In a case of friendly fire, the Canberra Raiders will turn to the Queensland Maroons' State of Origin base to help end their Brisbane hoodoo.
The Raiders will fly up to Sanctuary Cove on Tuesday for a four-day camp ahead of their season-defining clash against the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium next Saturday.
Suncorp hasn't been a happy hunting ground for the Green Machine, who have only beaten the Broncos once there since 2004.
Can the Raiders' Gold Coast camp help end their Broncos hoodoo? The last time they beat them at Suncorp Stadium was in 2010.
Photo: AAP
That win came during their charge to the 2010 NRL finals.
With their season on the line, the Raiders will look to emulate that run when they won eight of their last nine games to sneak into the eight.
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Canberra are two wins behind eighth-placed Brisbane and need the two points to keep their finals hopes alive.
The Gold Coast camp is part of Raiders coach Ricky Stuart's search for a high-performance edge as he looks to break the Broncos hoodoo.
In the past the Raiders have worn beanies and jumpers at training to help acclimatise to the Queensland heat, turned on sprinklers and dunked balls in water to help with the humidity and have chartered flights back from Sydney to help cope with short turnarounds to find a winning edge.
Raiders veteran Sia Soliola said they would look to continue the momentum from their 48-12 flogging of Wests Tigers last week.
"We know how tough it is up there in Brisbane. We're going to have to pack our overalls and get up there and try and get that win," he said.
"It'll be the same mentality we have every week, but like in North Queensland. It's been a while since the Raiders have had a good outcome up there and had a win.
"That's on our minds – just getting that really, really good performance in and knuckling down.
"We need to get the result because we know our season's on the line. All the teams that we're playing, they're sitting above us … and we can't afford to drop any more games."
The Raiders have had a few days off during the State of Origin bye weekend to refresh before heading north.
They're close to finalising a two-year contract extension for prop Dunamis Lui, but his form since returning from a knee reconstruction has caught the eye of at least one Sydney club.
Fairfax Media believes interest is building in Lui, who has started the last three games after establishing himself in the Raiders 17 this year.
He's third in the Raiders forwards for run metres and has only made one error in 14 games.
Off-contract five-eighth Blake Austin's future's still up in the air, with no offer currently on the table from the Raiders.
He's been shopped to the Melbourne Storm, but Fairfax Media believes it's very unlikely they'll take up the offer.
Austin's also been linked with Parramatta and English Super League club Leeds.
He scored a try in the Raiders' emphatic win over his former club Wests last weekend.
Canberra star hooker Josh Hodgson starred in the victory and while he said they were buoyed by the result, it was too early to say the Raiders were back.
"That's one of them where we don't want to get carried away, 'Oh we're back'," he said.
"It's always going to be a work in progress, there's always going to be things we need to work better on and things we need to improve on. It's just about being consistent.
"There's only been twice this year when we've been blown out of the water. We're always in games, it's just them tight periods.
"There was bit of a stage of that [Tigers game] where it was close for awhile and we stuck to that game plan really well.
"That's what got us the big victory in the end, not the fancy plays and flicking out the back. I think that's a good learning curve.
"Not only for me and the halves and Jack [Wighton] out the back being prominent people in the team, but us as a whole."
David Polkinghorne covers the Canberra Raiders, local rugby league, Canberra Cavalry, racing and cycling, along with every other sport, for The Canberra Times.
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