Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart defends rival 'scapegoat' amid questions about team's patchy moments
Ricky Stuart has addressed the previous fadeouts from his side, while tying in Des Hasler's situation to his answer.
A 44-18 victory of the Newcastle Knights on Sunday further cemented the Raiders' spot on top of the ladder, while others continue to fight for a place inside the top eight.
However, while others continue to search for an answer to stop the men from the nation's capital, Stuart has jumped to the defence of his rival counterparts.
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The success of a team's coaching staff is a topic that often can not be avoided in the NRL sphere, however a pre-match question prompted Stuart to change the narrative.
The Canberra coach had been asked if his team had discussed how to prevent fading in attack, specifically their decline in the first half of their 40-16 win of the Eels last week.
Stuart immediately called for credit to be given to rival teams in forcing such incidents to happen but admitted it is something his team are aware is a "tricky" thing to fix.
"Every team has patches of six-seven minutes, some teams longer, where they might drop out of the game a bit," he replied.
"Momentum is a hard thing to catch in this game and it is a hard thing to get back.
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"It is a fair question but don't not recognise the ability of other teams. I mean, Parramatta beat the Broncos on Friday night. We had them last week.
"There's a lot of noise out there, 'because of where you are (on the ladder) and where they are, you should beat them.' Well yeah, we should but we don't see it like that. That's probably why we are winning games."
Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart speaks in his post-match press conference. NRL
Stuart went on to recognise the differences in mentality between players across the competition and called for players to consider their own actions in their team's defeats.
"With the way the boys are preparing, we don't see any other team any less than (us)," Stuart said.
"We treat every opposition as though they can beat us.
"Look at the Titans (win over the Warriors on Saturday). If they had that attitude a bit more - they have the players - they would win more games for Des, instead of Des being the scapegoat.
"Players have to take responsibility and that is what my players are doing.
"Players at other clubs where the poor old coach is coping it, maybe they have to look at themselves."
