The Raiders' 18-16 win over the Brisbane Broncos at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night sees the Green Machine steam into the finals playing a hard-nosed brand of football and with all the momentum on their side.
David Furner's youthful squad struggled through the middle stages of the season, but a form surge at the back end has seen them transform from long-shots to genuine finals contenders.
In winning seven of their last eight the Raiders have beaten finals qualifiers, St George, Penrith, and Manly, which Furner says is proof they deserve their spot.
"After the last six or seven weeks I think we deserve to be in there. I think we've played some very good footy," he said.
While the Raiders are excited to head into the finals as the form side on a five-game winning streak, Friday night's result for the Broncos spells an end to an era - for the first time in 19 years the Broncos will play no part in finals football.
Since losing Darren Lockyer to rib cartilage damage in Round 22 against the Cowboys the Broncos have been on a downward spiral, but they created chances in their last game of the season and Canberra were made to work for their win.
The game plan for Canberra was simple, effective, finals-style football.
Using their battering rams, Tom Learoyd-Lahrs, Dane Tilse, David Shillington and Scott Logan, Canberra played sensible, percentage football to make huge gains in the middle of the park, where their go forward created time for Campese to kick accurately for his capable back line.
Brisbane stand-in skipper Corey Parker, who will miss finals football for the first time in ten years, gave the Raiders pack a wrap in his post-match address, but wasn't about to jump on the bandwagon too early.
"Their game is basically around their go-forward. They've got an enormous pack and tonight they showed that once they go forward they're hard to stop. "
"But there's a lot of good sides in that top 8 and there's a long way to go yet," Parker said.
In red-hot form, the Raiders are already a confident squad heading into the finals, and David Furner says that they may have another boost on the way as the inspirational co-captain Alan Tongue fights to return from calf tear a week early.
"Knowing Tonguey, anything's possible to be honest."
"He'll try to run tomorrow to try to prove himself back, but that's Tonguey."
"We'll have to assess it. We were told two weeks, but as Tonguey said to me this morning, he's five days ahead of schedule," said Furner
From the Broncos camp, Ivan Henjak was notably repressed in his post-match press conference, but despite Brisbane missing the finals for the first time in 19 years, he said that this season could prove to be a valuable developmental stage.
Parker agreed with his coach, and said this could be a watershed year for Brisbane's young brigade before a tilt at higher honours in 2011 with Ben Hannant and Greg Inglis to join the club and both Justin Hodges and Darren Lockyer back on deck.
"I've played in finals in years that Broncos limped into the eight and then been smacked by 40 in the first week of the finals, it just doesn't get spoken about if you make the finals."
"Certainly this year's pain could be next year's gain," said Parker.