State of play
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This is undoubtedly the strongest squad the Raiders have had in at least five years, certainly during the Ricky Stuart era. With that comes extra expectation and it's obvious the Green Machine faithful are approaching the season with great optimism.
The Raiders were excused for not making the finals the past two years as Stuart rebuilt the squad and reinvented the culture. The fans were willing to stay patient as they could see real progress, but this is the year when it should reap dividends.
Blake Austin and Aidan Sezer could be one of the best halves combinations in the league and a slimmer Joey Leilua and English international Elliott Whitehead gives one of the NRL's most potent attacking teams even more strike.
Achilles heel
A virtual cut and paste from the previous few years – defence. Only premiers North Queensland and minor premiers the Roosters scored more points than the Raiders last season, yet they still failed to reach the finals.
That basically sums it up in a nutshell and skipper Jarrod Croker has regularly stated if they can improve their edge defence, they should put themselves in a strong position. Their poor home record has also been highly publicised, with their three wins at Canberra Stadium last year the worst return in club history.
They have a chance to put that right early on with matches against a Matt Moylan-less Penrith, an injury- and crisis-ridden Roosters and Newcastle and Gold Coast sides rated early wooden spoon contenders.
Secret weapon
Depth. Four or five years ago most pundits with even a passing interest in the Raiders could pick their best 17 blindfolded. Now it's not so easy, and that will ensure any complacency players may have had over spots in the team has gone out the window.
Stuart showed reputations count for little when he dropped skipper Terry Campese in 2014, and former Test prop David Shillington for the opening rounds last year. If Sezer or Austin get injured, Sam Williams will slot into the halves seamlessly.
Kurt Baptiste or Josh Hodgson go down? Newcastle recruit Adam Clydsdale fills the breach. Jordan Rapana will be unlucky to miss the round one team and there's more quality back-rowers in the squad than you can poke a stick at.
The draw
If last year's form holds up, the Raiders have been gifted arguably the easiest draw in the competition. They begin the year with three of the first four games at home, and a trip to wooden spoon fancy Newcastle. They play the bottom three sides from 2015 – the Knights, Tigers and Titans – twice.
They also only face last year's grand finalists, Brisbane, once, the Roosters once (in round two with several key players missing), play North Queensland at Canberra minus Johnathan Thurston through Origin and don't have to travel to Townsville or Melbourne.
Prediction
All the ingredients are there for the Raiders to make the finals for the first time since 2012. Great draw, great depth, shrewd recruiting and a tight-knit playing squad means, barring an injury crisis, it's finals or bust for the Raiders this year. A strong squad on paper hasn't stopped most pundits from predicting them to miss the eight – but that should only help their cause. Tip: 6th-8th.
