Raiders star Elliott Whitehead was placed on report for sliding in with his knees on Roosters centre Joseph Manu.

The Roosters lost hooker Sam Verrills to a knee injury at half-time and were forced to employ Victor Radley in his unfavoured position after he earlier opened the scoring.

The top-four protagonists produced semi-final like intensity in the first half, which featured five tries and three lead changes.

Radley's opener after a James Tedesco break was quickly cancelled out by a miraculous John Bateman offload to set up Jordan Rapana, which preceded Croker's scrappy try.

The premiers hit straight back when Latrell Mitchell scooped up a loose ball and barrelled past the returning Nick Cotric and Rapana after Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad had spilled a bomb under pressure from Daniel Tupou, who leapt over Rapana to gift the tricolours a six-point lead at the break.

The Roosters padded that lead when Tedesco threw a miraculous ball for Tupou to chalk up his second try, only for Whitehead to dive on Josh Hodgson's grubber to set up a gripping finish.

SYDNEY ROOSTERS 22 (Daniel Tupou 2, Victor Radley, Latrell Mitchell tries; Mitchell 3 goals)  CANBERRA RAIDERS 18 (Jordan Rapana, Jarrod Croker, Elliott Whitehead tries; Croker 3 goals) at GIO Stadium. Referees: Ashley Klein, Chris Sutton. Crowd: 19,530.