Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has urged his players to “stick together” after his side dropped to 1-4 to remain parked near the bottom of the ladder.
Canberra’s losing streak extended to four on Easter Sunday in a 32-12 loss to the Knights.
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The Raiders were down a man for ten minutes early in the second half after winger Sav Tamale was sin binned for a professional foul, ruled to have grabbed onto the arm of Dom Young as the Knights star contested an attacking bomb near the tryline.
It proved costly, with the Knights running in two tries to extend their lead to 14 while Tamale was on the sideline.
When quizzed about the decision, a clearly frustrated Stuart elected not to bite.
“Doesn’t matter what I think what happened,” the Raiders coach replied bluntly.
Canberra will end the round in second last, with the winless Dragons the only team underneath.
For whatever reason, it just hasn’t worked so far in 2026 for last year’s minor premiers but there is plenty of time to turn it around.
For that to happen though, Stuart detailed what tough conversations will need to be had.
“They might be as concerned at the moment, the players. A lot of those boys are young and have never been in this situation before, so I’ve got to lead them out of it and I need the senior players like Joe (Tapine) to help me with that,” Stuart said.
“They’re a solid group so we’ll stick together and keep working our way out of it. Obviously, it’s been a tough stretch.
“It’s not about me going in there ranting and raving and trying to make yourself happy because you’re ranting and raving and pointing out everything is going wrong. It’s about as a collective group just sticking together and working hard towards the quality of football I know we’re capable of.
“We’re just not winning the moments in the game and there were some poor passages of play.
“We’ve got to be better in areas of those games. If we want to win little moments and scenarios in 80 minutes, we’ve got to be better.”
The Raiders’ next chance to get their season back on track will be a tough task.
Canberra will be one of four teams to travel to Perth next weekend with Stuart’s side to tackle the in-form Rabbitohs on Saturday afternoon.
Originally published as ‘Might be concerned…’: Ricky’s tense presser after Raiders’ slump rolls on after ‘poor’ display
