The State of Origin period is a wild and wacky time of year.
Some clubs go from strength to strength, others sneak through flying by the seat of their pants, and others collapse in a miserable heap, whinging about player workloads and travel.
For the unexpectedly high-flying Canberra Raiders, it has bene an Origin period where minimal absence have occurred, but fatigue may have finally caught up with them.
In one of those strange quirks of the NRL season, Ricky Stuart's men didn't have their first bye of the campaign until Round 15.
That first 14 weeks - where some teams had already had two byes - saw them travel to Las Vegas, Townsville, Darwin, the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Auckland, as well as Sydney on two occasions before they could finally kick their feet up and have a well-earned rest.
Those first 14 games as good as put the Raiders through to the finals, with the Green Machine claiming a staggering 11 wins, followed up by another two since their first bye.
Neither of them were overly convincing, but victories on the road against the Wests Tigers and Newcastle Knights in the last fortnight have confirmed the club's status as a finalist.
12 wins with a good for and against is usually enough, so 13 certainly will be, and the Raiders can now set their sights on something far grander than simply making the finals - a mark that undoubtedly would have been considered a pass by most fans and pundits during the pre-season.
The Raiders' run home is a dream too.
They don't leave home for the next month with a home clash on Saturday against the St George Illawarra Dragons, then a bye, before they host the Parramatta Eels and Newcastle Knights back-to-back.
They are all winnable games, as is their next road trip in Round 22 when they take on traditional bunny the Dragons (again) in Wollongong.
Round 23 brings the Manly Sea Eagles at home, before their final bye of the year, then it's a trip to play the now in-form and dangerous Penrith Panthers, with the Wests Tigers at home and entertaining Dolphins in Redcliffe to end the season.
Given current trajectory and form, there isn't a game on the run home you'd say is unwinnable for the Raiders, or even that they won't walk into as favourites. Away games against the Panthers and Dolphins could change that if those clubs continue on their recent runs towards September, but the Raiders should realistically win the minor premiership from here.
There is little wonder they have been installed as favourites by bookmakers.
But the premiership is a whole different story.
You listen to those who have been through it, and they will tell you September might as well be a whole new season, just with 8 teams instead of 17, and with most of the games being knockout.
That means there are no second chances, there is no mediocrity, and switching off for periods can end your season in a handful of minutes or less.
And that's where the Raiders need to step up their game.
13 wins might be the case for the Raiders, but there have been lapses in plenty of them where they seem to drift in and out of games.
It's incredible criticism for a team at the top of the tree this far into the season, but if they want to go to the next level and hang with Melbourne, Penrith and the Bulldogs among others once the knockouts do arrive, they need to be able to reflect and continue to get better.
They are already going to be at a significant disadvantage when it comes to big-match experience against some of those sides, so any other disadvantages could well tip the scales against them.
The last fortnight in particular has been worrisome for the Raiders.
Against the Tigers in Campbelltown during Round 16, the Green Machine shot out to a 16 points to 0 lead at halftime, only to spend most of the second half camped on their own line.
Their defence was incredible, but the Tigers' attack may as well have been drawn up by someone who had never watched the sport before. Still, the end result was only a four-point win in the direction of the Raiders.
It was a pretty similar story for the Raiders last weekend. 16-0 at halftime, then 22-6 into the final 20 minutes before they switched off, let the Knights run in a pair of tries and almost conceded the game.
Earlier in the season, there was the Round 10 fixture against Canterbury where they led 20-0 at the break, but lost 32-20, a Round 8 fixture against the Dolphins where they trailed 28-10 at halftime before winning 40-28, and the Round 7 fixture against the Gold Coast Titans directly prior to that where they conceded the first three tries, but surged home to win 30 points to 20.
They are the five standouts, but there have been other, shorter periods this year where the Raiders seemingly just go off the boil and don't know how to correct it.
While they might be able to get away with it against the likes of the Gold Coast, Newcastle and the Tigers, if they try doing that when the whips are cracking in September, there will be no recovery, and it'll be a premiership gone begging.
In truth, being in contention for a premiership is light years ahead of where most tipped the Raiders to be at this point, but now they are there, it will feel like a wasted opportunity if they don't find a way to consistently play as well as they can.
Fatigue is a factor, but it will be later in the season too.
A soft run in may well be able to paper over some cracks, and hide some deficiencies between now and September, so those games against the Dolphins, Panthers and maybe even Manly are shaping as the super important ones on the run in for Ricky Stuart's side, if for not other reason than to simply give them a run against quality opposition before the knockouts begin.
The Raiders will almost certainly have a second chance come September, but they simply don't want to use it.
For that to be the case, consistency will be key.
