Sticky’s jab at critics after Raiders hammer Bulldogs
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has taken a pointed jab at critics of his comments the club only needed key players to return for them to become the side that won last year’s minor premiership.
The Raiders put in arguably their best performance of the season against the Bulldogs on Saturday evening, running out 40-16 winners at Accor Stadium.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart. Nine
Ethan Sanders was brilliant with the boot, kicking eight from nine, including three penalty goals.
The Raiders were boosted by the return of veteran Josh Papali’i and rookie Noah Martin, the latter managing to play all 80 minutes despite having had surgery on both ankles after suffering a nasty syndesmosis injury in April.
Both Papali’i and Martin were brilliant, which allowed Sanders to get the ball in better positions to be able to once again show what he was capable of.
Stuart compared Sanders’ plight to that of Nathan Cleary’s in the opening two State of Origin matches.
“We’ve all been critical of Nathan Cleary and his game in Origin,” Stuart began.
“Now I spoke on radio in Canberra last week before Origin, and before this game, that Ethan Sanders has been criticised and targeted, and I don’t reckon the New South Wales Origin middles had delivered for Nathan, and they did the other night.
“Now we’ve got some middles back and our middles delivered tonight and all of a sudden …
“It doesn’t matter what half you’ve got. If you aren’t getting some go-forward or some dominance in the middle, it’s hard kicking on the back foot, it’s hard playing on the back foot, and that’s what Sanders had to endure or handle over the last number of months.
“You’ve seen the class of Nathan Cleary on Wednesday night, but it comes on the back of your forwards doing their job and giving you a platform to play off, and then for a player like Nathan and player like Ethan, who’s just learning, obviously it makes it a lot easier.”
Stuart was then asked if the win was a personal reward for not hooking Sanders.
“I don’t need to be rewarded,” he said. “I know what I’m doing.”
Stuart was asked about Martin, and the veteran coach admitted he was surprised he’d managed to play all 80 minutes.
“Again, publicly it’s very hard for me to sit here when we’re getting beaten and telling you what I think I know because you’re only gonna get bashed up socially and bashed up publicly, but those dicks don’t know.
“So I just won’t say anything.
“But Noah Martin’s played how many games? We’ve missed him. I said we’ve missed him. It showed tonight how much we missed him.
“I couldn’t wait to get him back because I know what we’ve missed.”
Stuart’s Raiders are still two wins out of the eight, but are at home for four of their last seven matches.
