It was an incident Raiders coach Ricky Stuart slammed in the post-match press conference as he called for any guilty offender to be punished.

The fan was caught on camera appearing to spit at the referees as they made their way down the race at half-time, as a chorus of boos rang around the 14,818 fans at Canberra Stadium in Sunday's loss to the Penrith Panthers.

They were unhappy with the officials, despite having 3-2 penalty count in the Raiders' favour at the break.

Their anger came in the wake of Panthers winger Josh Mansour barging over for a try just before the half-time siren went.

Security staff removed the alleged offender and handed him over to police, who took down his details and ejected him from the ground.

A Raiders spokesperson said they'd cancelled his membership and said further sanctions, including a possible life ban, would be looked into on Monday.

The club will liaise with the NRL before finalising their punishment.

"That's something we'll have to discuss once we've had a bit more of an opportunity to have a look at everything, but at this stage his membership's been cancelled," the spokesperson told Fairfax Media on Sunday night.

"We know who he is, he's a member, and we've cancelled his membership. We'll review it again tomorrow, but at the moment that's where it's at."

Stuart was unaware of the incident before the post-game press conference, but was quick to call for action against anyone found guilty.

He backed the referees as an important part of the game and said they needed to be treated with the same respect as the coaches and players.

"That's not on, they've got a tough job. That's unacceptable and definitely should be punished. I didn't know that, that's news to me," Stuart said.

"They've got a tough gig, we've all got tough gigs, but that's unacceptable if it happened to a coach, if it happened to a player and that's how we do accept the referees.

"They're as important as a coach or a player and that is totally unacceptable behaviour if that's the case, but I'm sure it will be dealt with."

Raider bandwagon to share the love

Mathematically possible. The Raiders are now in the realms of those two dirty words for any finals aspirants.

Their four-point loss to the Penrith Panthers means they now need to beat both the Newcastle Knights and the Melbourne Storm in their final two games, as well as hope a string of results go their way.

With Canterbury knocking off Manly on Sunday, it means the Green Machine need two of the Sea Eagles, St George Illawarra and North Queensland to lose their remaining games for them to sneak into the eight.

That means next weekend the Raiders fans need to jump on board the Wests Tigers, New Zealand Warriors and Panthers to help their team get home.

The Tigers need to beat the Cowboys, the Warriors the Sea Eagles and Penrith the Dragons.

Canberra sits one win behind St George and two behind Manly and the Cowboys, and needs to get above at least two of them to make the finals, with for-and-against to play a crucial role if they're to make it.

Cleary on the rise

The calls for Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary to play State of Origin for NSW next year are only to grow louder, no doubt to the annoyance of Penrith supremo Phil Gould.

Cleary's try against the Raiders brought up his 200th point of the season, making him the youngest player ever to reach that mark at the ripe old age of 19 years and 279 days.

Not only did he score a four-pointer, which came off the back of a massive Waqa Blake break down the right wing, but he also kicked a perfect five from five from the kicking tee to help his side to their seventh straight win.

With Blues incumbent half Mitchell Pearce constantly under fire for his spot, the calls are only going to grow louder for Cleary to come in and take his spot next season.

Especially if the Panthers make the finals and have a good run at the business end of the season.