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Everybody hates Ricky, but why?

21st August, 2014
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Have a bit of sympathy for Ricky, will ya? (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Charles Knight)
Roar Guru
21st August, 2014
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2538 Reads

After his Canberra Raiders succumbed to yet another fairly embarrassing loss last Saturday, Ricky Stuart delivered what has been described by many as a rant about the need to build his squad and bring in State of Origin level players.

The comments were immediately leapt on by the rugby league media and the predictable wave of criticism descended.

Whether Stuart was right about the need to add quality players to the Raiders squad, or the devastating effect that being forced to fire Josh Dugan and Blake Ferguson had on the team, is hardly the point.

Stuart was always going to get bombarded with scorn because everybody hates Ricky.

It is truly remarkable how one-sided this fight is. It is genuinely hard to find any Ricky Stuart supporters outside of the Raiders hierarchy. At least one writer for a major newspaper refers to Ricky as the game’s greatest fraud.

Any story on The Roar, or others, even remotely about the Raiders attracts a torrent of disparaging comments about Stuart regardless of its content. Anyone foolish enough to support Stuart can expect similar treatment.

The simple question is why? Why does one mediocre coach attract hatred while half a dozen others get largely ignored?

Let us be clear, Ricky Stuart has a very poor record in recent times. His last good season has long since faded from memory and he has presided over back-to-back terrible seasons with different clubs.

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So it is fair that he attracts criticism. But the tone and volume of the personal attacks Stuart receives seem out of kilter with his coaching record.

The first knock on Stuart is generally that he is overrated as a coach. But why is that a reason to hate him? People say he profited from Graham Murray’s work at the Roosters, yet no one hates Trent Robinson for taking another pre-loaded Roosters team to the title.

Ricky also gets charged with his team’s failures to recruit big name stars. Somehow because players like Israel Folau, James Tamou and Kevin Proctor decided to stay with their current teams this makes Stuart personally responsible for failing to attract stars.

Yet it seems unlikely that when Daly Cherry-Evans rejects the Broncos to stay at the Sea Eagles that Wayne Bennett will be blamed. This claim is particularly silly when it comes to blaming him for the Raiders’ current woes when the club hasn’t recruited a current Origin player in years.

Eels fans seem most confused about Stuart. On the one hand they are outraged that he cut and run on the club, yet on the other hand they think he’s vastly overrated as a coach and they’re happy to be rid of him? Which is it? It can’t be both.

Furthermore it’s not like Stuart really took the team backwards. The club went from last to last – he didn’t so much win the spoon as retain it. Plus he conducted a player cleanout that the feckless Eels board had previously been unwilling to undertake.

Virtually none of the players Ricky let go are now first grade regulars and their departures opened up opportunities for the players who have been such great contributors for the club this year.

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The Ricky detractors also cite statistics about how many points his recent teams have conceded or how long it’s been since he won back-to-back games. Again, let us be clear that Stuart’s record in recent years is very poor and there are certainly serious concerns. However, there is a good reason people like to cite his record from 2009 onwards.

The 2008 Sharks season gets helpfully ignored by Stuart’s detractors. And why wouldn’t it be? After all Ricky took a team whose best players were a 32-year-old Brett Kimmorley and Paul Gallen, before he truly became the terminator, to one game shy of the grand final.

That team was a gritty defensive unit with an eight and three record in games decided by eight points or less. They succeeded despite their best attacking weapons – staid winger Luke Covell and never-to-be seen-again fullback Brett Kearney. This is why all of the detractors count his record from 2009 onwards.

The reality is that the remarkably skewed commentary when it comes to Stuart’s supposed failings actually undercuts some very real concerns. Much like when Doug Bollinger claimed he was going to give “100,000 per cent” in an upcoming Test match, the hyperbole around Stuart actually undermines what are legitimate concerns about his coaching. It is very hard to take critics seriously when they surround their complaints with vitriol and personal attacks.

Is Ricky Stuart a great coach? Probably not. Is he even a good coach? Maybe not even that. But that this should make him the most loathed man in rugby league still seems strange

Follow Lachlan on twitter @mrsports83

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