Paul Kent: Ricky Stuart and Trent Robinson bury hatchet in time for Roosters 2002 premiership reunion

The thing with Ricky Stuart is if he can’t find a reason to dislike a rival, he will invent one. Courtesy is not an obligation. Here’s what really happened at the gathering before the 2019 grand final.

The thing with Ricky Stuart, he didn’t necessarily want to snub Trent Robinson at the grand final handshake all those years back, he just felt an obligation.

Stuart has always been one of the game’s more intense competitors, a riverboat gambler prepared to look for an edge even where there wasn’t one.

If he can’t find a reason to dislike a rival, to create the edge, he will invent one.

He terrified rival halves through most of his career with small irritations designed to have them thinking about what he might do to them next rather than what they should do for their team, and he liked it that way.

He didn’t feel it necessary to wait until the game had started.

“I don’t find it necessary to have to shake someone’s hand before a grand final,” he said on Tuesday.

Stream every game of every round of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free In Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >

Trent Robinson and Ricky Stuart looking a little uncomfortable before the 2019 decider.

“I don’t see that as my job. It shows my blokes that we’re here to do a job.”

The snub before the 2019 grand final wasn’t nearly as interesting in Stuart’s eyes as it was for everybody else.

Stuart was introduced to the crowd in Martin Place. He walked forward and with his jaw set he stood, facing out, his hands clasped in front of him.

Robinson walked out, glanced at Stuart and, as awkward as a teenage kiss, turned to the crowd and clasped his hands.

Any 2019 angst has now been pushed to one side.

But it suddenly gave the grand final a narrative.

The irony that few realised was that when Robinson went on stage he didn’t believe he had to shake hands either, and so he politely clasped his own hands in front of him and got on with the show.

Both saw enough in the reaction, though, to realise there was a shift.

Rightly or wrongly, it created a new feud in the game that most were happy to run with.

Stuart and Robinson did not orbit enough in each other’s world to bother fixing it, or even care enough to fix it.

It thawed earlier this year, though, when the Roosters planned to celebrate their past with a 20-year reunion for their 2002 grand final win over the Warriors.

It is an old truth that clubs are only as strong as their history. The clubs without a past are the ones in the struggle for a future.

Ricky Stuart and Brad Fittler after their 2002 premiership success.

An immediate benefit is that the current players see the respect past champions of their club are treated with and realise they, too, have that opportunity if they can create something substantial.

So once the reunion was confirmed, moves were put in place to ensure all were invited —

Brad Fittler, Luke Ricketson, Bryan Fletcher … the whole gang.

The club even decided to fly Adrian Morley in from England. Morley will land in Sydney about 9.30am Good Friday, for a three-day stay, and has declared he will be at the pub an hour after he clears customs.

Then came the coach, Stuart.

“He’s part of the history,” Robinson said. “He has toe there, too.”

So Stuart, who now coaches Canberra, and who was the rival coach when the Roosters won the 2019 grand final, was invited.

At this several Roosters eyebrows shot up. The officials were all too aware of the grand final snub.

Stuart and his victorious players after the Roosters beat the Warriors in 2002.

Almost immediately a WhatsApp group was organised with all the players and coaching staff.

The players quickly fell into their old routines.

The favourite target was Craig Wing.

“We basically make fun of Wingy because he’s good looking and we’ve got a lot of insecurities,” Fletcher said.

“He’s good looking, a good footballer, and we hate him.”

Luke Phillips found a picture of an old battler that might or might not have been Brett Mullins and posted it, asking if Mullins was OK.

Somebody posted a photo of Stuart.

“We thought it was Steve Stone,” said Fletcher.

Stuart does a lap of honour.

The invitation meant something to Stuart. In his quieter moments, he knew it had to come with Robinson’s blessing.

And why it was such a big deal is because of the proximity he will have to the current Roosters team.

The old players will all be welcomed into chairman Nick Politis’s box when the Roosters run out against the Warriors on Sunday afternoon.

But the memories will begin a day earlier when all the players and staff are invited to the Roosters’ captain’s run, with a lunch to follow with the current Roosters team.

That Stuart, still a rival coach, was invited to the captain’s run and then lunch with the current team says something about the integrity of the Roosters as an organisation, and the comfort of Robinson as coach.

For his part, Stuart’s Raiders play Thursday night and there is business to be done before he flies in late Saturday morning. He will arrive towards the end of the captain’s run and then join his former team, and Robinson and the current Roosters, for lunch at the SCG.

Everything between him and Robinson is resolved.

Luke Ricketson hugs his coach Ricky Stuart after the win 20 years ago.

The Raiders played Manly in a trial at Gosford in February and the Roosters played the game after.

With the reunion on his mind, Stuart sought out Robinson before the game and walked up and put out his hand.

“Thanks for asking me,” he said.

As a fellow coach, he knew what it meant to him, and what it took for Robinson to welcome him.

“I really respect him for doing it,” Stuart said on Tuesday.