NRL: Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart chokes up over 'strange' home game finale against Manly Sea Eagles

Ahead of their captain's run on Friday, Stuart choked on his words when asked how it felt to be matching Tim Sheens' 219-game record as coach of the Green Machine.

"It does feel strange," Stuart said. "Tim was a great role model, mentor and a great mate."

The record adds more meaning to the already grand occasion for Stuart in the final regular season home game of the year, where Josh Hodgson, Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Ryan Sutton, and Adam Elliott will be recognised post-game before they depart to other clubs next year.

Englishman Harry Rushton and retired Raider Sam Williams won't be present but will also be celebrated in the ceremony.

The Raiders will be hoping there will be a jovial mood for the farewell presentation at Canberra Stadium. As they well know, Manly are a team they have struggled against in the past, losing eight of their last 10 matches.

And breaking that hoodoo on Saturday has never been so important with two wins needed from their last two games to make the finals.

After a season where they copped "bad luck in spades", Stuart was buoyed by Parramatta's timely thrashing of the Broncos on Thursday night, which put Canberra ahead on points differential, meaning a win would see the Raiders overtake Brisbane in eighth position on the NRL ladder.

"I was never any good at maths," Stuart joked, downplaying the significance of the points difference ahead of the Sea Eagles clash.

"Manly are a bogey team for us. I don't care if Des [Hasler] is playing - they're a bogey team and they'll be a very tough opponent."

Manly come to Canberra in a vulnerable state just as hungry for a win.

Their injury-hit squad is riding a five-game losing streak, and dealing with the additional drama of the pride jersey boycott which appears to have caused fractures within the team, in addition to hooker Manase Fainu being found guilty of a stabbing attack and accusations of gang sign try celebrations by Haumole Olakau'atu.

Stuart is confident his team won't get ahead of themselves though, and is pushing them to focus on putting in a complete performance - something which has alluded them through the season.

"We have to get to a consistent standard of play and not [the first half] 40 minutes like last week," he said.

"We're in this position because of our resilience. We've handled some very tough periods of playing games, decisions, COVID, and injuries.

"I know it's a buzz word [resilience] - it's a beautiful word - but they're tough buggers."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: