THEY nearly got up over defending premiers CYMS last week, but Macquarie Raiders coach Steve McLellan knows a hard-fought loss is worth nothing if the team doesn't learn from it.
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The Raiders fought back from a 24-10 deficit with just 18 minutes left on the clock to get within two points of the Fishies in last weekend's Group 11 season opener.
In the end the Fishies took the points, but McLellan wants his men to bring that same fire into Sunday's match-up, and take the two points against Westside Rabbitohs.
"[We're] certainly looking forward to it," he said.
"I mean we've come out of the CYMS game, we believe there's something there for us to build on from that, but that won't mean anything if we can't back it up against Westside.
"We've got to take the positives out of that and bring them to this weekend's game otherwise it means nothing.
"We don't want to be sitting here after this weekend nil from two. The effort last week will be forgotten - you'll look at the table and it'll show two points to CYMS."
The speed in Westside's back line is a bit of a concern for the Raiders, who will be without Chris Daley after the co-captain broke his hand.
But McLellan said the key will be for the side to play to their strengths.
"We respect Westside, they've certainly got a speedy back line and if we get caught up in that I think we'll be in trouble," McLellan said.
"We've got a big pack of forwards so we'll utilise those forwards. We've got faith the ability of our back line but we want to lay a pretty strong foundation through our forwards.
"Not pre-empting Westside, but I'd say they would probably be the reverse. We don't want to get caught up in trying to match that, we'll stick with what we think we're good at."
With the Cobar Roosters dropping out of the competition in 2016, McLellan said there are no easy games in this year's Group 11.
Every team needs to switch on every week.
"The reality is you've got to be up for every weekend if you want to be at the top at the end of the year," he said, adding nothing gets the excitement levels up like a local derby.
"It will be a great opportunity for the crowds. We respect Westside like we respect all sides," McLellan said.
"We're a new team, we've had some personal challenges and positional changes too. We will get better but the important thing is there's certainly some self-belief.
"It's going to be a long season. I've got belief in them but more importantly they've got belief in themselves.
"It'll be an entertaining game so it would be nice to see a big crowd and have both sides put on a bit of an exhibition of rugby league for them."
