Raiders halfback George Williams may have starred but the biggest cheer was reserved for the pilot of their NRL charter flight who got them home direct to Canberra from Melbourne.

The flight after their 22-6 win over the Storm was set to be diverted to Sydney, with a three-hour bus journey to follow to Canberra as fog closed in on the capital.

That would have seen them arrive home around 5am.

Coach Ricky Stuart wasn’t able to attend the post-match press conference with the Raiders rushed to the airport from AAMI Park to try to bring their flight time forward.

Stuart spoke to journalists from the bus and said they wouldn’t know until they were in the air about their destination.

“It looks as though we might be fogged out in Canberra and have to go to Sydney and bus home,” Stuart said.

“Apparently we won’t know until we are in the air but knowing our luck with travel after some of the scenarios we had last year we will be going to Sydney.

“It will make for a tough week next week if we have to get on a three-hour bus trip after this flight.”

The Raiders managed to avoid such a scenario with their flight landing in Canberra at 12.20am with a club spokesman saying the pilot got a “massive cheer”.

Last year the Raiders faced some serious travel challenges.

Before their round 15 match against Parramatta in Darwin, their 7.45am flight was initially delayed by fog and they were put on a 3.30pm flight to Melbourne.

After a three-hour lay over they finally arrived in the Northern Territory at midnight -17 hours after they set off.

A similar thing happened last May when they flew to Brisbane for Magic Round – also via Melbourne after mechanical trouble disrupted their schedule.