Canberra Raiders five-eighth Blake Austin wants to use the club's challenging end to the season to prove they're a top-four calibre team.
And he believes he's finally found the right mix with halves partner Aidan Sezer as both men eye off the first finals campaign of their careers.
Canberra surged to fourth with a dramatic golden-point win over New Zealand Warriors on Saturday. It's the first time they have been so high on the table 20 rounds into a season since 2003.
But the jury remains out whether one of the league's best attacking teams has the consistency and mental edge to challenge the heavyweights in September.
They have a great chance to prove the doubters wrong when they face top two sides Cronulla (away) and Melbourne (home) after next week's trip to South Sydney.
In recent weeks Austin has looked more comfortable when Sezer has moved to the organising role around the ruck, allowing his dangerous running game to flourish in more space.
It has them better equipped than ever to give the Storm and Sharks some headaches.
"We've created momentum and we need to keep winning," Austin said after Canberra's seventh win in their last eight games.
"Our biggest tests are going to come in the next three or four weeks, we're excited to get better.
"We [halves] are definitely more comfortable. The way we played in the first half the unforced errors were a bit too high, but as halves I thought we did alright.
"It [top four] means nothing. Our goal is to play finals footy and that's all we want to do, we'll get to test ourselves in the next few weeks."
The Raiders played grinding, finals-like football for 70 minutes before they let the Warriors back into the game by conceding three quick tries.
The defence in the first half when starved of possession and territory effectively won the game.
"I thought we defended the house down and showed up for each other," Austin said.
"We put the foot down in the second half, kicked away a bit and probably got a bit comfortable.
"I'm just glad we're not here now kicking stone. We're still a bit disappointed, but we'll take the two points and move on."
Sezer believes his game management late in the encounter played a role in the Warriors fightback.
"It's a bit of execution in the back end, like [failing to] kick into touch was a big letdown there and I could have really put the game away," he said.
"There isn't much detail to it [halves adjustment]. We're just getting the runs on the board a bit more and complementing Austo's game.
"He's a dangerous runner of the ball and it's good to see him cutting loose outside me."
Fatigue after the early defensive workload was a factor in the late fade-out, but Raiders hooker Josh Hodgson believes mental lapses are more to blame.
"We should have seen that out a lot better. The last 10 minutes wasn't good enough for us and we need to fix that up," Hodgson said.
"In the back-end of games we start thinking so much about keeping them out, we try too hard and go away from our systems rather than staying calm.
"I think it's more a mental thing than a fatigue thing."
NRL ROUND 21
Sunday: South Sydney Rabbitohs v Canberra Raiders at ANZ Stadium, 2pm. TV: Live on Fox Sports 1.
