Opinion Is Ricky Stuart the most overrated coach ever?

[Captain Apollo]

Even allowing for the obstruction calls last night, what surprises me about the Raiders this year is the poor defence around the ruck. 2019-20 the Raiders were very tight defensively, especially in the centre, but this year, it has not been anywhere near as good. Could the absence of John Bateman and him not being adequately replaced, be a factor? Sure he may have been an edge player, but he did a lot of clean up work defensively for the Raiders.

 

[Someguy]

I love Ricky.....deep down he is a great bloke and good for the game

BUT

him complaining about Benji's gamesmanship is one of the biggest pot calling the kettle black moments I have seen this year....easily. As if Ricky would not have milked that obstruction penalty the way Benji did.

he is way off the mark asking for ‘common sense’ decisions on obstruction. Both examples were clear breaches of the rules simple black and white stuff, make it a discretionary decision and it becomes a mess of inconsistency.

The first one was a not square marker and in effect offside player obstructed and that is the point sticky should whinge about, not ask for the rules to be changed because in this instance they didn’t work for his team.

 

[Captain Apollo]

The first one was a not square marker and in effect offside player obstructed and that is the point sticky should whinge about, not ask for the rules to be changed because in this instance they didn’t work for his team.

He's a disciple of the Phil Gould Rule Enforcement Philosophy.

 

[yobbo84]

That was a clinic of milking from Souths last night.

EVERY tackle there 120kg forwards would flop like there were shot by an AR-15 from close range.

Here's the 8 penalties we received:

Penalty 1 - Late hit on Cam Murray
Penalty 2 - Offside in attack (in front of kicker)
Penalty 3 - Dangerous tackle (past the horizontal)
Penalty 4 - Pushing the man playing the ball over
Penalty 5 - Pushing the man playing the ball over
Penalty 6 - Obstruction
Penalty 7 - Obstruction
Penalty 8 - Flop

The only two you could argue were the two we received when they pushed the man playing the ball over.

The other 6 were black-and-white acts.

On the other hand, the Raiders got 7 repeat sets (to our ZERO), all discretionary.

So the infringements were 8-all. Not Souths fault the Raiders lack football intelligence and Ricky has no idea how to use a bench.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Tough call putting this latest loss on Ricky (except for resting Papali).

Any team that loses their halfback before kickoff is always going to struggle especially against a good top 4 side like souths.

Our and Ricky's struggles are much more long-term

 

[Frailty]

Two clear obstructions he is complaining about to distract everyone from the very real reality that his team selections and bench rotations were awful.

 

[Hawkins]

Here's the 8 penalties we received:

Penalty 1 - Late hit on Cam Murray
Penalty 2 - Offside in attack (in front of kicker)
Penalty 3 - Dangerous tackle (past the horizontal)
Penalty 4 - Pushing the man playing the ball over
Penalty 5 - Pushing the man playing the ball over
Penalty 6 - Obstruction
Penalty 7 - Obstruction
Penalty 8 - Flop

The only two you could argue were the two we received when they pushed the man playing the ball over.

The other 6 were black-and-white acts.

On the other hand, the Raiders got 7 repeat sets (to our ZERO), all discretionary.

So the infringements were 8-all. Not Souths fault the Raiders lack football intelligence and Ricky has no idea how to use a bench.

 

[myrrh ken]

I look forward to BYC being inserted back into the team next week

 

[Chief_Chujo]

Even allowing for the obstruction calls last night, what surprises me about the Raiders this year is the poor defence around the ruck. 2019-20 the Raiders were very tight defensively, especially in the centre, but this year, it has not been anywhere near as good. Could the absence of John Bateman and him not being adequately replaced, be a factor? Sure he may have been an edge player, but he did a lot of clean up work defensively for the Raiders.

Absolutely. Not just defensive work he got through but that he was a standard setter. Players lifted when Johnny was in the team. No one wanted to face him after the game if they hadn't put in 100%.

 

[mongoose]

I think our effort was better last night but Sticky has a few things to fix. Still early in the season though, Panthers and Eels can have their April premierships. Stick knows you gotta go through some hurtin' before you become real premiers.

 

[Pete Cash]

In a perfect world where we could trust the judgements of the ref I wouldn't have a problem with maybe them making a judgement call on how much CHN interfered in the play because he really did everything in his power to abort

But we do not live in that world and because the refs are struggling as is its got to be black and white

 

[shear_joy9]

Tough call putting this latest loss on Ricky (except for resting Papali).

Any team that loses their halfback before kickoff is always going to struggle especially against a good top 4 side like souths.

Our and Ricky's struggles are much more long-term

it’s 100% on ricky for going into the season with a potato back 5. He still has nfi how to use the interchange bench and seems to always forget a player that’s on there.

the squad and ricky almost need a holiday away from each other. The guy is f**kwit at the best of times can you imagine what he’s like now after 4 losses in a row.
Let the assistant coaches run the show for a few weeks, especially cappy solely looking after the attack.

 

[Pete Cash]

Even allowing for the obstruction calls last night, what surprises me about the Raiders this year is the poor defence around the ruck. 2019-20 the Raiders were very tight defensively, especially in the centre, but this year, it has not been anywhere near as good. Could the absence of John Bateman and him not being adequately replaced, be a factor? Sure he may have been an edge player, but he did a lot of clean up work defensively for the Raiders.

John Bateman is a "winner" one of those players who just lifts others around him. As silly as it is we also miss someone like Beej too who can bust open a game because a lot of sticks tactics seem to boil down to give it to a good player to do something good

Its frankly a long term issue with our structures. Even when we made the GF i don't think we were as well structured as say the roosters in attack. Penrith score a lot of tries through well structured plays of just drawing and passing where we struggle to even do that.

 

[GAZF]

I love Ricky.....deep down he is a great bloke and good for the game

BUT

him complaining about Benji's gamesmanship is one of the biggest pot calling the kettle black moments I have seen this year....easily. As if Ricky would not have milked that obstruction penalty the way Benji did.

Coachmanship.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Cotric was a massive loss, we we're probably never going to keep him but we replaced him with a sedated sloth.

 

[GAZF]

Even allowing for the obstruction calls last night, what surprises me about the Raiders this year is the poor defence around the ruck. 2019-20 the Raiders were very tight defensively, especially in the centre, but this year, it has not been anywhere near as good. Could the absence of John Bateman and him not being adequately replaced, be a factor? Sure he may have been an edge player, but he did a lot of clean up work defensively for the Raiders.

It's just as much a lack of adaptation to the new rules. We got by last year as teams were still working things out resulting from a mid season rule change. Now, all opponents have had close to a full offseason to change things up, and we're still bashing it up the middle and kicking it straight down the fullback's throat every set. We're losing both the territory and possession battle on the back of a game plan where the forwards desparately need a breather when there isn't one to be had, and the resulting fatigue contributes to the second half capitulations. The back 5 are nothing to write home about, currently but they hardly get a chance to shine with how the ball is distributed in attack. Their defence is another issue altogether.

The season is a write-off imo, and it needs to be one in the hopes that Stick realises that grinding isn't going to win you a majority of games anymore. Tactics and personnel need to change as a result.

 

[footy75]

Can't be blaming refs for the slop they are serving up in second halves.

 

[hrundi99]

Can't be blaming refs for the slop they are serving up in second halves.

Those 2 push at the play the ball penalties were deadset embarrassing for the Souths players.

Shades of Rivaldo for Brazil.

 

[Valheru]

Sticky knows those 2 calls were correct, he is just trying to instill an us v them mentality in his players to try and get the team back on track. That is what has worked for him in the past with this team so who can blame him for trying again. His whinge last year about having to get a bus to the SCG being a case in point and it worked.

 

[Valheru]

Here's the 8 penalties we received:

Penalty 1 - Late hit on Cam Murray
Penalty 2 - Offside in attack (in front of kicker)
Penalty 3 - Dangerous tackle (past the horizontal)
Penalty 4 - Pushing the man playing the ball over
Penalty 5 - Pushing the man playing the ball over
Penalty 6 - Obstruction
Penalty 7 - Obstruction
Penalty 8 - Flop

The only two you could argue were the two we received when they pushed the man playing the ball over.

The other 6 were black-and-white acts.

On the other hand, the Raiders got 7 repeat sets (to our ZERO), all discretionary.

So the infringements were 8-all. Not Souths fault the Raiders lack football intelligence and Ricky has no idea how to use a bench.

One of the positives of the 6 again rule is that you can very rarely argue against penalties any more because most of the discretionary calls result in 6 again and TV broadcasters don't have the itme to analyse them.

There have been a fair few instances like last night where one team has dominated penalties and the other 6 agains. Smells like game management.