Dyldam Parramatta Eels co-captain Tim Mannah says the Blue and Gold has been looking forward to bringing a premiership game to Darwin all season.
The Eels made their first visit to #eelsterritory back in February in Alice Springs, and Mannah says it's a more confident Eels side now than six months back.
"We’ve been really looking forward to this game all year, and maybe the win in Alice Springs [in pre-season] gave us a bit of a kick start to the year."
"We’ve gout a very young team and I think they’ve gained a lot of confidence over the season; they've got a bit of a spring in their step and hopefully we can get the result we need on Saturday."
And when it comes to Saturday's opposition, while they're in contention for a wooden-spoon finish to 2014, Mannah says he's anything but complacent about facing the Raiders.
"Ricky [Stuart] will be definitely having them up for a big game," Mannah said.
"They lost by 50 points last week and as a professional athlete we know anyone that gets beaten by that score always wants to come back and put their set foot forward. We’re sure they’ll be doing that this week, too."
The Eels v Raiders Round 22 clash kicks off 8pm Saturday (8.30pm AEST) at Darwin's TIO stadium, and will be broadcast live on FoxSports 2.
