Ex-Canberra bad boy Josh Dugan says he deserved to be booed from the field when sin-binned during St George Illawarra’s 22-20 NRL win over the Raiders at GIO Stadium.
Dugan’s decision to knock the ball out of Jarrod Croker’s hands as the Raiders’ captain was running back from the in-goal area for a quick 20m restart almost killed off his side’s chances on Saturday of pulling off a stellar comeback.
Having already reduced the deficit to eight points after being 18-0 down early, the Dragons were flying home with a wet sail.
But Dugan’s brain explosion in his 100th NRL match gave the Raiders a much-needed reprieve, and most of the 11,774 crowd were all too happy to jeer him off the field.
It showed just how much Raiders fans still feel betrayed by Dugan, who was sacked from the club in 2013 after a string of off-field offences – only to come back to Canberra last year and spearhead the Dragons to break a 14-year hoodoo.
Dugan returned to the paddock with 15 minutes to go to help his side score two tries through Mitch Rein and fellow ex-Raider Joel Thompson – jagging their first win of the season in the process.
But rather than rub it back in the faces of those who used to hold him up as their poster boy, Dugan accepted he deserved to be booed off the field.
“With my actions, it was fully deserved. I’m not going to shy away from what I did to get sacked,” Dugan said post-match.
“I loved playing for Canberra but things didn’t go to plan. A few stuff ups on my behalf and I was shown the door.
“I hold no grudges.
“I think I’ve got a few years left in me to come down here and cop a few boos.
“I’ve just got to take it and move on with it.”
Up 18-0 after 20 minutes through tries to Sia Soliola, Blake Austin and Josh Hodgson, the Raiders were only denied a much-deserved fourth try by the video referee.
In what’s proving to be the NRL’s latest barbecue stopper, Austin was denied a second four-pointer due to a double movement, despite it looking like momentum had taken him over the line.
The Raiders then dropped their bundle and momentum swung to the Dragons, who suddenly looked nothing like a side who had only scored eight points in almost 200 minutes of NRL in 2015.
An overly abrupt Ricky Stuart said he didn’t want to comment on the pivotal video referee decision post-match.
“No, it’s a waste of time,” the Raiders’ coach said.
“What did you make of it?
“It doesn’t matter now, does it? Did you think it was a try? You saw the replay.”
sack ricky stuart campaign
Guest
next week blake Ferguson against his old club the good news for Ferguson the game is not at canberra stadium but the bad news for Ferguson is all the raiders fans making the trip to Allianz stadium is really going to give him a hard time like they did with Todd carney except it backfired with carney having a great game scoring 2 tries hopefully Ferguson has a poor game and ultimately we get the result
sack ricky stuart campaign
Guest
Hey Zim ricky stuart half time messages is the catalyst to why the team has been poor in second halves Ricky stuart saying the team is not first grade standard was just comedy gold and pathetic maybe someone should tell him that his conservative coaching style is the reason why they lost The raiders need to go back to playing the late 80s and early 90s style of football by playing hard aggresive attacking footy and perhaps they can get some marquee signings in the process
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Guest
Actually Dugan deserves to be completely ignored but Raiders supporters just can't help themselves. The pain from seeing their pin up boy turn into a pin head still runs deep.
zim
Guest
Please explain to me how you came to the conclusion that stuart thought it was over affter 40 minutes? Considering in the press conference he said they let them back into the game in the 35th minute. This loss is all on the players.
sack ricky stuart campaign
Guest
Ricky stuart deserves it for thinking they won the game after 40 minutes Someone needs to tell that clown the game goes for 80 minutes not at half time
sack ricky stuart campaign
Guest
ricky stuart should be booed
Charles NSW
Guest
Put him back in the centres where it is his position!
Elma Dudd
Guest
He deserves to be booed by everyone .
George W
Guest
Still can't talk after booing the bugger last night. It's good that he has finally said something that indicates he knows he was responsible for getting sacked by the Raiders. He wasn't hard done by, and it was his previous assertion that he was a victim was the thing that realy got to me. In the first half, the Raiders played a team that would have been flat out holding the ball in an 100m unopposed passing drill. The Dragons were disgusting, and hilarious, for half an hour. Which made their win all the more galling, and made for some very interesting "discussions" with Dragons fans as fulltime hit. I hate concrete - it is so hard to bury oneself in it. That was the worst loss I've ever seen, given that after 20 minutes it seemed a 3 figure victory to the Raiders was a possibility. Seems the Raiders players thought the same way too.
Johnnyball
Guest
Carney, Dugan, Fergerson all men with no sense of honour. Create problems to break contracts and if stories are true, NRL demands they be sacked by the Raiders then after short term in the wilderness, they are permitted to play for another cashed up club where they become super stars. I too would expect a boo or two as well Josh.