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. I KNOW whatever I write today will be treated with scepticism. We feel more comfortable with our version of the truth.
I know that we all know what we know and that whatever I tell you today will be judged against whatever opinion you’ve already made about my decision to leave Parramatta to coach Canberra, and for a lot of you the rest is all just a bunch of wasted words.
But that doesn’t make it any less the truth. Why did I leave Parramatta? The same reason coaches all around the world leave their clubs.
The same reason people all around the world head home.
I’ve heard people question my explanation that I was returning to Canberra for family reasons.
They question it by saying I have been living in Sydney for the past 16 years and if it was good enough for that long why isn’t it good enough now?
And that’s right, to a degree. But the answer for why I stayed in Sydney so long is the same as the answer for why I am going; I stayed in Sydney because it was best for my family.
Ricky Stuart reveals why he quit the Eels.
I lived in Sydney because it allowed me to be a first-grade coach and provide a life for my family I wouldn’t have been able to provide living in Canberra, where the head coaching job was already taken.
Yes, some will say I always could have moved back and worked in a factory, or an office, but that would have meant sacrifices in other areas.
As every working couple in the world knows, there is never a black and white answer. You make the choice you believe is best and you try to make it work as best you can.
It was a decision we made as a family and one we lived with, and it makes us no different from every other working family out there.
Of course it came with its difficulties, which, again, makes us no different from any other family.
As everyone now knows, my eldest daughter suffers autism, and if people understand some of the difficulties that presents a family, then I don’t need to say anymore — and if they don’t, well, there’s nothing I can say that will make them.
Stuart farewells Parramatta fansOutgoing Parramatta NRL coach Ricky Stuart has cited family and career as the reasons for leaving the Eels.(1:58 / 10.9MB)
Video Quality 3GWi-Fi
When the job came up in Canberra it gave me a chance to make a decision for them.
For my wife, mostly. And my boys, who, through no fault of their own, often have to make sacrifices other children their age don’t have to make. This will help them.
Some people will hear this and will maintain they still wouldn’t have made the same decision that I did if they were faced with the same choice.
They would have stuck out the deal at Parramatta.
That’s fair enough, I just wouldn’t like them bringing up my kids.
This wasn’t about walking out on Parramatta or the job ahead.
If the offer had been from Melbourne or Manly or the Roosters or Souths, I wouldn’t have gone.
If it was about being dishonourable or taking the easy option, as some have tried to portray my decision, I would have pursued the chance last year, when I was out of work and looking for a job and I was sounded out about returning to Canberra then.
I told them I wouldn’t talk while they still had a head coach, who also happened to be a mate of mine.
Nothing could come of it, and then Parramatta came along.
Since I made the decision I’ve heard all the opinions, been made aware of the abuse, most of it ill-informed from people whose opinions don’t matter.
In the past I would have come out guns blazing, looking to square up.
Those people aren’t in my life, and never will be. They don’t matter.
They can say what they like, though. It doesn’t hurt me.
Everyone I’ve spoken to within the game, and there were a few as I weighed up the choice I was about to make, all told me I was making the right decision.
I knew that, because I knew it was right for us as a family, but it was interesting too given many were looking at it from a football point of view.
Coaches come and go all around the world, some just last longer in their job than others.
But even those that last in their job for the longest time all want to return to the same place in the end. Home.
http://mobile.news.com.au/sport/nrl...-years-in-sydney/story-fndujljl-1226719223240
The f**k wit has spoken