Hodgson: We can win it

Canberra hooker Josh Hodgson says the Raiders have a long way to go but are right in the race to win the NRL premiership.

Canberra finished second on the table in the regular season and will now face Cronulla in the first week of the semi-finals after they smashed Wests Tigers 52-10.

The Raiders have won 10 games in a row and head into the playoffs with serious momentum.

Hodgson believes Canberra have as good a chance to go all the way as the rest of the top NRL teams.

“Why not?” he said.

“You’ve got to be in it to win it. We’ve always had the belief in ourselves and we’ve ourselves known we’ve got the potential to do good things.

We’ve not won anything yet, we’ve still got a long way to go. We’ve not achieved anything yet. We’re still just trying to build as a team and improve as a team.”

The Raiders will host the Sharks at home at GIO Stadium on Saturday. Cronulla have won just one of their past six games.

“They’re a tough team,” Hodgson said.

“Cronulla had another good win against the Roosters another night.”

Hodgson has been in terrific form all season and is in the running to win the Dally M award, which no Englishman has ever won.

“It’d be quite a feat, but I’m not too worried about that at the moment,” the former Hull KR hooker said.

“I don’t know if there will be much chance of it with me having three points stripped and missing the Parramatta game.

“I’m not really worried about that, I’m just concentrating on the semis.”