‘Shocking feeling’: Raiders coach Ricky Stuart vents frustration

A shattered Ricky Stuart finally divulged the reason he believes his team flopped hard in 2021 after being put out of their misery on Thursday.

Ricky Stuart was in a bad mood post match.

A shattered Raiders coach Ricky Stuart admitted the loss of halfback George Williams mid-season had a huge effect on Canberra missing the finals in 2021.

The Raiders were tipped by many experts to make the grand final, but their 40-16 last start loss to the Roosters ensured they would miss the eight.

“It’s an empty feeling,” Stuart said post match.

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“It’s a shocking feeling because I think we are a better team than where we ended up on the table but we are where we are.

“That’s all because of the middle part of the season where we had a real bad slump.

“We lost all our mojo and form and I think we were two from 12.

“Realistically we probably don’t even deserve to be fighting for the eight tonight. We were poor tonight. We were really poor.”

Stuart believes his side were the better team in the first half, but their attack let them down in crucial stages against the Roosters after they led 12-6.

“No, there are games like that where you don’t see it coming,” Stuart said.

“We got to the sideline ready to go and the boys prepared well.

“I can’t blame our defence tonight. Our attack was dreadful. We had some opportunities in that first half where we made some opportunities for ourselves and I think there was two drops there.

“Poor old Semi (Valemei) had a tough night and he is a better player than that. I’d pick him again in first grade next week. That’s not him.

“But we had a couple of drops there on the right-hand side when we were creating a try-scoring opportunity at critical parts of the game. There were stages in that game where we could have put us into a better situation.

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“In the second half we just took so many wrong options in attack. We didn’t give ourselves a chance to attack because we took the wrong options with the football.”

Stuart was visibly frustrated with a series of final questions about the opposition and where his side’s season went wrong.

“I don’t care about the Roosters, I’m worried about me,” Stuart said.

“We started so well and we could have scored two or three more tries and I’m not being disrespectful to the Roosters.

“They have had a tough year and have done really well getting to where they are, but if we can’t beat that team out there tonight we are only wasting another week being up here.

“We might as well go see the families because f*** it. Umm if we couldn’t beat that team, Christ. No good waiting for another week to get beaten.”

Stuart saved his shortest answers for last.

“Was it tough to console the boys?” a journalist asked.

“Na,” Stuart replied.

“Ricky it sucks but you keep coming back every year and you keep going. What is it about the club that you love so much that makes you keep going every year?” another journalist asked.

“That’s a tough question and I couldn’t be bothered talking about it tonight,” Stuart said.

“Ricky looking back on your year and you lose George Williams a big part of your spine, the effect that has had on your team has it been significant?

“Yep very much so,” Stuart said.

Originally published as ‘Shocking feeling’: Raiders coach Ricky Stuart vents frustration