Tony Adams at Canberra Stadium
The Canberra Raiders are just 80 minutes away from an improbable finals berth after belting North Queensland 48-4 at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night.
The Raiders will clinch a finals spot if they beat the out-of-form Broncos next weekend.
The Green Machine played brilliant attacking football against a hopelessly outclassed Cowboys, scoring nine tries to one.
And in doing so, they gave their for-and-against a massive boost on the eve of the finals.
Winger Reece Robinson grabbed four tries but boom fullback Josh Dugan, who bagged two, was a standout.
The only sour point for the Raiders was a calf injury to skipper Alan Tongue in his 200th game for the club.
The Raiders got on the board after just four minutes, with Robinson, a late replacement for Adam Mogg, finishing a backline move in the corner.
Dugan produced a moment of brilliance in the 14th minute, charging into a gap, kicking ahead and then regathering.
But Dugan just lost the ball as he attempted to score, with the video ref ruling ‘no try’.
Dugan made amends less than 90m seconds later, bursting through and carrying three defenders over the line.
Again there was a doubt over the try, with suggestions of a double movement, but this time the man upstairs ruled in his favour.
Robinson was over again in the 21st minute, with a long pass from Dugan putting the winger over in the corner.
A booming sideline conversion from Jarrod Croker extended the Raiders’ lead to 16-0.
The rout continued six minutes from the break, with hooker Glen Buttriss barging over.
Dugan scored his second on the stroke of halftime off an offload from Shaun Fensom as the lead blew out to 28-0.
Half Josh McCrone continued the rout 10 minutes after the resumption, sprinting 50 metres to score a simple try.
Robinson completed his hat-trick soon afterwards after great lead-up work from Croker and Campese.
Prop David Shillington joined in the fun, barging through paper thin defence for his second try of the season as the score reached 44-0.
The Cowboys finally got on the board with a Michael Bani try six minutes from the end but the Raiders had the last say as Robinson scored his fourth.
RAIDERS 48
Tries: Robinson 4, Dugan 2, Buttriss, McCrone, Shillington
Goals: Croker 6
COWBOYS 4
Tries: Bani