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Ricky Stuart has unleashed on the critics of his decision to rest Jarrod Croker from this weekend’s win over the Wests Tigers, taking aim at ‘muppets’ in the media who disagreed with his decision.
Sticky was questioned by a reporter in the post-match press conference following his side’s late win, in which they threw away an 18-0 lead to trail 19-18, only to nick it in the end with a late penalty goal.
“When did we miss him?” he responded to the journalist’s question. “It was 18-0 with 67 gone. You reckon Jarrod would have stopped those three (tries)?
“I’m one of the leaders of this club, and it was a risk. In leadership, you have to take a risk.
“These muppets who have been bagging me, they’re all the guys who’ll read the textbooks and talk about courageous leadership, game management and talk at corporate functions, but they can’t actually execute it.
“They’re not the people I want in my football team, in the trenches with me. There wasn’t a player there tonight that didn’t want Jarrod to be having his 300th game at home. I didn’t plan this last week.
“What I did was the right thing by all our Canberra fans, not to go out and buy tickets to come here, to save their hard-earned money because I wanted them to know I was resting Jarrod this week.
“I could have kept Jarrod in the team all week, they would have bought their tickets and the poor buggers would have had to come down here after work to see Jarrod play 300.
“But no, I did the right thing, I was open and honest. I was probably wrong to be open and honest, I might as well just lie. It really shitted me off that these so-called experts who have never man-managed, who have never been leaders in regards to making tough decisions.
“That was a big risk tonight and I knew I was going to cop it from every one of you in here tonight if we’d have got beaten, but I was prepared to take the risk.
“That’s leadership. Not the other muppets who pretend they know.”
Stuart went on to explain how much it meant to have the game at home, especially as Jason Croker’s 300th game was an away game in Brisbane.
“This’ll be one of the biggest events that we’ve had for a player in Canberra,:” said Stuart. “Jarrod Croker is one of my best mates, I’ve made a decision and I want Jarrod to play his 300 at home. It’ll be a great event for the club.
“We get nothing at the Raiders. We’re battlers, we’re brawlers, you could see that tonight. We’re happy to be proud of it.
“We’ll have a great event this week and Jarrod Croker deserves everything he gets next weekend. He’ll have to bring the energy because he’ll be playing with a team that’s very wounded and tired.”