Ricky Stuart has unloaded in his first press conference of the season, questioning the RLPA's trust in NRL coaches, and the use of the independent doctor for concussion protocol.
The Raiders fell 19-18 to North Queensland, an impressive effort after trailing 18-0 in the first-half, and were certainly up against it throughout the contest after losing two players to HIAs after the independent doctor intervened.
Both Sebastian Kris and Corey Harawira-Naera were forced to exit the field and undertake a HIA at seperate points of the match-up, the same situation that saw Kalyn Ponga removed from the Newcastle loss on Friday, trailing 14-12 with 11 minutes on the clock.
Firing up post-game is nothing new for Stuart, with the 56-year-old questioning the RLPA's trust in coaches to remove their concussed players from the field.
“Do you think I'd let a player play if they had a concussion or is concussed?” he said.
“I don't just trust the players' comments when they come to the sideline in regards to that.”
While he backed the decision to test Harawira-Naera, he questioned the decision to remove Sebastian Kris, Canberra's fill-in fullback, from the contest.
“When he's [Kris] down getting his leg attended to and I ask him and there was no fatigue and no pain in his eyes in regards to when he came off, he was very coherent,” Stuart said.
“That didn't help us in that game. That's where I talk about toughness, there was two of them.
“Yep OK, Corey may have had the H.I.A. We had to serve two players there in very important positions for 30 minutes in that game. But the RLPA, they don't trust coaches.
“All they want to do is come talk to me about how much more time off the players are going to get and how much more money.”
The Townsville humidity was another bee in Stuart's bonnet, believing if the game was played a day earlier, it could've been for player welfare.
“I didn't hear anyone from the RLPA come out and try and go to the NRL in regards to playing up here at 4.30pm in the afternoon,” he continued.
“We were very lucky it wasn't the humidity of what it was yesterday because I think it could've been dangerous for the players' welfare.”
It won't get much cooler for the Raiders next weekend, travelling to Redcliffe to face the Dolphins at Kayo Stadium in the same time slot they faced North Queensland, 5:30pm AEDT Saturday.
