Josh Hodgson still driving Green Machine behind the scenes

Fellow England international John Bateman revealed Hodgson has returned to the inner sanctum following his knee reconstruction and had stepped straight back into his co-captaincy role.

Hodgson was given some time away from the Raiders bubble following his season-ending knee injury, to allow himself to refresh from the restrictions of the Apollo protocols.

He spoke to the group in the wake of their loss to the Penrith Panthers, pointing out the good position they'd put themselves in despite their mounting injury toll.

Many pundits wrote off the Raiders when Hodgson was injured against Melbourne, but they've refused to let it be an excuse.

Siliva Havili and Tom Starling have both done good jobs in the dummy half role covering Hodgson's absence.

"Hodgy's been back in now with the lads, he just pulled us in after training and said, 'Listen boys if we were given this, if we could have won three games out of the last four ... we would've bit their hands off'," Bateman said.

"We just want to enjoy it now, we've got the last [six] games and we just want to go from there.

"Hodgy's a massive miss, I realise even more so coming back into the team [from shoulder surgery]. But then you get 'Liva' and you get Tommy Starling stepping up.

"I thought Tommy was really good for us [on Saturday night] off the back of Corey [Harawira-Naera, Joe Tapine and Hudson Young] when they came on mate, they were class to be fair.

"They really brought us onto the ball. There's been a couple of good results for us we just need to kick on now."

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Bateman felt Hodgson would go on to become a coach once his playing days were done.

The 30-year-old will miss the rest of the 2020 NRL season after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament - the second time he's done the injury.

But he'll return to the Raiders fold next year.

"If he ain't going to be a coach I don't know who is. He's class, he's good to have around the boys, he knows the game inside out," Bateman said.

"I really look up to him as a leader, but he's a good bloke to have around the lads.

"He had his operation the other week, he's come back in now with the boys and it's good to have him back and just see his face around the place."

The Raiders were under the pump in the first half against a Broncos side that's been swamped by controversy this week.

Brisbane had six sets in a row at one stage and eventually conceded a try.

But they used that period to build confidence from their defensive effort rather than let it wear them down.

Defence has become a hallmark of the Green Machine in the past two seasons.

Bateman felt that patience stood them in good stead after they "let ourselves down" in the loss to the Panthers.

He exploded off the back of it in the second half, setting up the try that swung the game Canberra's way as they ran in five unanswered tries as the Broncos folded.

"I think we ended up doing six sets on our line. I don't care who you are, it takes its toll on you that," he said.

"We just spoke about it at half-time. We said don't worry it'll come back around to us, we're a good enough team to be patient and we know full well what we can do.

"We were patient, we got off our line and started getting into them a little bit. It just turned for us a little bit there, it was a real good result."

NRL ROUND 15

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Gold Coast Titans at the Gold Coast, 3pm.