Raiders battle on to the end

byso

First Grader
Manly Daily
ADAM LUCIUS
31aug05

CANBERRA coach Matthew Elliott has refused to give several wounded players an early off-season, choosing a near full strength side for Saturday night's crunch match against Manly at Canberra Stadium.

Influential five-eighth Jason Smith, who has been playing with a broken hand, will play and veteran lock Jason Croker is back after missing last weekend's loss to Parramatta.

The Raiders can't make the finals but are desperate to finish the year off with a win after six straight losses.

A Canberra victory could cost the Sea Eagles a top eight berth.

The Raiders will also have extra motivation to win as they bid farewell to forwards Ian Hindmarsh and Ben Cross.

Hindmarsh leaves for new British Super League club, Les Catalans, in mid-October, while Cross is bound for the Melbourne Storm.

Both players have spent three NRL seasons with the Raiders.

``Matt Elliott spoke to all the players early in the week and we really want to finish with a win,'' Hindmarsh said.

``That's what we're all working together to achieve.

``We want to finish on a positive.''

Remarkably, a week after dropping out of finals contention Canberra can finish with the wooden spoon if they lose heavily and both Souths and Newcastle win.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
24 18 6 333 42
24 18 6 214 42
24 16 8 168 38
24 16 8 124 38
24 14 9 175 35
24 14 10 122 34
24 13 11 -24 32
24 13 11 -137 32
24 12 12 59 30
24 12 12 13 30
24 12 12 4 30
24 11 12 6 29
24 9 15 -111 24
24 9 15 -126 24
24 7 17 -331 20
24 5 19 -199 16
24 4 20 -290 14
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