Ricky Stuart: I’d give my titles back to see my boys win one

I so desperately want my players to experience what I have once in their lives — I’ve told them that for a long time now. Grand finals change lives, they forge bonds for life, writes Ricky Stuart.

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I’d give the premierships that I won with Canberra in 1990 and 1994 and the memories all back if it meant my players could experience the same feeling on Sunday night.

There is no greater feeling in football than winning a grand final. I’m very, very genuine about what I’m saying here.

WATCH THE STORY OF THE 1989 GRAND FINAL ABOVE

If this were a throwaway line to excite my players on the biggest day of their career, I would’ve declared I’d give my 1989 premiership back, too.

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Ricky Stuart wants his players to experience the grand final success he did.

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But then I would never have known the life-changing effect that winning a grand final has.

Not a day goes by that I don’t feel I’m the luckiest person in the world to have won the first grand final with Canberra in 1989, which enabled me to have formed friendships and bonds with that group of players that we still share today.

I so desperately want my players to experience what I have once in their lives — I’ve told them that for a long time now.

On Friday, my good mate Laurie Daley hosted a cruise on the Sydney Harbour. The majority of boys from the 1989 Raiders were out having a great old time on the boat.

I would’ve loved to have been there.

Stuart and with Raiders coach Tim Sheens after defeating Canterbury in 1994.

Instead, I sat along my assistant coaches Andrew McFadden and Brett White because one, I wanted them to represent the 2019 Raiders, but two, I wanted them to feel that connection with 1989 players.

The bond that I have with that era of Canberra players is unbreakable. Some 25 years after we won that first premiership, the mateship we share is just as strong — if not stronger.

And it’s not just the household names like Daley, Mal Meninga and Bradley Clyde where mateship exists, but so too blokes that meant so much to the football team back then, like Dean Lance, Chrissy O’Sullivan and Gary Coyne.

And from our bond, friendships have been made among our wives and partners and now our children.

David Furner and Laurie Daley onboard Daley's annual grand final cruise.

We’ve grown from a large group of mates into a huge family, all because of what this game has given us — and that’s winning a grand final.

Sure, you can still have tight bonds and mates for life, even if you don’t win a grand final.

But I honestly feel regret for any past or present player or coach that has never been part of a grand final.

I mean that with respect. I say that because it’s the most special week there is for a professional rugby league player.

But well before the week is a season, and before even that is the moment where a team either comes together as one or it flips and flops through the footy season, threatening but never really impacting.

LISTEN! In the season finale, Matty Johns is joined by James Hooper and Paul Kent to go over this Sunday’s grand final, plus how the build-up to the NRL’s biggest weekend can weigh on the favoured team (and how the Roosters are counteracting it!).

With the latter, if you dig deep enough, you’ll discover that the bond was either forced, or simply disconnected.

Now, the thing about Canberra is you don’t need to have been born in Canberra to have belonged. The examples I could give are endless. For so many of our past and present players who were from other parts of Australia and sometimes the world, their second family has been their teammates.

In many cases, those players who come from afar can’t bring their immediate family to Canberra. They don’t have relatives, mums, dads or brothers and sisters down the road or in the next suburb. So their family is the Raiders.

This family we have here, we don’t have the grand final experience of our opposition.

For so many of my players, this is their first experience of grand final week.

But not once have I needed to crack the whip due to a sign of distraction. Not once have I needed to “pull a head in” that was drifting towards the clouds.

If we don’t win this game, it won’t be because the hype of grand final week has proven a distraction to our preparation.

I know a football side that is ready to do something special when I see one.

And I certainly know what mateship looks like. It can win you grand finals.

Originally published as Ricky Stuart: I’d give my titles back to see my boys win one