‘I like Corey’: Raiders coach brushes off feud despite spray, axing
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has denied having any personal animosity towards Corey Horsburgh, despite widespread belief of a relationship breakdown.
Horsburgh was dropped from the Canberra squad this week, after his late-game brain explosion against the Knights drew the ire of Stuart.
Corey Horsburgh is sent to the sin bin. NRL Imagery.
The coach publicly slammed Horsburgh’s actions, where he slapped Dane Gagai and was sin binned with just seven minutes to go in the round 23 clash.
The 28-year-old was nowhere to be seen in Canberra’s team list on Tuesday, but when asked whether it was due to an issue between them, Stuart denied it and said his conversations with Horsburgh had been “comfortable” this week.
“I decided to give him a rest,” the coach told media on Friday.
“I spoke to Corey about that, and he was comfortable. Not from my point of view [has the relationship changed] and not from my couple of chats with Corey.
“Corey knows I like Corey. There is no one who could say I dislike Corey because I don’t. I’ve worked with Corey for a long time and I can’t strongly enough say that there is no ill-feeling from myself towards Corey.
“You’d have to ask Corey about that from his point of view. I’ve been comfortable talking to Corey this week and explaining the situation.”
Since the post-game spray from Stuart, the former Maroons representative has been heavily linked with a move to the Perth Bears for 2027.
All signs point towards Horsburgh linking up with the expansion team, despite having a year to run on his contract with the Green Machine.
Canberra will meet the Cronulla Sharks on Saturday afternoon.
