BY CURTIS WOODWARD

@woodward_curtis

Ricky Stuart divides opinions as a head coach – he always has. Some argue he is a truly passionate Canberra Raiders legend giving back to his former club and doing everything he can to keep the Green Machine competitive in a cut-throat competition where players only care about their “brand” and premiership rings.

Others will say his winning percentage as a coach is all you need to look at and the 2002 title in his first NRL season as coach of the Sydney Roosters makes his record look slightly better.

The fact is when Stuart went back to the Raiders as a coach after tumultuous stints at Cronulla and Parramatta, he improved the joint. They thought out of the box and brought in English superstars like George Williams, John Bateman and Elliott Whitehead.

Canberra had momentum and even made a grand final only to go down to the Sydney Roosters.

In fairness, the Raiders have been overachieving for years.

Long gone are the days where they were stacked with names like Mal Meninga, Steve Walters, Glenn Lazarus, Laurie Daley, Brad Clyde and Stuart himself.

So stacked in fact, this story deserves another whole paragraph (or three) of the players we just left off.

In 1994, they won their last title.

Other, very articulate coaches like Matt Elliott and Neil Henry, got them back to September but that was always agreed as an ‘overachievement’ too.

Ricky Stuart has had a great run with the Raiders as a coach.

But this has been coming for a long time.

Canberra is on the slide.

The magic dust of Englishmen, Viking horns and goodwill is gone.

Little wonder Stuart broke down in the press conference after their win over the Dolphins in Wagga Wagga responding to news Jack Wighton had taken a deal to leave the Raiders to join South Sydney in 2024.

“No one on the outside understands how Don [Furner] and myself have to protect the club, no one on the outside understands the pressure Jack has been under,” an emotional Stuart began.

“Only hear the hearsay and there’s so much lies and innuendo in regards to why Jack is leaving, he is going for a change – and I get that, I really do.

“We all love him – if we weren’t hurt by it, him going, we wouldn’t care about him, we don’t care about the club. Am I pissed off he is going? Yeah, that is his decision.”

Yes Stuart and Wighton are close.

Closer than some fathers and sons out there.

But there’s so many ways to look at this.

Fact is Wighton has given half his life to the Raiders club.

The fact is, the Raiders haven’t kept a roster for Wighton to fulfill his dream to win a title for Canberra.

There’s no blame here, really.

Canberra have overachieved in a “big market” competition.

Wighton has every right to sign for another club.

Nature of the beast.

Evolution of player.

Slide of club.

@woodward_curtis