Whitehead plays down title talk

Elliot Whitehead says Canberra are confident heading into the NRL finals but are not getting caught up in talk of a Raiders’ premiership win.

Canberra sit in third place on the ladder and have won 16 games in 2016, with one draw and six losses this season. They take on Wests Tigers on Sunday aiming for their tenth win in a row, the club’s best winning streak since 1995.

The Raiders have emerged as geniune title contenders but Whitehead said the team is just focusing on one game at a time.

“We’ve got belief in our team but we go week by week,” the Englishman told Love Rugby League.

“This week we’ve got the Tigers so we’re just going to concentrate on them, see where we finish on the table and then work on the week after.

Whitehead admits Canberra have flown somewhat under the radar this season.

“But we haven’t talked ourselves up either, we’ve stayed humble and go week by week and it seems to be working for us,” he said.

“We’ll just keep on doing that and see what happens at the end of the year.”

Whitehead has excelled in his first year in the NRL after arriving from Catalans.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said.

“I feel like I’ve settled in rely well at Canberra. The boys and the club have been really good to me so it was easy to settle in.

“Hopefully I can keep playing well. It was difficult at the start when I was doing preseason in 38 degrees.

“I was used to winter nights and mornings. But I feel like I’ve adapted well, after the summer finished it’s been pretty straightforward.”