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The Canberra Raiders’ poor form this season is masking what could be the building blocks of a future premiership run.
Coach Ricky Stuart and many players are under fire from the fan-base and the media due to their poor form, as well as the inability to sign big-name players despite handing out blank cheques.
Stuart is telling anyone who will listen that the temporary pain the club is going through is necessary, and will eventually lead to long-term success for the once mighty club.
It is a tough situation for both the Raiders and their fans.
Unfortunately for the fans, it may be a few years before we can tell whether Stuart has been a success or not.
And for Stuart, it may be he is never given the time he needs to properly assemble a team he believes capable of being success for the long term.
I wrote a few weeks ago, about the parallels between the Raiders, and their NFL cousins, the Oakland Raiders.
Oakland general manager Reggie McKenzie is doing the same job Stuart has been brought into three teams in recent years to do – rebuild a team which hasn’t been successful in years.
His recent coaching with Parramatta, and before that the NSW Blues, shows that there may be hope for the Raiders.
After winning State of Origin for the first time in nine years, NSW representatives Greg Bird and Beau Scott both paid tribute to Stuart’s work in his most recent tenure with the Blues.
They may not have won the series under Stuart, but he restored the faith and belief in the playing group that the great Queensland team they were playing could be beaten.
Stuart also recently said he was pleased to see how well Parramatta is going this year.
He stopped short of claiming credit for it, but said he did feel that sacking a number of players from the team while he was coach, was a move which put Parramatta into a position to be successful.
Whether that is the case is debatable, and there are certainly arguments for and against what he did with Parramatta.
Stuart’s comments are intriguing, because while he was at Parramatta he was selling the same message he is now selling to Raiders fans – be patient.
Stuart inherited a team which finished dead last in 2012, and it finished dead last in 2013 under his stewardship, and right now, the Raiders are also a chance for the wooden spoon.
One of the points which has been glossed over because of the poor form of Stuart’s recent teams, is that he inherited teams which performed poorly the year before.
In other words, while Stuart may have been brought in to turn around a team’s fortunes, he had a team which didn’t have the capability to win a lot of games.
One of the points he stressed while at Parramatta was that he felt the playing roster was below NRL standard and success would not come instantly.
Let’s look at another team from Western Sydney, the Penrith Panthers.
Phil Gould and Ivan Cleary were brought in by the Panthers to make the team a powerhouse again, after being in a similar predicament to the Blues, Eels and Raiders for the past decade.
There were probably many, myself included, who scoffed when Jamie Soward and Peter Wallace were signed last year, but look where the Panthers sit after 15 rounds. They are tied for first place with the strongest team of the last ten years, the Manly Sea Eagles.
Of course, they could easily tumble out of the eight at this stage of the season, but their lofty position demonstrates what patience can achieve.
Again, there were many who probably wondered what Gould and Cleary were doing, especially while Michael Jennings languished in the NSW Cup before subsequently being sacked.
Jennings significantly contributed to the Roosters’ premiership last year, but Gould and Cleary both felt that he did not fit what they were trying to build at Penrith and sacked him.
It was a tough move, which at the time probably drew a lot of criticism from the Panthers’ fan-base, but nevertheless the move was made.
Stuart too, will have to make moves like that with the Raiders, just like the one he did at Parramatta.
It is certainly debatable if Stuart can achieve for Canberra, what Gould and Cleary are in the process of achieving with Penrith.
Raiders fans are losing faith and the Canberra front office may not have the courage to retain Stuart for the time he needs.
Ultimately, it will be unfair to judge Stuart’s time manning the Raiders’ longboat until he has had a few years to really clean out the roster and make his own changes.
Whether he is given the time he needs though is another matter.
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