Welcome to the Hotel Canberra Raiders. Such a lovely place.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It's also proving an effective weapon in battling the massive travel load the Raiders have had this season, being forced to travel more than any other team in the NRL.
The Queensland government has approved their request to make a stopover in a Brisbane hotel ahead of their preliminary final against the Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium on Friday.
It worked to great effect before their impressive semi-final victory over the Sydney Roosters at the SCG last week.
They looked into doing it earlier in the season and even got to the point of having organised the logistics with a hotel in Campbelltown - only for the second wave of the coronavirus to kick off in the area.
Raiders lock Joe Tapine said it allowed them to break up the travel and get into a more normal match-day routine.
Instead of spending four hours at the stadium - with half of that sitting in a function area - they were able to get there two hours before kick off as usual.
"It felt like my preparation was spot on. They shut down part of the hotel for us ... we had a nap," Tapine said.
"Had my roomie Charnze [Nicoll-Klokstad] back. I felt like that was a good way to go into the game.
"We had to walk up a different stairwell where people can't access and stuff like that. Keep it pretty tight."
MORE RAIDERS NEWS
The Raiders have spent in excess of 40 hours on the road since the COVID-19 lockdown in March, including eight trips to Sydney - two for so-called home games - one to Wollongong, one to Melbourne, one to Townsville, once to the Gold Coast and now to Brisbane.
All of those have been up and back on game day, rather the the more usual pre-coronavirus day-before.
Tapine said while it had been tough early in the season, they would reap the rewards in the future.
"Especially at the start of the year I was not keen on it - all this travel - but it kind of grew on us," he said.
"It helped us think, 'If we're travelling like this, imagine what we'll do when don't have to do all this travel.'
"So I think it will help us in the future - especially next year - when everything starts to relax."
NRL PRELIMINARY FINAL
Friday: Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm at Suncorp Stadium, 7.50pm.