Ralph spent three seasons with the Cowboys before making the move to the Raiders for the 2022 campaign and he came back to haunt his former side in the weekend's round five clash.

After a narrow loss to Forbes the week prior, the Raiders ran in eight tries at Wellington on the way to a convincing 42-10 victory.

"There was a bit of banter out there but after the game there was a lot of love," Ralph said.

"It was good to get another win after the loss last week."

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As disappointing as the two-point loss to Forbes was seven days earlier, there was still positives for the Raiders as they were without injured captain-coach Alex Ronayne that day while influential five-eighth Jai Merritt exited the match early in the first half due to injury.

The pair - along with Matt Naden - were missing again on Sunday but the Raiders produced a focused performance at Wellington.

The Dubbo side was always favourite in the match given the Cowboys went into Sunday without a win to their name in 2022, but the focus for the Raiders pre-game was purely internal.

"Before we went out we said to the boys we need to defend cause we know the attack will come," Ralph said.

"We needed to defend and communicate more and we went out and did that. It was so good."

Western Rams winger Ralph is one of a host of new faces at Macquarie this season and he admitted there were some difficulties for his side in the early rounds given it was a new-look squad coming together.

There's been glimpses of what the Raiders are capable of - they sit third in the Group 11 pool with three wins from five matches - but like so many of his teammates, Ralph is adamant they haven't got close to their best yet.

"Every week we're getting better," he said.

"There's definitely more improvement. We're slowly getting there but we haven't played our best yet. There's a lot more to come from the Macquarie Raiders.

"What's been good is the boys are turning up and they're willing to learn so I feel like there's a lot we can improve on in defence and attack."

Ralph had only scored the one try this season leading into Sunday's game but the Western Rams winger has become a key part of the Raiders' attack.

Not only does he have the ability to find the try line, he's he's willing to get into the middle of the field and take a number of tough carries.

As pleasing as it was to score the treble on Sunday, Ralph much preferred to focus on areas of his game he could work on.

"It's just about turning up and playing with the boys and backing each other up," he said.

"If I play bad football I always try and learn from my mistakes. People then might say I play well but I try and take the negative parts out and try and improve on them so I can be a better player.

"Every week I'm getting to know the boys and we're starting to feel a lot more comfortable."

Nathan Walker was another standout for Macquarie on Saturday, scoring a double on debut at fullback while also putting Ralph over for one of his tries.

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