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Raiders coach Ricky Stuart criticized the Warriors and declined to answer any questions in what was supposed to be a postgame press conference after his team lost 34-31 on Saturday night.
The Raiders lost three players with injuries early in the game in Canberra and also caused Curtis Scott to carry on with a fractured floating rib.
Stuart’s team went from leading 31-10 with 31 minutes remaining, to losing to a try by Adam Pompey in the 78th minute.
The veteran coach put a chair on the sidelines late in the game and when he arrived at a press conference that lasted just 90 seconds, he said he had only done it to avoid being fined.
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However, during Stuart’s brief spiel, he said that he would rather coach the Raiders than the Warriors, but declined to say why he lost his team.
“In all my years as a coach, it’s probably 18, 19, 20 years, I’ve never been involved in a bigger team performance,” Stuart said of the Raiders.
Mark Nolan / Getty Images
Jordan Rapana came close to scoring a try to win the game in the closing seconds against the Warriors, but Roger Tuivasa-Sheck saved the day.
“Whatever minute it was when we only had one player left on the exchange bench (minute 13), I had never seen a group of individuals, because we were 14, we played so well and yet we played through so much adversity and I play for each other.
“I know it is in us and I have learned tonight that it is even more in us.
“I have a winning team there. We didn’t get the points tonight, but I know which locker room I’d rather be training in tonight and that’s my locker room.
“I only came here because it’s my job, I respect the fact that you (the media) have a job and I have $ 20,000 hanging over my head.
“If I don’t show up here tonight, I’ll be fined. If all the money went to the Ricky Stuart Foundation, I would tell them the truth today, because then they would fine me and I would know that the money will go to the best cause I know of.
Brett Hemmings / Getty Images
Ricky Stuart says he would rather coach the Raiders than the Warriors.
“But I can’t tell you the truth. I can’t tell you how that game played out, because I would be fined.
“So I’m not going to answer any questions, I’ve done my job, thank you.”
With that, Stuart stood up and walked out.
The Raiders coach has a history of badmouthing the Warriors in post-game press conferences.
In 2019, he defended Hudson Young’s injury at Pompey, saying, “I know he didn’t hit the kid,” Stuart said of the incident.
“If it was an eye injury, look, I don’t approve of any of this, but if it was an eye injury, the boy would stagger, but he didn’t.”
Subsequently, Young was suspended by the NRL for eight weeks.
Last year, Stuart seemed to show little sympathy for Warriors players trapped in Australia, away from their families.
“It is our job. Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the Warriors for their decision, “he said.
“It is very difficult for them, but they pay them a lot of money, they pay the club very well.”
