{"id":75679,"date":"2021-05-25T01:37:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T01:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=75679"},"modified":"2021-05-25T03:58:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T03:58:02","slug":"danger-signs-in-rickys-curious-crisis-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=75679","title":{"rendered":"Danger signs in Ricky's curious crisis response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart<\/a> is yet to provide genuine answers for the Raiders' shocking form slump and alarm bells are ringing, rugby league great Peter Sterling says.<\/p>\n

The Raiders lost five games in a row prior to beating the last-placed Bulldogs by two points in Magic Round, and their most recent outing was a 34-10 defeat against a severely depleted Melbourne Storm team. On the ladder at least, it's a proper crisis.<\/p>\n

There have been various issues with a number of star players, including former co-captain Josh Hodgson, halfback George Williams and back-rower Joe Tapine. Yet Stuart has insisted that his team is united and engaged, despite sitting 11th on the ladder with a 4-7 record when Canberra was rated a premiership threat at season kick-off.<\/p>\n

"I listened to Ricky Stuart's press conference after the [Storm] game, I think it went less than two minutes. He said it's not attitude, he said it's not a lot of things; I didn't hear what it is. I've got no idea what's happened down there," Sterling, a fellow ex-champion halfback, said on Wide World of Sports' Sterlo's Wrap<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I know there were key players missing. Unfortunate news that Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad will miss the majority of the season, they've got Josh Hodgson on the sideline, Jack Wighton didn't play in this game as well, they will come back soon, [Josh] Papali'i.<\/p>\n

"But there was still enough quality out there against a Melbourne Storm team … the spine in Round One for the Melbourne Storm was Papenhuyzen, Munster, Hughes and Smith; Nicho Hynes, Chris Lewis, Cooper Johns and Brandon Smith [against Canberra].<\/p>\n

"Now, you take the one, six, seven and nine out of any team, how do you knock over a side 34-10 after trailing by 10 and get the job done in such emphatic fashion?"<\/p>\n

Sterling said that Melbourne's hardiness against all odds was in stark contrast to Canberra's frailty.<\/p>\n

"I loved the way that the Melbourne Storm, when they went 10 down, they'd had a lot of football, they don't get frustrated. They remain patient, even when they're not quite hitting the mark and when they do, all of a sudden they just get on that roll and the Canberra Raiders were unable to stop that," Sterling said.<\/p>\n

"But if I'm Ricky Stuart, I don't know where the season's going. He keeps talking positive, that there are no dramas down there, but I don't know where their game has gone, I don't know where their confidence has gone.<\/p>\n

"This was a great opportunity, after leading 10-0 against a very much weakened Melbourne Storm side … to get pumped by 24 and not score after you've opened with those 10 points early on, it's real danger signs."<\/p>\n

\"Ricky<\/p>\n

Stuart cut a curious figure after the defeat, in a press conference lasting one minute and 50 seconds.<\/p>\n

He offered only short responses to reporters, providing few answers, yet was largely absent his trademark tone of defiance and combativeness. By his standards, he looked deflated; though also refused to give his team a pass on the grounds of key players being out.<\/p>\n

"It's definitely not that. We're not going to look at that as an excuse," he said, while also insisting, "It's not attitude".<\/p>\n

The Raiders face the Roosters at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday night; another ravaged side that will nonetheless provide a stiff test.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart is yet to provide genuine answers for the Raiders' shocking form slump and alarm bells are ringing, rugby league great Peter […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75681,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75679\/revisions\/75681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}