The NRL's a funny competition.
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When the competition resumed and the Raiders took out Melbourne at AAMI Park, pundits were labelling Ricky's green machine as the out-and-out premiership favourites.
Fast forward five weeks and Jack Wighton's men are anything but competition favourites after dropping three of their last five matches.
But, what's important is that Canberra is comfortably entrenched in the top eight - for now - and are a good shot to score their fourth consecutive win over the Storm when they host them at GIO Stadium at 7pm on Saturday evening.
The clash will be Canberra's second home game since the resumption of play as they held off a fast-finishing Dragons' side for a 22-16 win in round eight.
The task will be a much taller one this time around and fill-in centre Michael Oldfield says the side's taken a lot of confidence from the recent mutual meetings.
"We've built a little bit of a battle against Melbourne. We've had a lot of tough games and had the win over them of late," Oldfield said.
Melbourne has only dropped the one game (to Penrith) since the round three loss to Canberra and Raiders fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad is wary of their recent form.
"We understand we got them a little underdone," Nicoll-Klokstad said. "They have really built on their game since then and are playing really good footy.
"They're very dangerous, they have been a top-four side for a long time."
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