Raiders coach Ricky Stuart is yet to be fined in 2016 by the NRL for speaking out on referees

SINCE Ricky Stuart started coaching in 2002 has racked up a grand total of $140,000 in fines. But this year he hasn’t copped a single fine from the NRL.

WHAT Ricky Stuart says and what Ricky Stuart thinks can be two entirely different things.

That wasn’t always the case, but it certainly is in 2016.

We know this because so far this year the Canberra coach hasn’t copped a single fine for speaking out against something the NRL took ­exception to.

In fact, this is the first year since Stuart started coaching in 2002 that he hasn’t had to dip into his wallet for some type of punishment.

In that time, Stuart has racked up a grand total of $140,000 in fines.

Ricky Stuart is yet to be fined in 2016 by the NRL for speaking out on referees. Pics Adam Head

Reminded of that on Friday, he laughed.

Then we told him he looked as though he was enjoying the job now more than ever before.

“Yeah, I am enjoying it,’’ Stuart said. “Probably the days when I was at the Roosters was fun because that is what success brings.

“But in saying that we haven’t done anything here.

“The day you start feeling comfortable is the day you are a sitting duck.

“And that’s what comes when you think too far ahead.”

But you could forgive Raiders fans for starting to think ahead to this year’s ­finals series.

The fact is Canberra have not been in this good a position coming into the back end of a season since 2003.

If Canberra can beat the Warriors, they will jump into fourth spot on the NRL ladder, the highest position the club has been in 13 long years.

Another stat worth mentioning is that of all the teams still in the chase for a top four finish, the Raiders have the least amount of representative players by far.

Josh Papalii is Canberra’s only current Origin player.

Canberra have only one current Origin player in Josh Papalii along with the two Englishmen, Josh Hodgson and Elliott Whitehead.

To put that in perspective, the Sharks have eight players who have played Origin or Test football in the past year, while the Storm have seven, the Cowboys seven, Bulldogs seven and the Broncos 11.

Even the team they play — the Warriors — have nine representative players in their squad.

But Stuart didn’t want to buy into what his players had achieved so far, or the possibility of playing finals footy this year.

“We don’t want to talk about anything past the ­Warriors,” he said.

“That’s the truth.

“There’s seven games to go.

“We are working day to day here. If the day is a rest day, a game day, a training day, you want to be the best you can possibly be.”

There was a time not so long ago when Stuart was the coach fans loved to hate.

The irony is he is in charge of a team everyone loves watching, because of the exciting and refreshing style of football they play.

That says it all about the job Stuart is doing in Canberra — even if the coach is giving nothing away.