NRL: Canberra Raiders attack needs to click into gear against Sydney Roosters

Crawley said the Raiders have put themselves in a good position, but now's the time for improvement - starting against the Sydney Roosters at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.

He put some of their "clunky" attack down to a forced change in their spine just before the start of the season, with Sebastian Kris learning the fullback role on the run.

They felt getting the defensive side right first was more important with about a 70-30 split favouring their work without the ball.

Kris has taken over the No.1 jersey due to Xavier Savage's broken jaw in the pre-season.

The Raiders coaching staff have been so impressed with how Kris had adapted he's now keeping Savage out of the team since his return from injury.

Crawley's spent the break for the bye working out what they need to tidy up to improve their fluency and ball movement for their final 10 games.

The Raiders started the round in seventh and have six of their remaining games against sides outside the top eight - including the Roosters.

"Our ball movement and support needs to improve. I think we've been clunky ... we need to be a bit more fluent in what we're doing," Crawley said.

"Throughout the pre-season and up until now we've had a real heavy emphasis on defence trying to get that right.

"We've probably shortened the time we've spent on our attack."

Now's the time to take advantage of their strong start, which had them just two wins off top spot.

"We've started OK and we've got ourselves in a good position, but there's a lot of room for improvement for what we're doing in attack," Crawley said.

"This little break's sort of given us a chance to have a look at what we're doing, tidy up a few things and set some goals for the next 10 rounds because we're close enough there to make a run now for the semi-finals.

"If we can improve our attack in some areas on the way in it's going to help us.

"We're nowhere near where we want to be, but we're on the way."

MORE RAIDERS NEWS

Raiders centre Matt Timoko also felt their cohesion had been lacking over the first half of the season - especially for the duration of a game.

Timoko said the closeness of the table made their clash against the Roosters a crucial one.

While they went into round 17 just two wins off top spot, one loss could see them drop out of the eight.

That's due to their poor points differential of -71, which was largely down to three big losses at home this season - to the New Zealand Warriors, Manly and Penrith.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart highlighted the fact on Friday and said it was something they wanted to address in their remaining five home games.

"We've got to start picking up our cohesion," Timoko said.

"At times we don't play the way we want to play for the full 80 minutes so that's something we need to practice for the rest of the year.

"Getting that cohesion between us and playing for 80 instead of having moments where we slip off concentration and let in tries or drop balls."

NRL ROUND 17

Sunday: Sydney Roosters v Canberra Raiders at the Sydney Football Stadium, 6.15pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Sebastian Kris, 2. Albert Hopoate, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Matt Timoko, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Jamal Fogarty, 8. Josh Papali'i, 9. Zac Woolford, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Corey Horsburgh. Interchange: 14. Tom Starling, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Nick Cotric, 17. Pasami Saulo. Reserves: 18. Matt Frawley, 20. Ata Mariota.

Roosters squad: 1. James Tedesco, 2. Daniel Tupou, 3. Billy Smith, 4. Joseph Manu, 5. Junior Pauga, 6. Luke Keary, 7. Sandon Smith, 8. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, 9. Jake Turpin, 10. Lindsay Collins, 11. Egan Butcher, 12. Sitili Tupouniua, 13. Victor Radley. Interchange: 14. Angus Crichton, 15. Nathan Brown, 17. Naufahu Whyte, 19. Drew Hutchison. Reserves: 20. Corey Allan, 22. Zach Dockar-Clay.

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.