Do you remember? Ricky Stuart does.
Ricky remembers the Raiders faithful who were filthy at his appointment ahead of the 2014 season.
Ricky remembers those who were calling for his head after underwhelming campaigns in 2017, 2018 and 2021.
Ricky also remembers he owns the best finals winning record in NRL history.
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There was plenty of backlash when the “protected species” was re-signed until 2025 ahead of Round 18 this season, with Canberra sitting 11th and looking likely to miss finals for a second straight year.
But the ink was barely dry on his new contract when Ricky’s Raiders started a run that has them chasing a ninth win in 10 games on Friday night.
Canberra face the Eels in finals football for the first time in a crunch semi-final that doubles as Ricky versus the club he walked out on almost 10 years ago to join the Green Machine.
If victorious, the resilient Raiders will contest their third preliminary final in four seasons and be just 80 minutes away from the NRL grand final.
It’s a stunning feat considering Canberra had lost their halfback and hooker to long-term injuries by just the sixth minute of Round 1.
The remarkable turnaround has prompted rugby league great Matty Johns to declare this season “the finest” of Ricky’s 22-year coaching career.
Here foxsports.com.au breaks down how the Ricky’s Raiders got here against all the odds.
THE WINNER
Stuart doesn’t get there every season, but when he makes finals the veteran coach has an unbelievable winning record.
Stuart made four grand finals and won three premierships as a player, and his coaching numbers are arguably just as remarkable.
Since 1980, he has the best winning record in finals of any coach (with at least five appearances), with 15 wins from 22 matches at 68.2 per cent.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy is next at 64 per cent (30 from 47) followed by Trent Robinson’s 59.1 per cent (13 from 22), Ivan Cleary’s 55 per cent (11 from 20), Des Hasler’s 53.3 per cent (16 from 30) and Wayne Bennett’s 51.4 per cent (38 from 74).
The coach Stuart will square up against on Friday night – Parramatta’s Brad Arthur – has won just two of nine finals at 22.2 per cent.
The Eels are favourites heading into the semi-final, but history is on the side of Stuart who owns another remarkable coaching record.
Stuart has won every-semi final his sides have contested, while Arthur is in his ninth season at the Eels and is yet to make it past week two of the finals.
THE 2022 TURNAROUND
Stuart lost his halfback Jamal Fogarty (knee) on the eve of the season for the 12 weeks and then hooker Josh Hodgson (ACL) went down for the year just six minutes into Round 1.
It saw Canberra struggling with a 2-6 record after Round 8 and languishing in 14th place on the ladder, with almost all onlookers writing their season off.
But Fogarty returned in Round 12 just as forwards Joe Tapine, Josh Papalii and Hudson Young started hitting career-best form.
It was only last season that Tapine’s wife was taking swipes at Stuart on social media amid reports the Kiwi international wanted out of Canberra.
Fast forward 15 months and Tapine has led the Raiders’ resurrection as the best prop in the game – and looks set to sign a monster extension.
Stuart’s men have now won five straight games and eight of their past nine, with their only loss coming against the short-priced premiership favourites Penrith.
“You talk about coaches that warm to the occasion, particularly with semi-finals, and coaches that emulate the sort of attitude or person that is the coach,” NRL great Corey Parker said.
“Ricky Stuart has his team taking it personal, they have that mentality of it’s us versus the world, they bind together and really rally for each other. They pull you down into the trenches.”
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Stuart revealed this week an honesty session with his senior players last summer was the circuit breaker that transformed Tapine this season.
“We just laid it all out onto the table,” Stuart said.
“I took them away for a night and we had a three-hour conference then a beer and a feed after it.
“I don’t want to get into how we did it, but we laid it all out on the table and we had a very, very honest communication among all 16 of us.
“Some key staff, some key senior players. It was the first day of reconnecting and learning more about each other.”
Canberra finished 10th last season and injuries ensured a rocky start to 2022, with the Green Machine 15th heading into Round 8.
But now on the cusp of a third preliminary final in four years, Matty Johns believes this season has been Stuart’s best as a coach.
“I think this is Ricky’s finest year of coaching, when you consider where the bludger of a season last year,” Matty Johns said.
“There was talk of rift in the player ranks, there was talk that some of the players were off-side, some of the most important players with Ricky.
“Whether that was true or not, this year he’s adjusted, he’s mended, he’s fixed a lot of the stuff with their attack but he’s been flexible, I reckon the best advertisement of someone’s a smart coach is the improvement of his players.
“You’ve got Hudson Young has been a revelation, you’ve got Tapine whose suddenly been spoken about as a million-dollar player and the other one who has really surprised me is Jamal Fogarty.
“Fogarty when he was at the Titans I said this guy’s a handy player, he’s proven himself at Canberra to be a very good player.”
THE MOMENTUM
The Raiders slumped to 11th and were two wins adrift of the top eight when they controversially lost to the Dragons in Round 16.
It was the type of loss that could end a season, after the NRL came out and apologised for a refereeing error which cost Canberra at the death.
It meant the Raiders needed to win seven of their final eight games to play finals – they won their next three before another incident threatened to derail their season.
After the Panthers halted Canberra’s winning run in Round 21, Stuart called Penrith youngster Jaeman Salmon “a weak-gutted dog” in his post-match press conference.
The remarks, which related to an incident involving Stuart’s children 12 years earlier, saw him become the first coach in NRL history to be suspended.
Stuart served his one-week ban without fuss and in the end the suspension only served to galvanise his men.
The Raiders ended up making the finals in style, winning four straight and thrashing the Sea Eagle 48-6 and the Wests Tigers 56-10 in the final two rounds.
Stuart’s men then turned up in Melbourne for week one of finals and became the first team in NRL history to win five straight games on the Storm turf.
It happened thanks to Fogarty’s best game of the season, which included a stunning solo try and a sideline conversion that iced the game.
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“The shellacking they gave the Tigers in the last regular season game… they walked onto AAMI Park confident,” Melbourne legend Cooper Cronk said.
“The way they started, at no stage did they hesitate the Canberra Raiders, they were confident and the improvement in Jamal Fogarty.
“He’s a solid player, he’s not a highlights real halfback, right. He is measured, consistent and I think that provides a little bit of assurance for the players that are around him.
“He had two elite touches on the weekend. That try off the scrum, now there was some poor defence there but he looked like you at five-eighth scoring tries off scrums.”
“Let’s not get carried away, you don’t want to put too much pressure on him going into a big game,” Matty Johns responded.
“That’s true but then that sideline conversion up by six AAMI Park, he just went bang, clutch,” Cronk said.
HISTORY BECKONS
Stuart last month overtook Tim Sheens’ record for games coached at the Raiders (220), but there’s only one slice of history he cares about.
The Green Machine haven’t won a premierships in 28 years which is the second-longest premiership drought in the competition – only behind the Eels (36 years).
Stuart – who was the halfback when the Raiders last lifted the trophy in 1994 – has declared he’s not leaving his Canberra post until the job is done.
But they’ll need to create history if the drought is going to end next month as no team has won the title from eighth.
The 2009 Eels and 2017 Cowboys made the big dance from eighth, but both were beaten by the Storm in the decider.
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Stuart won three as a player but he’s still chasing that elusive second title as a coach after winning the premiership as a rookie at the Roosters in 2002.
Stuart has made three grand finals since (2003, 2004, 2019) but lost them all.
His latest decider defeat was the infamous ‘six-again’ game that cost Canberra, in what’s widely considered the biggest refereeing blunder in grand final history.
“I’ve said it from day one when I got here, I want to make this club competitive … I want everyone to be proud of the Canberra Raiders, that’s so important,” Stuart said after re-signing in July.
“And the most important thing is to win a competition… nobody understands how hard it is in regards to recruiting, luck, it plays such a vital role in regards to this competition because it’s so long.
“I’m a Canberra boy … I won’t be coaching anywhere else after this.”
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