Hi Brad
I refer to your column today about the future of the Canberra Raiders and the experiment by the Raiders of luring the previous years wooden spoon coach to the nation's capital, on a long term $850,000 a year contract. As a result the Raiders are:
- Going to miss the finals for the first time in successive seasons since 1985/86
- Heading for their first wooden spoon since their inaugural 1982 season
- Going to post average home crowds below 10,000 for the first time since 2001
They have, in 2014:
- Won just 5 games
- Won just 2 of their past 12 games
- Won just 2 games at home
- Conceded more points than any other team this season
- Conceded 50 points in a game three times in their past twelve matches
Raiders fans are lamenting that:
- The club is failing to attract talented personnel superior to their current roster
- Players have rejected offers to join the Raiders that have been up to twice the value of the contracts they signed to stay at their existing clubs
- Many of the young talent at the club have seemingly gone backwards in their development in 2014
- They can not point to one player who has improved since Ricky Stuart took over as coach
- The club couldn't persuade their best player Anthony Milford to remain at the Raiders, and break his deal with the Broncos for 2015 and beyond
- The club is in far worse shape now than when Ricky Stuart took over as Head Coach
As a result, you are even questioning the very future of the Canberra Raiders, as their prospects look so grim over the remaining years of Ricky Stuart's tenure. There has even been talk of relocating the Raiders. I find this all extraordinary. How many of these problems existed 12 months ago?
- Didn't Ricky Stuart leave Parramatta for Canberra due to the strength of the roster at Canberra he was inheriting, and its vast junior talent at NSW Cup, Queensland Cup, NYC and SG Ball level?
- Wasn't Anthony Milford already committed to the Broncos before Stuart signed with the Raiders?
- Wasn't David Furner sacked because the Raiders felt they had a roster that was underperforming and were going to miss the 2013 finals?
- Who ever spoke alarmingly of the difficulties the Raiders had in attracting quality players to Canberra prior to Ricky Stuart's recruitment plans for 2015 and beyond fell in a heap?
Surely, the issues at Canberra currently have been massively exacerbated by the decision of the Raiders board and management to reject better quality (and considerably cheaper) coaching candidates like Andrew McFadden, and instead install a man who has now won just 19 of his past 83 matches as an NRL coach, and has not won successive matches as a coach since June, 2009. Parramatta has shown this year, with a roster that Ricky Stuart found so horrendous that he walked out on them just one year into a five year contract, that a Head Coach can have a debilitating effect on a club when it is obvious that he has undertaken a task far beyond his capabilities, and that if replaced with someone who is qualified and competent, an immediate turnaround in fortunes for the team and the club is very feasible.
So therefore I suggest to those in positions of power at both the NRL and the Canberra Raiders, to realise that the Raiders future is as only bleak for as long as they are prepared not to acknowledge that their bizarre experiment was a monumental blunder, and that discredited media figures who have elevated Ricky Stuart to a position that enabled him to find positions, and command salaries, that he is clearly unqualified for, have never had the best interests of the Raiders, or the game at heart, and should be exposed for who they really are.
The game can not, and should not abandon Canberra, and leave it to AFL and rugby. The Raiders can again be a force in the NRL in Canberra; it just needs to realise that the major problem for the game in the region was of its own creation, and as such they can set it back on course with just one change in personnel.
I leave with you with the following chart.
Replies
Spot on isn't it. I remember I think it was Blocker Roach saying on some show (I cant remember which) that Stuart had even commented to him privately that he didn't know what to do with the eels whilst he was coaching us, he had run out of ideas.
There is no doubt that Stuart left Parra for Canberra becuase he thought that we were going to be in the poo for years to come and that Canberra had a good young roster. Then he has the audacity to all this year a rebuilding year for the raiders!!! hahaha.
Has any season (apart from when he inherited the nucleaus of the NSW State of Origin team with the roosters) not been a rebuilding season for old sticky?
PS To the Raiders board/management - admit you made an error. Cut your losses and fire RS, or else this year will be a sample of what is to come!!
pRicky is truly a piece of shit,of that there is no doubt.Fans are always gullible and hungry for unicorn fodder,but what does that say for the morons that actually make the decision to appoint frauds like Stuart?
Has anyone posted this on the Greenhouse forum?
Totally agree they have a team that should have rattled a few cages this year but bad game plans and team choices have crippled them.
What a great article, a must read for all rugby league fans before they all buy into Rickys propaganda and turn on the Raiders as a viable franchise. I dont know why the club is allowing Ricky to drag them through the mud like this. To the point people are talking relocation, Ricky couldn't attract players to Parra how is he going to get the big names to go to Canberra. Word has got around and nobody wants to play for RS, if the Raiders want to attract players they need a coach players respect and want to play for. A good coach that can get his players to dig deeper for the team could get guys to move to Canberra to play for him.
They NEED to sack RS now and pick up Griffin. He is exactly what they need and there probably exactly what he needs, a club to build, his great with the Jr's and he would attract a hell of a lot more players than RS.
Hold on according to most people on this forum it is never the coaches fault lmfao
Great writing, clear and spot on
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