Even though Canberra is still comfortably positioned in the NRL top eight, coach Ricky Stuart was not happy with his team’s performance following their third straight home loss, a 34-16 thumping at the hands of North Queensland.
Nearly 10,000 devoted supporters braved the cold to see an incredible first half from the Raiders, who gave up four tries and six penalties as North Queensland jumped out to a 22-0 lead.
Even though Canberra is still comfortably positioned in the NRL top eight, coach Ricky Stuart was not happy with his team’s performance following their third straight home loss, a 34-16 thumping at the hands of North Queensland.
Nearly 10,000 devoted supporters braved the cold to see an incredible first half from the Raiders, who gave up four tries and six penalties as North Queensland jumped out to a 22-0 lead.
The Canberra supporters are obedient people who are rarely observed making own decisions. However, the levee gave way and the Raiders men were showered with jeers as they trudged up the hill at halftime after scoring 118 points in three games.
Clearly, Stuart’s patience was running out too. When questioned about the GIO Stadium losing streak following the game, he shot back, “You think we’re trying to lose at home?” “We’re trying to do everything to win at home.”
When asked about the fans’ reaction, Stuart remarked, “Mate, I’m not out there with the fans at half-time.”
While Stuart conceded his side’s ill-discipline cost them, he couldn’t help but criticize what he saw as uneven officiating.
“I’ve already spoken to the individuals regarding the ill-discipline at halftime and then after the game,” he said. “But go have a look for yourself at the three-minute mark in that game, when Danny Levi gets penalized for offside. It would’ve been half a foot, so by the rule book, it’s offside. But then we got four six-agains on their goal line. I don’t know what constitutes a player to get binned.
“They won the game in the first 25-30 minutes through us giving away cheap field position. But if Danny Levi’s is offside, why aren’t all the other offsides getting done?”
Cowboys coach Todd Payten had a straightforward answer to the question. “I heard through the Sports Ears that we got a warning, so the next penalty was going to be a sin-binning, and I don’t totally disagree with the warning we got, but we didn’t give away another penalty,” he said. “So we didn’t deserve to lose a player.”
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Raiders. The home side was much improved after the break and scored 16 second-half points to the Cowboys’ 12.
Only conceding one penalty made their jobs much easier, said Stuart. “We got a roll on, we got some football in their end of the footy field and scored some good tries,” he said. “But it’s not going to happen when you keep giving cheap field position away. Sometimes it’s guesses, other times it’s ill-discipline and I’ll nail the ill-discipline.”