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Ricky Stuart has called out some of his underperforming individuals in a tirade after his Canberra Raiders lived up to their ‘faders’ tag by throwing away another double-digit lead to lose 18-12 to the North Queensland Cowboys.
Sticky saw him men booed off by sections of the crowd at the end and was asked if it was a nine out of ten level of frustration, provoking a spray for some of his players.
“It’s worse than that mate,” said Stuart. “It should never have got to that. I’m sick of defending playing 40 minutes of football.
“The way that we started that second half was pathetic and there’s some individuals who just didn’t start the way that they needed to to get us back to work.
“I’ll deal with that when we get back to work, it’s not on. I’m sick of it.
“There’s individuals in there who need to look at themselves because it’s not NRL standard. It’s not what we want to do as a football team.
We’ve shown what we can do in the first 40 minutes and we were let down by our performance in the second half. Blokes need to have a good hard look at it.”
Stuart was particularly pointed in defending some players, but not others.
“There’s four or five blokes playing good football,” he said. “Jack (Wighton) is in the best form of his career, Joe Tapine is in the best form of his career and Josh Papali’I had one of his better games in the first 40 minutes. He really took the lead.
“But there’s certain blokes not performing. They’re not contributing the standard that they need to contribute to, simply as that. I keep sitting here defending them but that’s not going to help anyone.”
He also went for Xavier Savage, the rookie fullback who made just his fourth NRL appearance, but who has been widely touted as a future star by the media.
Savage only came on with ten minutes to play – replacing the injured Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad – and on his first hit-up, was dumped into touch after stepping to the wrong side.
“That’s why Xavier Savage hasn’t been playing first grade, because he’s still learning the game,” said an angered Stuart.
“So many people want X Factor, they want Xavier out there, but that’s why he hasn’t been.
“He’s still learning the awareness of the game. But I’m only the dumb coach. So many people want an X factor but we don’t have that at the moment, we’re still teaching people how to play a game of football at an NRL standard.”
Canberra have now lost several times last year from winnable positions and very nearly threw it away in Round 1 against Cronulla, but even by their own standards, this was a remarkable capitulation.
Ricky Stuart’s men missed 21 tackles in the second half – compared to just two in the first – and completed at just 67%.
North Queensland hadn’t played a game outside of the Sunshine State in 9 months, but were unfazed by the trip and showed bags of heart to overcome a slow start and drag themselves back into the contest.
Cowboys coach Todd Payten said that though he was disappointed with the performance in the first half that allowed Canberra the lead, he was impressed by the grit that his team showed to come back.
“Those type of things cost us last week and I thought we addressed it through the week,” he said. “I thought that first 40 minutes we were doing the same thing but we were able to sharpen up, put some pressure back on them with field position and ball control and that’s why we’re here.
“It (his halftime talk) was pretty self-explanatory. I didn’t have to say much. But I gave them a wrap at being only 12-0 down.
“There was a set at the 20m mark that I thought was the game there and then, if we’d have conceded there she’s a long way back.
“But we showed some grit and resilience, our condition showed through and proved again to the squad that if we can play the game the right way we’re not a bad team.
“We’ve worked hard on preseason, throwing curveballs at the team and some real mental challenges, not just physical.
“That was to equip them for the season ahead. We’ve got some kids who had to learn quick, but we tried to put them under as much mental pressure as physical pressure.”
Jason Taumalolo, in particular, was immense. The Tonga international ran for 227m, more than a hundred more than the next best Cowboy and 75 more than anyone else on the field. If ever a captain sparked his team into life, this was it.
“I think he led the team really well,” said Payten. “He had 23 carries and I don’t know how many metres. Jase is a leader through his actions, the players love having him on the park with them.”
“He defended and moved well, there was some tough efforts late in the game. He’s got his motor going and he’s going a bit of continuity in his footy. He was really strong for us.”
They shouldn’t have had the chance: Canberra had ample opportunity to win the game before the break, enjoying 63% of territory and 53% of the ball in a half in which North Queensland repeatedly shot themselves in the foot through penalties.
It was an inauspicious start for the Cowboys. They let the Raiders into their end via a Reece Robson high shot and from good ball, Tom Starling made Jason Taumalolo look very slow indeed, scooting beneath the black dot untouched.
Another penalty followed – Jeremiah Nanai this time – so came another try, this one the work of Corey Harawira-Naera, who made the telling intervention to release Jordan Rapana into the corner.
Nanai, who has been so good thus far in 2022, was having a shocker.
He got a Kyle Feldt try wiped off by standing in the line and inviting Jack Wighton to express his thespian instincts, before being sconed by a football in the process of tackling Matt Timoko before the ball had come to earth.
Of the eight first half penalties that North Queensland conceded, four were his alone.
The only thing keeping the score respectable was that the Raiders were wasteful. Ricky Stuart would have been unhappy to go in just 12-0 up.
They would pay for their profligacy. Canberra took one straight out of the Cowboys’ playbook by giving up a penalty through Tom Starling and then allowing Heilum Luki to score a soft try.
It would have been easy for Canberra to let the momentum slip – as they had against Cronulla in Round 1 – but the reaction was strong.
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad halted an attack via a ball steal and a welcoming committee of Raiders dumped Tom Dearden back over the line after a kick. The pressure began to build, but Brad Schneider was held up and denied.
Again, they would be punished. Nicoll-Klokstad dropped a kick cold and gave the position for Valentine Holmes to score. He goaled from under the posts and it as 12-all with a quarter hour to play.
Nanai, on the back of that horror first half, would redeem himself. He has excelled this season in fielding kicks and managed to get the Cowboys in front by getting to another, this time from Scott Drinkwater.
The Raiders needed another big moment and they got one. With the Cowboys setting up for a field goal to take it to a two score lead, Harawira-Naera nicked the ball.
Canberra got two more attempts at the line, but on both occasions, they bombed it in comical fashion, throwing passes into decoy runners and handing the ball over. It was an appropriate end.