Move over Mad Max, there's a new Road Warrior in town. It's lucky too, given the hours the Canberra Raiders will spend on the Hume Highway.
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The Raiders have become a formidable force away from home, winning 13 of their past 17 NRL games away from Canberra Stadium.
It's the perfect tonic for the Green Machine who have been forced to play their home games at Campbelltown Stadium until at least round 10, with Raiders boss Don Furner hoping they'll get the lime green light to face the South Sydney Rabbitohs in Canberra after that.
The Raiders have become an NRL premiership contender off the back of their road form, with their 13 wins in the past two seasons including their "home" victory over Penrith at Wagga Wagga last year.
Not to mention their three consecutive wins over the Storm in Melbourne.
Interestingly, they've only won seven of 13 games at Canberra Stadium during the same period.
But their away form is a massive boost, after The Canberra Times revealed the Raiders will spend more time on the road than any other NRL team for the first seven games back after the coronavirus shutdown.
They'll spend 30 hours travelling - seven hours more than the Newcastle Knights, who have the second-biggest load.
The Raiders face the Knights for their first home game at Campbelltown on Sunday.
In contrast, the Penrith Panthers don't even leave Sydney during the same period, with all Sydney teams spending a third or less of the travel hours of Canberra.
But rather than dwell on the negatives, Furner said it would be a massive boost when they finally get back to playing in the ACT.
"We're absolutely pushing to get Canberra Stadium back in the latter part [of the season] so we do less travel," Furner said on Huawei's webinar on Wednesday.
"We have got approval now to fly to Sydney in the charter flight so it will just be 40 minutes. We'll bus back. It's OK after the game. We just didn't want to be up and back in the one day in a bus so we've got a charter flight up.
"We'll do that this week, it's the first time we've done it to Campbelltown. It will be taxing.
"We think we've got a good rotation policy. We've got some young guys who we've got to give a run to so [Raiders coach Ricky Stuart] will look at rotation as well. I think we'll be right with the vision in the end that come July we're coming home.
"That will be a big boost to the players once we say, 'Listen boys, we've finished the hard yacka of all that transport now you're going to get Canberra Stadium back'. "I think that will be a big boost to us in the back half of the year."
