Rookie Raiders beat Sharks after ‘comedy of errors’ in high scoring thriller

Ricky Stuart has delivered a defiant message, hitting back at critics after the Raiders pulled off an unlikely victory.

The rookie Raiders pulled it off.

The Cronulla Sharks will enter the finals without a win against a top eight team after a vastly under strength Canberra Raiders took the team to task.

Without nine regular first grade players and blooding a host of rookies, the Raiders continued on their merry way in a 38-28 win against the Sharks at Netstrata Jubilee Stadium.

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While the Sharks made some late changes as well, the Raiders were on fire despite the club’s biggest name players taking a week off.

It arguably justified the decision from Canberra coach Ricky Stuart, who courted controversy earlier in the week when making the changes and admitting he didn’t expect Parramatta to be beaten and leave the door open for the Raiders to snatch fourth place on the ladder.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said “I don’t care” who the Raiders play next week, whether it’s the Sharks at home or Panthers in Penrith.

He said he wouldn’t even review the game.

But as for what happens in the next few weeks, Stuart said he “couldn’t be more proud of this squad of players” after being written off after injuries earlier in the season.

Ricky Stuart doesn't care what the critics have to say.

He also had a message for the critics and those wanting to write off the Raiders.

“We get wrote off a lot,” he said. “We got wrote off about this game. I got criticised about playing these players tonight which made me even more committed to playing them. We love that in Canberra, getting wrote off, getting bagged, and pushed around, it’s what makes us tough down there. As soon as we started to get written off about this game it just made me more confident.”

He added that after star hooker Josh Hodgson got ruled out for the season, he said it “would give us an opportunity to show us what’s under the jumper”.

The Raiders have won nine of 11 since Hodgson’s injury and remain one of the main contenders in 2020.

The latest result continues to show the Raiders’ depth, after dealing with a horror injury toll throughout the season.

For the Sharks, it sees the side become the first team since the North Sydney Bears to make the finals in a top eight system to make the finals without a win against a top eight side.

The Raiders rushed to a 24-4 lead after just 28 minutes and led 32-10 after 50 minutes.

But the Sharks fought back hard, making a real game of it, when Wade Graham crossed in the 55th minute, followed by Bryson Goodwin in the 60th minute.

The Raiders’ Harley Smith-Shields was then handed a try after his side forced a drop out from the kick off.

A short drop out went straight to the second gamer, who crossed the line untouched, making it 38-22.

The Sharks still had some star power.

It was the type of moment that Sharks coach Josh Morris said added to a “comedy of errors there at times”, with the side failing to field the kick-off three times after restarts before the moment he called a “coach killer”.

The Sharks were not going away however, with Briton Nikora scoring with 14 minutes still to go to make it a 10 point ball game.

But a sloppy final 10 minutes from both sides meant the score didn’t change and the Raiders did what they needed to do to hang on for the win and be provisionally in the top four.

Sharks coach John Morris said it was a difficult game with both teams resting some players.

“It was a difficult game to get through, we won the second half but we shot ourselves in the foot so many times tonight we couldn’t get in the game,” Morris said.

“We wanted to come here and get some momentum and confidence going into next week but it’s hard when you’ve got a lot of players out.”