Ex-Raider John Bateman confronted Ricky Stuart over media leaks

A former Canberra Raiders star said he confronted Ricky Stuart over news leaks within the club after internal discussions became public.

John Bateman has blasted the Raiders.

Former Raiders star John Bateman has painted a picture of a leaky ship in Canberra, calling out unnamed officials as internal information filters into the public eye.

Now on a five-game losing streak, the Raiders have been in the media for all the wrong reasons in recent weeks.

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Leader Josh Hodgson’s decision to step down from the captaincy role amid rumours other club are circling, rep forward Joe Tapine’s wife’s explosive social media post slamming coach Ricky Stuart and reports English halfback George Williams is homesick are just a few of the recent issues keeping the Raiders in the headlines.

Williams had a try assist, linebreak assist and forced two dropouts in the Raiders’ 24-16 loss to the Knights on the weekend, but coach Ricky Stuart revealed last week that he’d known about the Englishman’s homesickness for weeks.

George Williams has been a hot topic of discussion.

“People go through this type of situation. The club will get around George. I’ve known about this for three weeks so it’s not new,” Stuart said on Friday.

“We’re getting around George and doing everything we can for him and (Williams’ partner) Charly.

“It’s not uncommon for people to find homesickness but it’s not a disease that goes away. We’ll do everything we can for George and Charly.”

It appeared to be similar to the exit of Bateman.

The Englishman was named the Dally M second rower of the year in 2019 as the Raiders made a charge to the NRL Grand Final.

After a shoulder injury early in the 2020 season, it emerged that Bateman was being shopped around to other NRL clubs, ultimately leaving for Wigan.

But the former Raiders star said that he believed there were people within the club in Canberra were trying to undermine the players, saying he even took the claims to Stuart.

Ricky Stuart is going through his toughest run at the club, losing five in a row for the first time since 2014.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Bateman said that he believed it was someone in the backrooms of the club, rather than other players.

“I don’t understand how you’re told to keep things internally but the next minute you’ve got (journalists) chatting about it within 24 hours of what’s been said at the club,” Bateman said. “You ask yourself, ‘Who is leaking that stuff out? Who is mates with who?’ You question it, don’t you?

“It had to be someone in the back room, or someone who knew what happened in the conversations. I had a conversation with Ricky before and he told me it wasn’t him. I asked him about my situation.

“I asked him where all these stories were coming from and he said, ‘I’m not too sure, it might be your management’. You’d love to know, wouldn’t you? You can get over it when it’s once. When it’s two or three times, you’re like, ‘Come on, what’s going on here?’”

John Bateman was fuming over the leaks.

Bateman also pointed to the Williams situation and said the Raiders should release him if he’s not happy, a claim CEO Don Furner told the Herald “of course he would, he would like him back at Wigan”.

It comes after a week of discussion about the Raiders as the faltering on field performance saw the side plummet to its worst run under the tenure of Stuart as coach.

Last week, Tigers legend Benny Elias told Fox League’s NRL 360 that the current unrest getting to the media may just be the start of the issues.

“There are a lot of problems there. I just don’t know what they can do to get it back on track but it’s certainly real danger signs there for the Raiders,” he said.

“I think the position the Raiders are really in is just the tip of the iceberg from what we’re seeing and hearing. What we don’t know is what is happening behind the scenes.”