The Raiders must recover mentally and physically to face the Sharks in their semifinal match.
The Canberra Raiders will have to pick up themselves up off the canvas mentally and physically if they want to extend their season by another week when they clash with the in-form Cronulla Sharks in the first NRL semi-final on Saturday evening.
The Raiders thought they had last weekend's qualifying final against the Brisbane Broncos won not once, not twice, but three times.
It always looked the risk for Ricky Stuart and his troops when they requested the Sunday afternoon fixture in the opening week of the finals - that they'd have to turn around and play off six days if they lost.
The worst has happened, but not the worst in the conventional way. 94 minutes of physicality, and the mental burden of thinking they had the game won.