Canberra have embraced working with a sports psychologist as they look to turn around a dire record in tight NRL games.
The Raiders have lost 16 games by six points or less during the past two seasons, blowing the opportunity to qualify for the finals in both campaigns.
They also gave up hefty half-time leads away from home to finalists Brisbane and Penrith.
Conversely, Canberra chased down sizeable deficits against South Sydney and Canterbury and took down eventual premiers, the Roosters, by two points.
Despite scoring the second most amount of points in the NRL last season, the high-scoring Raiders finished 10th for the third time in four years.
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But coach Ricky Stuart has taken the first step in solving the Green Machine's problem, recognising there is one.
Co-captain Jarrod Croker said working with the psychologist had been a big part of the off-season.
"We've sort of built our leadership group around that and with our coaching staff," he told AAP.
"We've probably got a quite simple game plan and game management set-up around that now.
"We can sit here and say we've done all the hard work ... but at the end of the day nothing's going to come of it unless we win a few tight games."
Halfback Aidan Sezer said players had to take more responsibility.
"We've got a pretty experienced team here now," he told AAP.
"There's a lot of us in our late 20s in the starting 17 so we just need to rectify a few little areas and the sports psychology area has definitely helped us."
Star winger Nick Cotric said all players, new and old, had found the new approach beneficial.
"He talks about how you think on the field and to slow your breathing up, just little things like that so we can handle those high pressure moments," Cotric told AAP.
