Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart calls on NRL to stamp out melees
Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart says melees are a blight on the game and it is time that the NRL did something about it.
In last Friday night's game between Penrith and Canberra, a melee broke out on the sideline, after fullback Stephen Crichton tried to drag Raiders lock Joe Tapine into a Panthers try celebration. Tapine was simply standing on the sideline waiting to be injected into the match at the time.
Crichton was fined $1350 over the incident by the NRL, while the Raiders have received notice of a $10,000 because of the incidental involvement of a Raiders trainer in the melee. The trainer touched two Panthers players, Tyrone May and James Fisher-Harris, which is contrary to NRL rules.
The arrogant behaviour of the Panthers attracted considerable media criticism this week, but Penrith coach Ivan Cleary says he does not see any problem and called the media reaction "a storm in a tea cup".
"I’m just a bit confused as to what’s the problem. I don’t really know," Cleary said earlier this week.
The response of Raiders CEO Don Furner to that was scathing.
"Ivan Cleary should teach his players some humility. We all understand coaches stand up for their players, but him trying to justify that behaviour is ludicrous," Furner said.
"He has three or four players in his team that carry on like mug lairs. Their five-eighth has been pushing players in the back and running in as the third man for a while now."
"I can’t believe that is the example the Panthers want to set for young kids watching and playing the game. If they think that behaviour is acceptable they are kidding themselves."
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart today backed Furner's comments.
"I think Don handled it very well. He covered it off really well during the week," Stuart said.
"I think it was unnecessary and I thought silly. I think that this jumper pulling and grabbing blokes by the back of the jumper and trying to pull them out of melees is a blight on the game."
"It's ugly. It makes soft people very tough, because you know you're not going to get a punch in the head. There's no consequences."
"You've got guys who are not that courageous acting very tough going into a melee now knowing the fact he's not going to get a punch in the mouth, which is why so many people fly into it."
"I laughed watching it... when our physio got pushed out of the way, Jack Wighton came into the melee then to sort it out and settle it all down."
"A lot of egos that were in that melee were deflated very quickly. It soon quitened it down."
"You don't find tough kids walking into these melees and pulling and pushing jumpers. If you're a good pusher now, you're tough apparently."
"It's a blight on our game. I just wish the league could do something about it and eradicate it. It was only four or five years ago that I was saying it was ugly in Aussie Rules and now we've got it."
Stuart says he was very proud of the way Tapine responded. Tapine did not lash out and simply tried to extricate himself from the group of Panthers players who descended upon him.
"I was very proud of how Joe Tapine handled that," Stuart said.
"One on one, I know whose side I'd like to be on in an altercation there."
"The amount of work that's gone into Joe with controlling his aggression and controlling his emotions... I was very proud of him how he handled that moment because it could have been very ugly."
"I'm not sure I could have handled it the same way Joe did."
A report for The Greenhouse
VIDEO: Ricky Stuart says melees are a blight on the game:
https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2021/04 ... ve-niggle/
VIDEO: Stuart stands by Raiders over Panthers melee:
https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/04/16/stu ... ers-melee/