The Canberra Raiders coach has been leaning on the leaders of his playing group in one of the ‘hardest weeks’ of his professional career.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has admitted handing son Jed Stuart his debut prompted one of the ‘hardest weeks’ of his professional career having needed to lean on Canberra’s senior group for support. Stuart was a proud coach, but an even prouder father on Friday night after handing Jed Stuart his debut for the Raiders on the left wing.
And Stuart rewarded the faith in his father with a try to help Canberra defeat the Wests Tigers 16-14 to help keep them second on the ladder behind the Bulldogs. And while Stuart and the playing group embraced Jed after the game, the coach admitted the build-up to the Friday night game would rank as one of the toughest of his professional NRL career.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Stuart said the concerns he had around his son resulted in the hardest week in his 23-year coaching career. “This week has been the hardest week I’ve had since I’ve coached,” Stuart admitted.
Because from a father’s point of view, I don’t want him to come out and be man of the match, I just want him to hold his own. And he did that. The amount of times I’ve been waking up at 3am with real bad thoughts … He didn’t have any of those tonight, which was good.”
But incredibly, it was the senior playing group’s move that helped Stuart make the decision to play his son on debut. Stuart didn’t want to give his son any handouts in the side. Savelio Tamale was performing brilliantly as the left-winger in 2025, before a season-ending injury to his knee left the position vacant.
Stuart admitted he didn’t just make the decision to select his son by himself, but rather approached the playing group. And captain Joseph Tapine and the senior players gave Stuart the support he needed to make the call.
The senior players are a massive support to me,” Stuart said. “When I talked to the Club 82 boys led by Joe (Tapine), they wanted nothing else but to put Jed in there and that gave me confidence to select him.
“There’s no way I would have thrown Jed in there if I didn’t have the support of my players. Personally, I knew he was ready. But I still needed to make sure that I had confidence from the boys.”
Jed Stuart reveals mother’s advice ahead of debut
Stuart was embraced by all his teammates having scored the try to extend the Raiders’ lead in the first-half. And after the game the winger admitted he was emotional having spoken to his mother just before kick-off.
Before I left to come to Sydney, mum gave me a cuddle and said ‘you’ve wanted to play NRL since you were three, and now you’re finally doing it,'” Jed Stuart said to ABC Radio. “That made me cry a fair bit, that.”
Ricky Stuart praises Jospeh Tapine after victory
Speaking about the win, which lifted them to second-place behind the Bulldogs, Stuart was full of praise for captain Tapine who opened the scoring in the first-half. “That’s why I’ve been saying for the past two years I think he is the best front-rower in the game,” Stuart said.
“There is a lot of athleticism in those efforts.” While the Raiders are flying, Benji Marshall was left frustrated with his team dropping their fourth-straight loss.
