'The passion and the hunger is back': Why Stuart says the tide is turning

"But it's not often," the Canberra Raiders coach said.

"Look, it's a long season. It doesn't start in February-March, it starts in November-December. It's a very, very long season and how you balance that with workloads, how you balance that with their life outside football, how you balance the breaks in regards to the byes, it's very important.

"There's a lot of work that goes into making sure we've got the footy player physically and mentally prepared as best as we possibly can.

"For any coach or any footy team, it's vital. Coming into this back end of the season now, that's when you notice the teams that have handled it well or not."

And as far as energy, hunger and passion go? Stuart is confident the Raiders have rediscovered those ingredients as they look to snap a four-game losing streak in their return to Canberra Stadium on Friday night.

This weeks clash's with the New Zealand Warriors is the first of eight games standing between the Raiders and the NRL finals. A look at the form guide shows Canberra riding a four-game losing streak.

But Stuart is confident the tide is turning with Jamal Fogarty [biceps] poised to take the reins at halfback, while Zac Hosking [shoulder] returns to the forward pack after the pair spent three months on the sidelines.

"The first two games I was very disappointed with our energy and enthusiasm, but the last two games, I can't deny the passion and the hunger was back, we just got beaten," Stuart said.

"I don't need to go and reset anything because there is a football team there that can play footy. We've just got to get a bit of luck, we've got some experience coming back now and hopefully we can perform well and see where it ends up on that scoreboard."