Saturday, Canberra Stadium, 5.30pm
Referee: Tony De Las Heras

The Raiders are on a roll in terms of their on-field results at the moment, with four wins from their last six games. It has taken top-three teams Cronulla and Melbourne to beat them during that time and in their last two games they have registered wins over top-eight teams St George Illawarra and Sydney Roosters. But they have hit a big off-field hurdle this week with the drama involving their star halfback, Todd Carney, and sometime first-grader Bronx Goodwin. The pair have been stood down indefinitely following their involvement in late-night, alcohol-fuelled incidents after the win over the Roosters and the absence of Carney obviously has a considerably negative effect on their chances of winning this game. In a way it evens things up a lot, since the Titans have been forced to get along without their injured halfback, Scott Prince, recently and will again be without him here.

Gold Coast will see this as a game which, if they are extremely committed and don't miss too many tackles, they can take down to the wire. The Raiders will look to five-eighth Terry Campese to accept more responsibility in attack with Carney out. Canberra still look the likely winners at home, but this should be a genuine contest.

RAIDERS: David Milne, Colin Best, Marshall Chalk, Joel Monaghan, Adrian Purtell, Terry Campese, Marc Herbert, Troy Thompson, Ryan Hinchcliffe, Dane Tilse, Glen Turner, Joe Picker, Alan Tongue (capt). Interchange: Ben Jones, Trevor Thurling, Scott Logan, Neville Costigan, Glen Buttriss (one to be omitted).

TITANS: Preston Campbell, Jordan Rapana, Gavin Cooper, Brett Delaney, Jordan Atkins, Ashley Harrison, Brad Davis, Michael Henderson, Nathan Friend, Michael Hodgson, Anthony Laffranchi, Daniel Conn, Josh Graham. Interchange: James Stosic, Will Matthews, Luke Swain, Luke O'Dwyer, Matthew Cross (one to be omitted).