A brain explosion from Canberra's Elliott Whitehead cost Canberra a ticket to the preliminary final, after they surrendered a 12-point lead to Cronulla at GIO Stadium on Saturday night.
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With the scores locked up at 14-14 with six minutes remaining, the English forward collected Ben Barba across the head with a late swinging arm, gifting James Maloney a penalty goal to win the game in front of a sellout crowd of 25,952 in the nation's capital.
It was a courageous performance from the Sharks, who had no right to the 16-14 triumph given Canberra's dominance for the majority of the match.
Cronulla overcame the late withdrawal of skipper Paul Gallen with a back injury as well as a concussion to vice captain Wade Graham in the opening minutes of the contest to move within one win of the grand final for the first time since 2008.
The loss could come at a monumental price for the Raiders with hooker Josh Hodgson - arguably the best player in the NRL this season - potentially having played his final game of the year after he was carried from the field with an ankle injury.
The Englishman cut a dejected figure as he left the field in the 43rd minute after the stray boot of teammate Aidan Sezer saw the hooker's ankle crumble underneath him.
If the wheels hadn't fallen off completely for Cronulla over the past two months, the roadtrip to the nation's capital was always going to be a huge test of their durability given they had lost five of their past six games.
The injury to Gallen was a huge blow, and to compound the injury to the captain, Graham lasted just a few minutes before his night came to an abrupt end following a collision with the barnstorming Joseph Leilua that left the Sharks forward with concussion.
But for a team that had one hand on the minor premiership two months ago and had fans shouting 'up, up Cronulla' loud enough to bring back Harold Holt - their gigantic capitulation had cast huge doubt over their ability to end the club's 49-year wait for its maiden title.
The Sharks, whose last preliminary finals appearance came under the guidance of current Raiders coach Ricky Stuart eight years ago, came to GIO Stadium as the last team to knock off the Raiders in their own backyard (round seven).
However a monster Raiders pack had other ideas, overpowering Cronulla for the majority of the game.
However it meant very little in the end, with the experience of the Sharks shining through - leaving the Raiders facing a do-or-die showdown against the winner of Sunday's Bulldogs-Panthers final.
After a stop-start opening to the match following a plethora of penalties and errors, it was Raiders hooker Josh Hodgson who broke the shackles when he sliced through some soft defence to give the Raiders a 6-0 lead after 13 minutes.
The home side doubled their lead soon after when Jordan Rapana scooped up a loose Cronulla pass to sprint 80 metres for his 21st try of the season and give his side a 12-0 advantage.
Despite Canberra's dominance in the opening half, they would have been disappointed to go into the sheds leading by just six points when Matt Prior burst through to reduce the deficit on the stroke of half time.
The Raiders pushed out beyond a converted try through a Jarrod Croker penalty goal just after half time, but a clever grubber from Luke Lewis allowed Valentine Holmes to score his 19th try of the year to reduce the deficit to just two points.
A penalty goal to Cronulla saw the scores deadlocked with 13 minutes remaining, before another penalty goal with six minutes remaining sunk the Raiders.
