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Stuart saga: do contracts even matter anymore?

16th September, 2013
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Ricky Stuart has plenty of pearls of wisdom to offer. AAP Image/Paul Miller
Roar Pro
16th September, 2013
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In a disastrous season, at last some good news for Parramatta with Ricky Stuart announcing league’s worst kept secret that he was leaving and going to coach the Raiders.

In doing so he was walking out after only one year of his three-year contract.

His signing was heralded as the greatest signing since Jack Gibson, but has ended up the greatest signing since Stephen Kearney.

Up until last week Stuart was claiming he hadn’t been speaking to Canberra which was an obvious lie, and his deceit is all the more breathtaking given his strident criticism of Israel Folau and Josh Papalli.

Stuart has predictably been hammered since the announcement, but he has hit back saying: “I’ve been assassinated over the last day and I’ll be assassinated tomorrow…. But they are small-minded people. They don’t understand the decision I’ve made.”

Could I be one of those small-minded people?

Ricky was brought into Parramatta to rebuild after a number of tough seasons and two sacked coaches.

What he’s done is detonate the place, then run away leaving a smoking husk of a ruin – in even worse shape and not hanging around long enough for the rebuilding part; the harder part of the equation.

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The take home message to his players following his example is “quit when it gets hard”.

There are people saying don’t blame Stuart, he’s made an honourable decision as he wants to be closer to Canberra to be closer to support for his family and daughter with special needs.

That’s well and good, but perhaps he should have thought about that a bit more before he knowingly and willingly signed a three-year deal.

The family defence would be valid if it was a situation that arose during the year that changed his circumstances rather than one that was well known at the time he signed.

I don’t know where Ricky was living in 2012, and I could be wrong (first time for everything) but I can’t see why he couldn’t be based in Canberra to fulfil the duties of NSW coach, so if it’s “family first” why not continue in that role in 2013 and do it from Canberra?

If we can’t criticise Stuart’s decision to quit Parramatta for family reasons then let’s go back in time and dump on him for ignoring those same family reasons and instead taking a massive wad of cash in the first place.

Good luck to Ricky, the party in this triangle with the most head scratching decision is Canberra.

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What have they seen in Ricky and his NRL coaching career that makes them want to fire up the dump truck full of cash and punch in Ricky’s house in the GPS?

After witnessing his exits from Roosters, Cronulla and now Parramatta, where every team has been left in a far worse position on his exit than where it was when he took over, what possible confidence can Canberra have that:

1. He will see out the contract before he quits. You sign a coach that doesn’t stick to his word (or signed contract) and you get a coach that can’t stick to his contract.

2. That he will improve the place?

Gus Gould helpfully added his two cents worth in the Sun Herald by saying that Stuart is a good coach if he has a good roster to work with and a strong board to go along with it. So basically he’s good coach when there isn’t much coaching required.

Gus pointed to his three successive grand finals with the Roosters.

With a team that boasted the likes of Brett Mullins, Justin Hodges, Anthony Minichello, Brad Fittler, Craig Wing, Adrian Morley, Craig Fitzgibbon, Luke Ricketson and Bryan Fletcher, I suspect the hardest part of Ricky’s job was giving the players directions to the ground where they were playing each week.

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