Ricky Stuart has urged his senior playing group to help him get the Canberra Raiders out of an early season slump after the team dropped their fourth game in five starts against the Newcastle Knights on Sunday afternoon.
The high-flying Knights, who have been the competition's early surprise packet, now sit in second place on the ladder, but it's the Raiders who will draw plenty of attention out of the game.
Last year's minor premiers, sans Jamal Fogarty this year, have looked a shell of the team who were so strong through the first half of 2025 despite a horror draw.
Their trip to the Hunter on Sunday was no different, with the Green Machine struggling at both ends of the park and eventually coming up short by 20 points.
The Raiders are only kept off the bottom of the table after five rounds by the winless St George Illawarra Dragons, and while there is no pressure on Ricky Stuart for his job like there is on Shane Flanagan, Stuart acknowledged tough conversations will need to be had at the Raiders this week, while imploring his playing group to stick together, and senior players to stand up.
“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 during his post-match press conference.
“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.”
It could be suggested the Raiders copped the rough end of the officiating stick on Sunday, but that will be of little comfort to Stuart as he attempts to stop his side's dramatic early-season slide.
Defensive issues are clearly present for Canberra given they have let in 40, 34 and 32 points in three of their last four, while the other game - 14 points conceded against the Bulldogs - was played in awful weather, with Canterbury's attack already struggling to start the year.
Canberra, in desperate need of a win after four straight losses to the Warriors, Bulldogs, Sharks and now Knights, face the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Melbourne Storm and Wests Tigers over the next three weeks.
