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Opinion
To paraphrase someone who should know better, launching a personal attack via a media conference on someone you could speak to directly at the same venue is the action of a weak-gutted person. A dog act, if you will.
Ricky Stuart deserves to be banned for his bizarre and callous tirade against Panthers five-eighth Jaeman Salmon on Saturday night.
If he doesn’t get suspended now, he never will.
This incident comes after many fines in previous years for using press conferences to yell about referees, the bunker, clouds.
Stuart could have easily responded to the question about the Salmon kicking incident by saying he thought the player should have been sin-binned, sent off or suspended.
He could have called the act of lashing out with his boot towards Tom Starling’s groin, in true rugby league parlance, “a dog act”.
Jaeman Salmon scores a try. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
But to fly off the handle and claim Salmon was “a weak-gutted dog” for an incident in an under-12s game when he was a teammate of Stuart’s son is beyond ridiculous.
The child at the time of said incident was indeed a child.
The man who was Cronulla’s NRL coach at the time and now holds the same title at the Raiders should indeed have acted like an adult.
Stuart was contacted by Nine reporter Danny Weidler on Saturday night in the aftermath of his meltdown and the coach said he was not backing down from his comments.
So even after walking out of the media conference room, bypassing the opportunity to thrash it out face to face (man to man, you might say) with Salmon in the visitors’ dressing room at GIO Stadium, he did not see the error in his churlish ways.
Funnily enough, the next day when the story was dominating the NRL news cycle anywhere you looked, Stuart issued an apology while also partly explaining the history of his feud with Salmon.
Interestingly, the statement led off not with how sorry he was but that he had said what he said in the press conference.
“I regret saying what I did on that platform after the game.”
Right, but that’s kinda not the point. The heart of the matter is that a senior NRL coach of more than 20 years’ experience shouldn’t be launching personal attacks on a rival player. Just like he shouldn’t have done in past instances when he’s petulantly lashed out at match officials.
“I allowed my emotions to get the better of me and for that I am very sorry.”
It was the kind of apology you put out when you’ve been told you have to do so.
If he had done so on the night of the match, to Salmon or someone from the Penrith camp at the very least in the sheds, it would not sound so hollow the following day.
It wasn’t surprising to see Raiders CEO Don Furner announce on Monday that the club would cop any sanction that comes their way for Stuart’s hissyfit.
“As a club we do not condone the comments … coaches also have a responsibility to ensure they conduct themselves professionally when making public comment.”
The NRL is yet to announce Stuart’s penalty after its integrity unit investigated the matter.
A ban for the final four games of the season is probably over the top but it would send an unequivocal message to Stuart that he’s on thin ice.
Shane Flanagan was the last NRL coach to thumb his nose at sanctions handed down from Rugby League Central and the follow-up penalties have significantly affected his chances of ever landing a main role again.
Tom Starling. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Stuart should at the very least be banned for a couple of games, not just attending the matches but preparing the team at training through the week, which is where the majority of a coach’s work gets done.
The Raiders recently re-signed Stuart until the end of 2025. Was another club trying to pry him away? Unlikely.
He did well in 2019, his sixth season as Raiders coach, to get the team to the grand final, where they were gallant and more than a little unlucky in defeat against the Roosters.
They’ve won five more games than they’ve lost in his 216 games at the helm in the national capital but have made the finals in just three of the eight completed seasons and need to win all four of their remaining matches or that record will become three in nine.
Are these the credentials of a coach that you have to re-sign before another club comes in waving a chequebook?
Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Stuart is a premiership-winning coach – that was in 2002, his first year with a clipboard in hand. He lost the next two grand finals with a star-studded Roosters side, he then got Cronulla close to the decider in one of his four seasons at the club but finished 11th, 15th and 14th in the other three.
His one season attempting to rebuild Parramatta resulted in five wins, 19 losses and the infamous whiteboard incident when a bunch of players found out their services were no longer required when they saw their name written in texta during a team meeting.
The NRL’s head honchos should get out a texta, of the red variety, and put it through Stuart’s name for the next two rounds.
Another slap on the wrists in the form of a fine will not be considered strong enough action – the “weak-gutted” rant needs to be countered with some intestinal fortitude by the big dogs.