he holds so dear, confident his side could bring the Provan-Summons Trophy back to Canberra for the first time since he was donning the No. 7 jumper.
Confident he could knock off his former premiership-winning teammate Craig Bellamy, if his Storm outfit was to be that opposition.
Much like they will be this week - albeit in a regular season game - when the two sides collide in Melbourne on Saturday.
Canberra walk into it battle-hardened following an encounter with the second-placed Sydney Roosters during which they proved they could match it with the defending premiers.
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They would run out of time in search of victory, but Canberra still enter the final month of the regular season entrenched in the top four, right where they belong.
Where in the past they have scrambled to force their way into finals contention or ridden a wave of momentum into September that turned heads across the league, this year is different.
Stuart knows it. Scores of Canberrans buying their tickets for a ride on the bandwagon rolling downhill know it too.
"We didn't need that game [against the Roosters] to go play Melbourne. We lost tonight but I've been very happy with the past performances," Stuart said.
"Our worst performance over the past six weeks has been our second half against [Parramatta]. We certainly don't need that game going into Melbourne.
"What that game does for us is it just makes us extremely battle-hardened because it's close to semi-final intensity.
"If we had got different calls on some things, it might have been a bit different, but we didn't.
"It was a good education for a team moving into a really important part of the season."
That Parramatta game is an outlier. It was, until Sunday, their only defeat since May.
The Raiders boast the second best defensive outfit in the competition having conceded 300 points in 20 matches - Melbourne (248 points conceded) boast the only code more difficult to crack.
Canberra's attack (453 points for) is bettered only by the two sides above them on the ladder. Who else but the Storm (529) lead the pack, with the Roosters (519) nipping at their heels.
Melbourne are paying a mere $3 to win the competition. Their rivals from Sydney's east are considered the most likely at $2.88 as they look to become the first club to claim back-to-back premierships in the NRL era.
But the grand final does not come tomorrow, nor does it come this weekend.
What lies ahead for the Green Machine is a chance to show those lasting critics they can be there on that first Sunday in October.
Put their hopes of staying in touch with the competition's top two in a bid to host a qualifying final aside and the Raiders still have plenty to play for.
Canberra five-eighth Jack Wighton will play his 150th NRL game when the Raiders take on the rugby league powerhouse based a stone's throw from Australian sport's mecca.
And everyone can be sure about this milestone - because they certainly weren't when Wighton brought up his ton.
The Raiders star had to work overtime to convince his mum he was to play his 100th game back in April of 2017.
Confusion was rife among the Wighton household after many unofficial websites missed one of his games from the 2015 season.
It left his mum thinking his 100th would come the following week - of that she was adamant.
But there is no doubting this milestone, and the Green Machine will be determined to rise to the challenge having fallen short in captain Jarrod Croker's 250th against the Roosters.
They could soon be at full strength as Joey Leilua eyes a return to the NRL following neck surgery even those at Raiders headquarters believed would be season ending.
He was close to playing against the Roosters after being named in the 21-man squad for the first time following a three-month layoff.
And there would be little reason to keep him out for much longer. If Leilua is ready, it is time for Stuart to unleash the beast.
Even Jordan Rapana says Leilua is not often one to be the hardest worker in the room - but the fact he is available a month out from the finals shows just how desperate he is to be on the park.
He looms as the final piece of the puzzle for a Raiders outfit that managed to find the light at the end of the tunnel throughout an injury crisis that may have derailed a lesser team.
But the Raiders of today are far more than the overachievers those up north may still perceive them to be. For a time "dark horse" seemed fitting.
But not now.