When Ricky Stuart stepped to the podium for his post grand final press conference last night, he had two options: the high road, or the low road.
Commendably, Stuart took the high road on the topic of the murky decision making by referee Ben Cummins in the 70th minute, when Cummins appeared to signal six again for the Raiders before changing his call to last tackle.
"Instead of me saying what I think and getting abused by everybody in regards to my [unsportsmanlike] manner, you write what you think,” Stuart said after the match.
"You all saw it. None of us will be commenting on that tonight. It’s not the time to be talking about it. The Roosters achieved something very special winning two grand finals in a row and I don’t want to take the spotlight off them.
"The first thing I did when I walked onto the field I went to the four officials and congratulated them. No one goes out there to make a mistake. They’ve got tough jobs. We could have won it and we didn’t. It’s a very empty feeling, losing a grand final."
Stuart's reservedness is especially impressive when you consider the Roosters took the ball from the turnover to the big house, with James Tedesco scoring the match-winning try.
Australian Rugby league boss Peter Beattie has since called Stuart a “role model” for his actions and temperament.
"He took it on the chin, he congratulated the referees. I think what Ricky Stuart did was a role model for the game.
"I have enormous amount of sympathy for Canberra fans and obviously they let me know their views overnight. I saw it online and in social media," Beattie said.
Canberra would have been in a better position, if Leilua had simply passed the ball to Rapana. When Canberra had an overlap & Rapana a short open run to the try line.
Still, how can the referee signal one thing & take it back in a few seconds? It stopped Canberra from attempting any sort of kick.
Well done this season Raiders. You have the potential to go further in the next few years.
well done Roosters and Raiders, close game, Joey Leilua, why did you not pass the ball ?
congrats Cooper Cronk, what a career, a champion who made many critics look stupid
The whole Roosters squad is just AWESOME !!
p.s.
and the 2 biggest losers of 2019 ???? 21 and Penso. The misinformation they have spread throughout the season has been proven to be just lies and slurs. real Rabbitoh fans would be ashamed of these 2.
3rd biggest loser is holmsey, gets personal on the internet from behind the keyboard with multiple logins only to have his identity revealed through his reddit account, which was linked to his childish youtube efforts, amatuer
🤣😂👍😈
Onya Sticky, she done well not to give a spray & copped it on the chin. Raiders fans were well prepared though, starting up a go Fund Me page for Sticky, just in case she did cut lose & cop a fine lol. I had my money on the roosters due to the “Leilua Factor” This guy has the ability to win or lose a game depending on what he does or doesn’t do on the field. Being not passing to unmarked winger, as perfect example.
@cookeem, i read someone put 150K @ 1.36 on Roosters just before kickoff. 54K win
as a Parra fan, i used to hate Ricky but i got over it – I love his passion and he was an absolute Champion in his day in 2 codes . He has done a great job at the Raiders.
I saw Rapana staring daggers at Joey just after..
Awesome year Raiders go one better next season. Old UNCLE NICK made sure the Roosters would win this year 😡
Hey Angry eagle, what misinformation have i stated? what a complete utter fu.ckwit you are , a know all, who thinks his sh!t don’t stink, get off your high horse you cretin, bet you don’t even know what that means ,to grade me in the two biggest losers just shows how much of wanka you are, true souths supporters would love our passon , your someone who is the biggest loser, and Holmsey has more respect than you will ever have.
I see it’s that time of the month again for penso.
@zerotackle you need to do something about penso, look at all that language just because she’s upset that the rooster won
By the way there is difference between passion and being delusional.
It wouldn’t have been much of a Grand Final if there wasn’t any drama. In my opinion the controversial decisions evened themselves out in the end. The decision to send Cooper Cronk to the sin bin was atrocious, and the contact on Papalli was almost simultaneous as he received the ball. To me there is no way it was a professional foul. I have seen similar incidents in club games, and usually a penalty is sufficient. I don’t think Cronk had any other choice other than to make the tackle.
Commiserations to the Raiders, and they have come a long way in 2019. Who knows, maybe they will go one better in 2020. On their Grand Final performance they are definitely capable of doing it.
Budgie,
With Cronk that close to Papalli, he had to make that tackle then. If he’d played it fairly & Papalli had received the pass first , Papalli was running the ball in for a try. Cronk knew he wasn’t going to stop him once Papalli had caught the pass & was all but past him.
That’s why they actually got that decision right.