The Raiders have all the talent and ability in the world, now they just need to do the hard work

Video preview: THE Canberra Raiders have managed their obvious talent awfully over the past couple of seasons.

THE Canberra Raiders have managed their obvious talent awfully over the past couple of seasons.

I watched the core of this team beat Brisbane in the 2008 Toyota Cup grand final. Their talent and enthusiasm was something to behold.

It was exciting. The Raiders of the early to mid-1990s were one of the greatest rugby league teams of the modern era. But somewhere they lost their way, the Brumbies became the team of choice in the capital, and the Raiders suffered too many years of underachievement.

Worse than that, it became the club no player wanted to sign with and some influential figures publicly aired concerns about the Raiders' future.

But in 2008, as the likes of Josh Dugan, Shaun Fensom and Jarrod Croker completed their victory lap with the Toyota Cup, I turned to my co-commentator, Raiders legend Laurie Daley, and said: "These boys will win an NRL title within five years."

In 2009, "these boys" started to appear in the first grade side.

Dragons legend and former referees boss Robert Finch, who was a lower grade coach at the Newcastle Knights, used to urge all young players to be patient when first arriving in the top grade. "Don't get carried away and don't expect too much of yourself," he'd say. "You're not really an NRL player until you've played 50 first grade games."

How true. For the next 18 months the Raiders, with a new young side and the young Dave Furner in charge, struggled to have any real impact on the competition. But then suddenly: BANG!

With about one-third of the 2010 season remaining, the rookies became first graders. They went from trying to hold their own to dominating.

The energy and confidence that youngsters like Dugan and Croker brought inspired others such as Terry Campese, who started a red-hot run of form.

They entered the finals full of confidence and in week two ran into the star-studded West Tigers, to whom they lost 26-24, but were desperately unlucky.

In a pivotal moment, they lost Campese to a knee injury that continues to plague him, but also missed a couple of golden opportunities to win.

Opposition teams and coaches weren't unhappy to see the Raiders eliminated: this young, fearless team had caused enough damage. This team's future was bright.

But nothing weakens a young squad's focus and resolve like positive press. And for the following five months, without a football being kicked or a tackle being made, the young Canberra players were saturated by it.

Josh Dugan

They were labelled the most exciting team in the competition, the "razzle-dazzle Raiders". Everyone had them in their top four. Some even picked them to win last year's title.

But the strangest thing happened. Six wins, 18 losses, second last in the comp. Only for-and-against saved them from the wooden spoon.

What went wrong? Sure, there were injuries but blaming that alone would be missing the point. In 2010, the Raiders' late-season run was built on hard work, enthusiasm and a willingness to fight through the end-to-end, set-by-set arm wrestle that defines finals football.

In the lead-up to last season, the Raiders started to trust their talent too much. They believed the hype.

Author Stephen King was once asked by a young aspiring writer about talent. King replied: "Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented from the successful is a lot of hard work."

Many of these Canberra players were compared to the club's boom rookies of the late 1980s. It wasn't a bad batch: Daley, Bradley Clyde, Ricky Stuart and Glenn Lazarus.

The lesson here is that these four men took responsibility for their great talent. But we are still waiting for the class of 2008 to do the same.

That's what makes this current run of form from the Raiders so interesting. Are they about to become the side we all thought they would be two years ago?

The similarities between season 2010 and now are unmistakable. A season going nowhere and then, out of the blue, an explosion of form.

Young men came of age in 2010 and that turned their season around. This year, you can't ignore the fact that the moment Stuart confirmed he was headed for Parramatta and not Canberra, as first thought, the Raiders players suddenly found the desire to jump through hoops for current coach Furner.

It is easy to believe that Furner was a convenient excuse for underperforming players, and now with that excuse removed, the onus has gone back on to the players to prove their worth to the man who carries the clipboard and controls their careers.

It has been a tough couple of years for Furner. For the past 18 months his career has been on a knife's edge and six weeks ago it appeared his time was up. But the adversity seems to have brought the best out in him as a coach.

I played with Furner at Wigan in the UK Super League. He is without doubt one of the best footballers I've ever played alongside. Strong, fast and skilful.

But his most outstanding attribute was his football intelligence. For example, you could come up with a new play. And whereas with others you would be trying to find a combination - practising and practising over the course of a couple of training sessions - with Furner you only had to explain it, do it once and it was ready for game execution.

For a ball player like me who had lost his legs - and, let's face it, I wasn't that fast in the first place - he was a dream to play alongside.

I wasn't surprised to see Dave go into coaching but it has been a tough road presiding over this talented, but seemingly troubled, group of players.

Still, it seems the football gods have smiled on them. For all their inconsistencies this year, results have gone their way. The Titans and Knights collapsed, the Broncos have suffered a crisis in confidence, while the Tigers have deteriorated badly.

The Raiders needed a lot of things to go their way - and they have. They belted a red-hot Bulldogs looking for 13 wins on the trot last week, and now all they need to do to grab a finals berth - and possibly sixth spot - is beat the New Zealand Warriors.

This is where we find out if the Raiders have learned their lesson from 2010. The Warriors have put their cues in the rack. The most vital thing Canberra must pack in their kit bags for the trip to Auckland is intensity and attitude.

An attitude that they will finally take responsibility for their talents. It's a game that the Raiders should win easily. For that reason, Canberra fans must be holding their breath.