Big Pete
International Captain
- Mar 12, 2008
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[h=1]NRL 2016: Canberra Raiders re-sign Ricky Stuart as head coach for a further two years[/h]
IT’S not possible to oversell the vitriol that has surrounded Ricky Stuart for most of his coaching career.
Stuart, who re-signed with the Raiders until the end of 2018 on Wednesday, has not had an easy run.
Even though it started in a blaze of glory at the Roosters, controversy, bad luck and poor results have followed Stuart like a bad smell — a stench that generally overpowered anything good wherever he went.
None of it has been through a lack of trying. His passion has always been evident.He took the Roosters to a premiership and three consecutive grand finals in the early 2000s, but once Brad Fittler called it quits, Stuart’s winning percentage started a downward spiral that would not pick up again until 2008 at Cronulla.
Ricky Stuart’s smile has started to come back at the Raiders. Source: News Corp Australia
At its height, Stuart’s winning percentage was at 77.8 per cent in 2004, but it plummeted to 33.3 per cent in his final year at the Roosters in 2006 before jumping back up to 69.2 per cent in 2008.
It was the last year the percentage has been above 50 per cent.
Stuart reached the preliminary finals with the Sharks and finished at the top of the ladder, but the following seasons were rocked by a sex scandal, sackings and the club’s financial problems, and the results reflected as much.
It was lost in the drama of the moment, but when he quit the Sharks with just under two years left on his contract, the club said the results were not Stuart’s doing. In fact, he was their rock during such a violent period of turmoil as the team finished 15th and 14th in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Mixed results at State of Origin level and losing the 2013 World Cup with the Kangaroos for the first time since 1972 did not help the stigma.
Stuart coaching from the sideline. Source: News Limited
Then there was Parramatta. He left after one year of a three-year contract after sacking a huge portion of the playing group, and the team finished with its second consecutive wooden spoon.
“Making the observation from this distance, the negative perception around Ricky would have been the circumstances that he left Parramatta (in), and I guess that’s not hard to understand,” said former Raiders coach Matt Elliott.
“What got lost in that whole debate that went on, no one really recognised what was going on with his family and obviously his child (his daughter Emma has autism) and the opportunity for him to have more support and to actually pursue his passion, which is obviously coaching, and it all lined up best at Canberra.”
What was also lost in the drama of Parramatta was how much the playing group needed a facelift — a fact that former Eels great Nathan Hindmarsh did not miss.
Back in 2014 ahead of the Eels’ first clash with the Raiders since their former coach’s departure, Hindmarsh said Stuart deserved credit for the clean out and for luring players such as Nathan
Peats and Corey Norman to the club.
When Stuart joined the Raiders in 2014, it was with a mission to rebuild the club following scandals of their own. Returning to the club with whom he built his playing reputation as one of the best, Stuart has always been frank about the fact that success won’t be immediate.
Ricky Stuart copped plenty of criticism over his coaching of the Eels. Source: News Limited
Still, he was scarcely given an easy ride through disappointing results in his first year.
Then recruitment became an issue when star Wests Tigers fullback James Tedesco signed with the club and backflipped, and they missed out on signing Panthers winger Josh Mansour and NSW star James Tamou.
The club signed little-known English hooker Josh Hodgson, utility Blake Austin and former Roosters centre Sia Soliola and barely any weight was put behind their future success.
What were thought of as soft purchases at the end of 2014 turned into an exceptional eye for unlikely talent in 2015.
With the help of a green but gifted roster, Stuart steered the Raiders to their biggest ever comeback win when they were trailing 22-0 against the Wests Tigers and won 32-22 at Leichhardt Oval.
The Raiders’ 10th place finish was the highest a Stuart-coached team had finished since 2005 with the Roosters, who were ninth at the end of the season. It was also five places higher than the year before.
Stuart’s winning percentage also rose above 40 per cent for the first time since 2008.
Amazingly, this came despite claiming the worst home record in the club’s history with three wins from 12 games — four of which were by less than four points.
“I feel like the results that he got out of a young Canberra team last year and some of the wisdom behind the recruitment and the way that they structured their selection was very positive,” Elliott said.
Stuart as a young coach with the Sharks. Source: News Limited
“The fact that they lost so many games by a close margin is an indicator that they’re not far away but when you do something consistently, there is a reason for it.”
“It’s whether they can mature to that next level and become a team who can consistently make the eight and they can become a real competitive force and that’s how coaches are measured,” he said.
“You’ve got to write some of it off as (inexperience) but as a coach you can’t make people get older and people are only going to accumulate experience at the speed that time allows you to, so I don’t think Ricky is going to say ‘we’ll be a much better team in two years time, let’s just wait until then’, because that isn’t a coach’s mentality.
“But I guess his real test is to build on that in the upcoming year.
It hasn’t happened overnight, but the rhetoric and results around Ricky Stuart are changing.
With the addition of young half Aidan Sezer to the roster in 2016, the real test for Stuart is to get his winning percentage above 50/50.
“They’ve got work to do, I’ve got no doubt he recognises that,” Elliott said.
“The proof in all that stuff is always in results.”
This strikes me as a really odd signing.
Either it's a sign of the current coaching landscape and how little is on offer.
Or the Raiders really rate Sticky's services.
I think the Raiders have done well considering but I struggle to see them ever winning a premiership under Sticky.
If you're not winning a premiership, then what's the point?
Regardless, I'm glad he's still involved in the game. He's one of the most entertaining coaches in the game (especially now with Tooves gone) and watching him go through the highs and lows is one of the most visceral experiences in the game.
Onya Ricky. :takdir:
