Hi All
Found this article by Rebecca Wilson. AAt last a journo who isnt defending him and tells it like it is!!!!
Rebecca Wilson: Canberra Raiders throw Ricky Stuart thrown another lifeline by: Rebecca Wilson From: The Daily Telegraph September 13, 2013 12:00AM
IN HORSERACING, it is called a rails ride. Ricky Stuart has spent his entire footy career enjoying one and his fairytale run continues when the prodigal son returns to his home town of Canberra as the troubled club’s new coach. After a measly five wins at Parramatta, in a season when he sacked half of his first grade team midway through the year, Stuart will artfully evade the possibility of being sacked once again by jumping ship before anyone at the Eels has the pleasure of handing him the pink slip. On the eve of the club’s presentation night, Stuart announced that he would break his much trumpeted (and long-term) contract with the Eels to move to the nation’s capital. He did not inform his players of his intentions, instead opting for a staged announcement through his wily manager John Fordham. It is the same way he departed the Sharks and the Roosters, leaving before anyone in head office could cut him. I was told two weeks ago by insiders at the Raiders that a verbal agreement had been made with Stuart. Fordham cleverly denied anything had been signed and told me Thursday the first official approach was on Wednesday night. Stuart just denied, denied, denied until Thursday’s back page headline. The stage management of Stuart’s patchy coaching career has been artfully designed to avoid the bleeding obvious - that Stuart’s club coaching record is mediocre at best and, to be brutally honest, pretty bad.
After a successful stint at the Roosters (79 wins including a premiership and 50 losses), Stuart had his contract cut after an ordinary last season in 2006. He fell out with club chairman Nick Politis and lost the support of the playing group. He went on to lose more games than he won at the Sharks, announcing 18 months before his contract was up that he was leaving the club. Once again, he left in acrimonious circumstances, falling out with just about everybody - the board, head office and the players. In the meantime, he sailed into the NSW State of Origin coaching job and has since convinced all and sundry that losing another two series was a triumph. As a Queenslander, that’s pretty funny. After signing a very lucrative contact with the Eels, he has delivered the club nothing but pain, all the while promising the turnaround would eventually come with patience and good management. His astonishing decision to sack half of the first grade squad is one that will go down in rugby league history as one of the modern era’s most radical, if not insane, decisions. He dragged out the short term pain for long term gain excuse but the damage to team morale was immeasurable. The team went on to lose more than a dozen matches by cricket score margins.
He calmed growing agitation within the club by saying he was in there for the long haul, but those close to Stuart knew he was searching for yet another lifeline. The fact that the Eels are in disarray in every possible way did not help his growing restlessness. Stuart’s performance at various media conferences this year has been astonishing - lay the blame at the feet of the players, the referees and anybody but himself. He has done that everywhere else so why not at the Eels too? I have known Ricky Stuart for nearly 30 years. I met him when he was artfully evading tackles as a brilliant halfback at the Raiders and watched him become one of the game’s most prominent personalities. He is hard not to like but the lines become blurred when we in the media are called upon to do our jobs by offering fair criticism. Ricky hates being bagged. He and Fordo weave their way through Sydney’s media pack with as much artfulness as Stuart showed on the footy field. The pair of them has more front than Myer - they even attended Thursday night’s Eels’ presentation night. Today, though, the new Raiders coach must face the music. Canberra might be readmitting one of their favourite sons but they are also taking on a problem (club insiders say the appointment has not been without its detractors). Ricky Stuart is faced with turning around a deeply troubled, under-performing club. He has been handed a lucrative long-term deal to fix it. Sounds very, very familiar. Alarm bells are ringing once again. .
Replies
I LOVE REBECCA.....
Well written!
Great article, thanks for posting mate
Yeah I was sick of all the journos blaming parra for Stickys quitting. Rebecca Wilson seems to be saying exactly what we are saying, and what ol Frankie Fong has been saying for ages. Hang on.... has anyone seen Frankie and Rebecca Wilson in the same room at the same time......lol
I hate this RL hating sloth with a passion, this is the first thing she has written i wouldn't piss on.
Finally someone not cupping his balls over his disgraceful behaviour.
love love love this article , on ya becs !!!
Haha it would appear so
This piece isn't bad either - from Andrew Webster SMH. Thanks Andrew.
A hypocrite? Sure, but Stuart's not the first
September 13, 2013
Andrew Webster
The easiest thing to do right now is to skewer Ricky Stuart with his own words. To say the former Parramatta coach is no less treacherous than Israel Folau or Josh Papalii after the not-so-surprising news that he is headed to Canberra.
When Folau turned his back on the Eels and signed with rugby union, Stuart branded him ''dishonourable and greedy'' after he had personally helped facilitate his release from his AFL deal.
When Papalii reneged on his deal to join the Eels - in what was to be Stuart's first major signing - and stay at the Raiders, Stuart was furious with influential figures at the club he's now likely to coach for the next three seasons.
Is Stuart hypocritical in walking out of Parramatta less than a year into the job?
It is impossible to argue otherwise, although he's not the first in this game to act in self-interest, and certainly won't be the last.
And on that score he has some compelling arguments for departing the scene.
At the heart of his desire to move to Canberra is his daughter, Emma, who has autism, and the ability to be closer to family. It's why he's been linked to a move to the Raiders for years. But, without question, the perennial catfight between warring factions at Parramatta is equally to blame for squeezing Stuart out.
When the murmurs first surfaced linking Stuart to Canberra in the wake of David Furner's sacking, the first instinct of this column was that it would be impossible to back any move from Stuart to abandon the Eels. Then you sniff the breeze at the embattled Sydney club, then you ask some of the people who work there just how poisonous the environment has become, and they all say the same thing: ''I'd go too if I could.''
That doesn't mean that Eels fans should feel the need to hold a ticker-tape parade down Church Street for Stuart when he leaves. Or the players who he told weren't wanted beyond this year, forcing them to sign with other clubs.
At the start of this year, Reni Maitua was made co-captain. Halfway through the season he was forced to look elsewhere, agreeing to a new deal with the Bulldogs after being told he wasn't wanted.
Who takes over at the Eels now? Neil Henry has been mooted, but how a sacked coach who failed to get a star-studded Cowboys side firing is the answer simply baffles.
Eels insiders say talk that Brian Smith will be installed as coaching director, with Jason Taylor coaching first grade, is just another example of outside factions trying to have their say.
Whoever coaches the Eels next year is best advised to book in some sessions with the Dalai Lama before they start. One thing is certain: chairman Steve Sharp and his besieged board have to get this one right. The Eels simply can't get another decision wrong.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-hypocrite-sure-but-stuarts-not-the-fi...
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