Canberra coach Ricky Stuart isn’t promising anything just yet but says his team is trying to earn respect back on their way to a finals birth.

“The core of the group is 22 or 23 years old and if I say [we’ll make the finals] in three or four years, I’m just trying to buy myself time,” Stuart said.

“It’s not what I’m doing, so I don’t make those statements.

“When you look at teams who have been successful over the years, they have a good group of representative players and the main core is 25 or 26 years old.

“I said the day I got here I wanted to get the respect back for this club. I think we’re slowly doing that.”