They incorrectly activated Xavier Savage, giving the 19-year-old back his NRL debut, in the loss to St George Illawarra on the weekend.

NRL head of football Graham Annesley hinted the Raiders would've lost the two premiership points if they had've held on to beat the Dragons anyway.

It's believed they will be fined $5000 for the breach, which saw Savage on the field for 12 minutes before the mistake was realised and they brought him off.

They were quick to take the blame for the incident, with Raiders coach Ricky Stuart putting his hand up straight after the game.

He'd mistakenly thought you could use the 18^th man if you lost a player to foul play given Dragons second-rower Jack Bird had been put on report.

But Bird needed to have been either sent off or sin binned for Savage to have been eligible to come on.

It's unlikely the Raiders will appeal the sanction given chief executive Don Furner told The Canberra Times they would "co-operate with the NRL and accept any ruling".

The fine comes as the Raiders players were advised not to travel anywhere near Sydney during their weekend off as the Harbour City's coronavirus outbreak continued to spread.

Furner said last season had prepared the Green Machine to be ready for whatever protocols were put in place over the coming weeks - having had the full dress rehearsal last season.

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

While he felt in the current climate their clash against the Gold Coast at Canberra Stadium Saturday week would be largely unaffected, he said they already had the contingencies in place and could change plans quickly.

If the Sydney outbreak continued, then they were prepared for any eventuality for their Manly Sea Eagles game - scheduled for Brookvale in a fortnight.

That included flying in and out on game day or even having the game moved to a different venue.

"The only thing that could change for us is if, for example, there's a complete lockdown and anyone that was in Wollongong in the last 14 days has to quarantine," Furner said.

"But all we had to do was fill out the ACT government app, which we've all done, to register that we were there.

"Unless that happens we should be right for the Titans game because that's not an area that's blocked for us.

"We're on a watching brief [for Brookvale] ... we've done it before, we'll do it again.

"If it has to be a fly-in, fly-out we're ready to go. We know what to do. We've got the protocols in place. There's no use speculating or booking anything - we'll react when we have to."

Sydney-based NRL players have gone into level three Apollo restrictions, which means they're only allowed to go to and from work and do essential food shopping - but apart from that they're confined to their homes.

At this stage, the NSW and ACT government restrictions mean anyone living in Sydney won't be allowed to travel to watch the Raiders-Titans game, although those restrictions were only originally put in place until Wednesday - three days before the Titans game.

The NRL confirmed anyone affected would get a full refund for any tickets already purchased.