The camp was shaken when Tapine's wife, Kirsten, slammed coach Ricky Stuart on Instagram in May<\/a>, saying his decision to repeatedly leave him on the bench for so long was "killing" the team.<\/p>\n Shortly after, Hodgson stepped down as co-captain<\/a> amid the Raiders' horrible opening half of the season, which has seen the men in green muster only five wins from 14 games to be sitting 10th on the ladder.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The star hooker's decision to quit the captaincy was followed by the explosive exit of English halfback Williams<\/a>, who in May had an ugly breakup with the club amid a heavy dose of homesickness.<\/p>\n And troublesome centre Scott then gave Raiders officials another drama to deal with when he was allegedly involved in a nightclub brawl just days after Williams' departure, which led Canberra to stand down the former Melbourne livewire<\/a>.<\/p>\n But despite the grim series of events, Rapana insists the Raiders camp is united.<\/p>\n "Obviously the media is going to say what they think is going on here, but I know we still have a tight bunch of boys here," Rapana said.<\/p>\n "We're such a tight group of mates here regardless of what's been going on, and although what we're doing on the field isn't showing it, we still have a strong belief here that we can win a comp."<\/p>\n The Raiders have travelled a storied journey since the 2013 return of favourite son Stuart, who's overseen a cultural overhaul and led the club to a grand final and multiple finals series.<\/p>\n The camp has been considerably cleaner since the departures of Josh Dugan, Blake Ferguson and Sandor Earl, who all exited the club just before Stuart's switch from the Eels to the Raiders.<\/p>\n And Stuart has made an enormous effort to connect the Raiders of today with the club's past players, including Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley, Brad Clyde, Gary Belcher and Gary Coyne. The legendary Raiders halfback has even got his players to chew the fat with the club's old boys on the phone, while he's invited many of them to training and games.<\/p>\n "We're very fortunate to have what we have here and the culture is built by Sticky," Rapana said.<\/p>\n "Apart from George and Curtis gone this year we have a similar squad to what we've had for five or six years. We lost John Bateman this year … but the majority of the players we've got in the squad have been around for quite some time. That's credit to Sticky and our leadership group and the culture we've built here."<\/p>\n The Raiders will again try to ignite their 2021 campaign when Rapana's 150th NRL game doubles as halfback Sam Williams' 100th match this afternoon.<\/p>\n Eels icon Peter Sterling was among the many experts who tipped the Raiders to make a return to the grand final this season, and while Sterling has since lost hope in Canberra even making the top eight<\/a>, Rapana says there's still a strong belief that they can recover to win the club's fourth premiership.<\/p>\n "We're still confident that we have the team to still win a comp," Rapana said.<\/p>\n "It's only halfway through the season, and as bad as our season has started, we're just one win outside of the top eight, so we're fortunate in that aspect.<\/p>\n "We just need to start winning games."<\/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<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
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