Canberra star Josh Papalii concedes the Raiders are “falling asleep” near the end of NRL games.

Ricky Stuart’s team are fourth in most points scored in the competition this year but remain winless heading into Saturday night’s meeting with Manly at Lottoland.

It’s the first time since 2009 the Raiders have started a year 0-3.

They haven’t lost their first four games of the season since the 1997 Super League when they recovered to make the preliminary final.

The second-rower says the Raiders’ issues lay solely in the last few minutes of games, having gone down by a combined total of five points in their three defeats.

It has taken Canberra’s’ games lost by six points or less tally up to 11 since the start of 2017.

“We’re in the game until the 75th minute and then just not holding on,” Papalii said on Wednesday.

“There’s positive signs that we can take out of games. We just need to fix our last few minutes.

“We’re just falling asleep and letting teams take advantage of that. It can become a habit but I’m sure the playing group will fix it quickly.”

After some diabolical defending in the first two rounds, the Raiders had an improved effort in the 20-19 loss to the Warriors until a meltdown in the last five minutes.

“The Warriors scored an easy try on the left side early but as the game went on I thought we were pretty comfortable,” Papalii said.

“They had too much ball towards the end but the defence was tight.”