Proud Croker defends Raiders’ NRL effort

Canberra no longer have control of their NRL finals destiny, but skipper Jarrod Croker insists he is proud of his side’s fighting qualities during a frustrating season.

The Raiders need to beat Newcastle at GIO Stadium on Friday night and upset Melbourne in a tough final-round away trip next week, as well as have other results go their way to squeeze into the top eight.

“That period where we lost a couple in a row, a lot of teams would have thrown it in but to the boys’ credit they toughed it out. It’s round 25 and we’re still hanging in by the skin of our teeth,” Croker said on Thursday.

Out to end the Raiders’ hopes is a Knights side in better from than when they stunned the Raiders 34-20 in round 10.

Before Melbourne overpowered them last week, Newcastle had won three in a row for the first time since the start of 2015.

But they’ll travel to Canberra without five-eighth Brock Lamb (knee), Sione Mata’utia (concussion) and Luke Yates (ankle), while the Raiders are unchanged.

Croker admits his side didn’t cope with the Knights’ youthful exuberance when the two sides last met.

“That energy they bring and a lot of young kids that bring enthusiasm, it can be hard to handle sometimes and we didn’t handle it last time we played them up there,” Croker said.

Few people predicted Canberra would miss the finals, but after losing eight games by six points or less they have earned the dreaded “mathematical possibility” tag.

Knights coach Nathan Brown has labelled the Raiders as the competition’s unluckiest team, but Croker doesn’t agree.

“We’ve been in situations where we’ve put ourselves in with a chance to win it and didn’t do it,” he said.

“I wouldn’t call that unlucky.”

Stay up to date with the latest sports news
Follow our social accounts to get exclusive content and all the latest sporting news!