We love the mighty Canberra Raiders
Canterbury football boss Phil Gould has ruled out a return to NSW as he called for Origin hierarchy to hire one of the NRL's Big Three coaches to lead the Blues next season.
Gould is the most successful NSW coach in history but the Canterbury football chief says he is finished with Origin commitments - instead pushing for Ivan Cleary, Craig Bellamy or Ricky Stuart to take charge of the Blues in 2025.
The New South Wales Rugby League is on the hunt for a new coach next season after Michael...
Strained relationship between Horsburgh and Stuart due to demotion, lack of communication resolved after time.
For the best part of a year, Corey Horsburgh and Ricky Stuart did not speak.
The Canberra coach had decided last pre-season that Horsburgh, a State of Origin prop who had just signed a rich three-year extension, was not going to start the year in first grade.
By his own admission, Horsburgh did not take the news well.
"I didn't think I'd play again for the Raiders, to be honest," he says. "No one was talking to me or anything. I didn't think I would ever play for [Stuart] again, that he had just put a line through me.
Ricky Stuart's underdog Raiders show inconsistency, but still manage tough wins and shocking losses.
It set the scene for a Ricky Stuart inspired backs to the wall performance, where everyone had written them off as a contender for another final's appearance.
Canberra got off to a solid start where they were able to right the wrongs of their 2023 semi-final exit in Newcastle by defeating the Knights in Round 1 and then making it two from two against the Tigers at GIO Stadium. From there it was a rollercoaster of results for the Milk, with back-to-back losses followed by an impressive 41-8 thrashing of Parramatta at home in Round 5.
The tables then turned in Round 8 when the Sharks put on forty unanswered points, and it became extremely hard to pick which Raiders side were going to turn up each week. In between those inconsistent scorelines, the Raiders lost halfback Jamal Fogarty for three months with a bicep injury. Despite the loss of their most experienced half, Canberra did respond with some gritty on the road wins over Manly, Canterbury and the Dolphins which saw veteran Jordan Rapana kick a dramatic golden point field goal to seal victory in Round 13. As gutsy as those wins were, shocking losses to the Cowboys (twice) and the Tigers while conceding over thirty points were just inexcusable.