Amidst the excitement of Cronulla’s mammoth year, in which the front-runners from the Shire have collected 15-straight wins in 2016 and garnered all the attention, the Storm have been having a sensational year themselves, dropping just three matches all season to sit just one win behind the high-flying Sharks - despite missing one of the world’s best players, fullback Billy Slater, for the entire campaign.

Daley, the New South Wales State of Origin coach and regular on Fox Sports, speaking to Inside Sport at the Norfolk Hotel in Surry Hills which hosted the launch of Fox Sports’ upcoming Retro Round weekend, said he understood the advantages the Storm players enjoyed thanks to the hype and excitement of the NRL being very much restricted to the two dominant league cities.

“Melbourne are often out of sight, out of mind; it’s a bit like the Raiders, to tell you the truth,” the Canberra legend explained. “The focus in Queensland is obviously on the Broncos and the Cowboys, and here in Sydney it’s all about the Sydney teams.

“The out of town teams have it good because they can just fly under the radar; people don’t speak about them in the media a lot. It’s good for them to be able to just work hard on what they need to do and keep turning up and surprising everyone.”

Daley, who himself was a star of the retro era of rugby league which Fox will celebrate over the coming weekend, is thrilled his beloved green machine is very much back in the premiership picture in 2016.

“It’s been good watching them; I think they’ve missed the finals the last couple of years. This is the year I thought they’d play finals,” the 244-game Raider said.

“They’ve done a good job to be in fourth spot at the moment. It’s terrific. As a former player you’re always hoping they finish in the top four. To win the comp I think you have to finish in the top four. You don’t want to be trying to win it from outside there, although it is possible.

“If the Raiders could finish in the top four, who knows? On their day, if the other teams suffer a few injuries, anything can happen.”