Australia's preparations ahead of Friday night's Test were thrown into chaos before they had even had a chance to begin with assistant coach David Furner considering his involvement with the Kangaroos due to Canberra's disastrous NRL form.

The Raiders slumped to their seventh straight loss - one shy of a 25-year record - with a heavy 49-12 loss to Wests Tigers on Sunday, coach Furner admitting now may not be the best time to be abandoning the squad for a week-long camp with Australia on the Gold Coast.

"As a coach my importance is with this club and with these players - simple," said Furner, adding he would make a decision on his Test involvement on Monday.

"I'll just see.

"It's a great honour to have an opportunity there, but it's this club."

Test coach Tim Sheens, who was partially to blame for Furner's predicament given it was his Tigers who inflicted the Canberra Stadium mauling, said he would give Furner - who began his NRL playing career under Sheens at Canberra in 1992 - plenty of time to make the call.

"I'll just let David think about that for today and tomorrow and respect his call on that," he said.

Asked if he sympathised with Furner, Sheens said: "That's the life of the coach, it's a tough decision and he's in a tough spot at the moment.

"I've been there, too - at the start of 1989 the Raiders board met to get rid of me - that was the year we won the premiership.

"(Furner's) missing (Terry) Campese and a couple of things have happened that are out of his control, the club's got to stand together with him."

Unlike Sheens, whose Tigers have the bye this weekend, the Raiders face a tough ask with a game as they look to get back on track against Manly at Brookvale Oval on Monday night.

Sheens said there was no back-up plan should Furner not join the squad, with Tigers assistant Peter Gentle left as his only coaching offsider in the Australian set-up.

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