And Queensland legend Darren Lockyer adds if the Raiders can "get a jump on" the Melbourne Storm early then they can get through their preliminary final in Melbourne on Saturday night and would then be favourites to win the grand final.

Walters played in all three of the Raiders' premierships and he said his old club was "truly capable" of winning it for the first time since 1994.

"They can win the comp. They're well and truly capable of it. Whether that will happen or not is another thing, but they're certainly capable of winning the comp," he said.

"You've got to win two games. Melbourne will still be favourites and they should be. They've had a good season, they're a good team, well coached and well prepared with good players."

How to get that win over the minor premiers and make it to a grand final for the first time in almost quarter of a century?

Just do what they did against the Storm six weeks ago.

The Raiders dominated against the NRL benchmark, with centre Joey Leilua scoring two tries in the 14-point win.

Walters said while the Green Machine has fired this season, that was the performance that caught his eye.

"Just play like they did the last time against Melbourne. That's about the best performance I've seen from a Raiders team in 20 years," he said.

"They've had other good wins this year, but I just thought that was exceptional that night. If they can repeat some of that stuff, with their enthusiasm and their energy, throwing the ball around and pressuring the Storm.

"They didn't make hardly any mistakes, that was a great game they played that night. If they can near that again they'll be in with a good chance."

Lockyer said if the Raiders could pile the points on early it would go a long way to beating the Storm, renowned for their ability to grind opposition teams down.

The former Brisbane Bronco said the Green Machine needed to be wary of lapses.

He said they dominated Penrith last weekend for "60 minutes", but they would need to put in a full 80-minute performance against the Storm.

"The key to beating the Storm is getting a jump on them early, get them chasing points early," Lockyer said.

"For the Raiders, with the size of the pack that they've got and the outside backs, if they have a high completion rate they'll be hard to beat.

"If they can beat Melbourne in Melbourne that gives you a massive confidence boost.

"I guess one game at a time for them, but if they can beat Melbourne they could go into the final as favourites. I'm sure Ricky doesn't want them to get ahead of themselves."

NRL PRELIMINARY FINAL

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Melbourne Storm at Melbourne, 7.40pm. Tickets available from Ticketek. Live on Fox Sports 1.

Raiders team: 1. Jack Wighton, 2. Edrick Lee, 3. Jarrod Croker (c), 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Blake Austin, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Junior Paulo, 9. Josh Hodgson, 10. Shannon Boyd, 11. Josh Papalii, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Sia Soliola. Interchange: 14. Kurt Baptiste, 15. Luke Bateman, 16. Paul Vaughan, 17. Joe Tapine.

Storm team: 1. Cameron Munster, 2. Suliasi Vunivalu, 3. William Chambers, 4. Cheyse Blair, 5. Marika Koroibete, 6. Blake Green, 7. Cooper Cronk, 8. Jesse Bromwich, 9. Cameron Smith (c), 10. Jordan McLean, 11. Kevin Proctor, 12. Tohu Harris, 13. Dale Finucane. Interchange: 14. Kenny Bromwich, 15. Tim Glasby, 16. Christian Welch, 17. Ben Hampton, 20. Matt White, 21. Felise Kaufusi.