The Raiders are preparing for the biggest home game in the club's history - a preliminary final against the South Sydney Rabbitohs at Canberra Stadium on Friday night.

They're just one win away from the Green Machine's first grand final appearance since 1995.

But NRL football boss Graham Annesley put the spotlight on the Raiders after their gutsy 12-10 win over the Melbourne Storm in the qualifying final.

Annesley said one of two Raiders players - Elliott Whitehead or Jarrod Croker - should have been sent to the sin bin for professional fouls.

It's led to a spate of 10-minute rests for foul play, most notably Manly lock Jake Trbojevic for a shirt tug on Souths centre Dane Gagai.

Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler blasted the decision, saying they'd been "dudded" in their semi-final loss.

Stuart was confident the Raiders players knew how important it was to be disciplined against the Rabbitohs.

"They're smart enough. They understand it's very important in any game of football, let alone a big match, to be really disciplined," he said on Monday.

"I'm sure the weekend's been a learning curve for everybody."

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Stuart felt for Trbojevic, who was ruled to have denied the Rabbitohs a try-scoring opportunity by grabbing onto Gagai - who had an unmarked Adam Reynolds in support.

"You don't want to put that pressure on your teammates," Stuart said.

"There's certain reactions like the Trbojevic incident, it's a muscle memory thing, it's a reaction, and it's an unfortunate one.

"But then there's others that are a choice and they're the ones that really hurt your teammates."

Stuart confirmed outside back Nick Cotric (nose) would play and said he would make a final call on his team to face Souths on Tuesday.

He has a number of selection decisions, including whether Cotric or Bailey Simonsson start on the left wing and whether Ryan Sutton or Emre Guler get a spot on the bench.

Stuart opted for Guler in the qualifying final win over the Storm.

"We'll know tomorrow. I've got to sit down and talk to the playing group today," he said.

"We've got a session on so we'll have everyone on deck training and we'll work that out tomorrow."

NRL PRELIMINARY FINAL

Friday: Canberra Raiders v South Sydney at Canberra Stadium, 7.50pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.