Wests Tigers veteran Todd Payten said his side must shelve their negative thoughts towards the NRL's McIntyre system if they're to beat Canberra on Friday night.

Captain Robbie Farah and chief executive Stephen Humphreys have been critical of the fact the Tigers must now travel to the nation's capital to play the elimination semi-final, despite finishing the season in third spot with the Raiders in seventh.

But Payten admitted that kind of thinking could be to the Tigers detriment, and stressed they must not get caught up in self-pity with a job still to do.

"If we go in with that mindset, we're going to get beat," said Payten.

"I think everyone's looking forward to it now, we know how tough it's going to be and it's a semi-final so everyone's ready to go.

"We'll have a fair few supporters down there, we seem to travel pretty well ... but we know we're going to be outnumbered."

Plenty has gone against the Tigers in the past week, but one thing in their favour is the fact they've beaten the Raiders twice this season and have a decent record at Canberra Stadium.

Payten conceded the Tigers were mentally and physically drained for a number of days after their gut-wrenching 100-minute loss to Sydney Roosters last Saturday.

The 31-year-old said it's been difficult to put the golden-point defeat behind him, but has made a conscious decision to concentrate on this Friday whenever the nightmare creeps into his thinking.

Payten warned the Tigers can't rely on their strong record over Canberra to get them through,with the game now officially sold out, but said there's no reason why they can't lift and keep their season alive.

"It can work both ways, we're confident in our own ability, we're confident we can beat them, it's just putting that performance together for 80 minutes," he said.

"There's no reason why we can't do it again. If we play like we did in that first 60 minutes last week I'm sure the result will go our way.

"They're playing a good brand of footy, they've got a big monstrous forward pack with a lot of speed outside. So the blueprint for most games is to win the middle and hope for the backs to do the job so that'll be our aim."

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