From the nine losses the Raiders suffered over the opening 15 rounds, the 2019 grand finalists and 2020 preliminary finalists coughed up a half-time lead on five occasions. In perhaps the Raiders' most lamentable capitulation, they took a 16-0 buffer into half-time against the Knights in Wagga Wagga but were overrun in a 24-16 defeat.<\/p>\n
Sterling has written off Canberra's hopes of playing finals footy despite the fact they're placed 10th on the ladder and are only one win short of the seventh-placed Dragons and eighth-placed Sharks.<\/p>\n
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"It's taken a long time but I've finally got the pen out in regard to Canberra playing finals. They gave me hope last week but this was a game they had to win (against the Dragons)," Sterling said on Wide World of Sports' Sterlo's Wrap<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n "I keep pointing out that these are four-point games. When you are playing teams you are going to be contending with for sixth, seventh, eighth position, then you've got to win them. The two points that you lose and they pick up – that makes it very difficult. There are so many teams in that position and I'm just not seeing it from the Canberra Raiders … I don't think they play finals now."<\/p>\n Canberra were an indisputable chance of clinching their first premiership since 1994 when Sterling predicted them to qualify for the 2021 grand final on the eve of the season.<\/p>\n In Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, Jack Wighton, George Williams<\/a>, Josh Hodgson and Tom Starling they laid claim to a spine capable of inflicting searing damage. And the rest of their 30-man squad boasts top-class talent like Josh Papalii<\/a>, Jarrod Croker, Jordan Rapana and Elliott Whitehead.<\/p>\n To the Raiders' detriment, many of those key cogs have missed games due to injury, suspension or, in Williams' case, an ugly return to England.<\/p>\n It was also a common theory that the quickened game, on the back of another six-again rule change, would suit the Raiders' fast and adventurous brand of footy to a tee.<\/p>\n But Canberra have failed to fire in a season packed with soaring scorelines.<\/p>\n "I had them in the grand final, then I had them playing finals, but I'm running out of steam with them," Sterling said.<\/p>\n "They can't keep leading and blowing what should be match-winning leads when you've got the talent in their roster. I don't think they'll be there."<\/p>\n The surge of the Sharks under interim head coach Josh Hannay has left a significant impression on Sterling – and the dual Dally M medallist sees Cronulla as a major hindrance to Canberra's push for the finals.<\/p>\n While veteran playmaker Shaun Johnson is unwanted at Cronulla beyond 2021, the 32-Test New Zealand weapon is combining with Matt Moylan, Will Kennedy, Ronaldo Mulitalo and Blayke Brailey in a dangerous attacking package.<\/p>\n "How am I going to say (the Raiders are) going to finish in front of the Sharks, who have found something? They've won four in a row and that's not easy to do in this competition," Sterling said.<\/p>\n "Maybe it'll be the Dragons who make the run."<\/p>\n The Raiders are next due to face the Titans at Canberra Stadium when they return from this week's bye.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Raiders' chronic trend of blowing what should be match-winning leads has led to legendary Eels halfback Peter Sterling finally binning the finals chances of […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89596"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89598,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89596\/revisions\/89598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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