Okay, here's my Ricky Rant...
Firstly, his one positive, and that's that he runs teams hard. Very hard. It was his single contributing factor to the Rooster's GF win. It also went a big way to helping the performance of the Sharks. But that's as far as it goes. Every other aspect of his coaching that he gets credit for is BS. His 'passion'? No, he just can't control himself. His 'football brains?'. It's very clear that everything he did as a player was based on instinct, because I haven't seen a single half or 5/8 blossom under him. His worst attribute, though, and by a fair margin, is his hypocrisy. So what does Ricky have that makes people think that he's a good coach? An opportunistic nature, and a whole lot of fast talking. I'm sure he thinks that he's one of the smartest in the room, the way that he concocts stories and thinks people believe him.
So let's start at the Roosters, with a squad that was already there for him to exploit. Like I said, he worked them hard. He famously said that he had the entire squad, forwards included, running at X for the beep test. That they were the fittest squad by far. In a competition where limited interchange had only just been re-introduced, fitness was of course going to go a long way to ensuring a team remained competitive. It's no masterstroke. In fact, like I said, it's his only card to play. The problem was, he ran the players in to the ground. Over the coming seasons the side quickly deteriorated. Skills, and a certain Brag Fittler, got them to two subsequent Grand Finals, which they lost, the same way that they made 2 losing grand finals before Ricky came along. The moment Fittler retired, the Roosters weren't even close to the same team.
How about the Sharks. Again, one good season out of four. The bumper season again undoubtedly benefited from his hard regime, especially as players like Gallen, Bird, Douglas, etc, all thrive as workhorses. Their equal-minor-premiership was the result of excellent defence. Their points-against sat at 384, which was fourth best for the season. But for a coach who played as a halfback, he sure couldn't coach anything remotely decent in attack. Their points-for was the second worst, beating only the Bulldogs, who received the wooden spoon after their sensationally derailed season. Their next season was woeful. The Sharks finished equal last, only avoiding the spoon by +/-. They were burnt out. And let's not forget some trademark Sticky recruitment. Anthony Tupou, signed for more than $400,000 a year, was his prize player. The fact that he chose Tupou to play for Australia at the same time either shows that he is incredibly stupid, or is willing to offer rep games to players on top of massive overs in order to recruit.
Next we have him coaching Australia. A blind monkey could have coached that team. They've been everything you could ever want in an international side. Losing the World Cup was a shocker though. Blame the Kiwis who were finally hitting their straps. Or Wayne Bennett who successfully plotted the Kangaroos downfall. Or Billy Slater who' brain fart threw away their last chance. But if you're Ricky Stuart, you blame the refs. And confront them in the hotel afterwards to give them a spray. And accuse the tournament organisers of a conspiracy. You then get the sack, and a $20,000 fine, deservingly.
So on to the NSW, and here's where my real hate for him starts. Forget 2005. Andrew Johns won that series. Fast-forward to 2011 instead. Let's remember that after Qld success, he was one of the most vocal in advocating a stand-alone coach in order to match Mal's dominant maroons. Coincidentally (or maybe not so), Ricky himself was a stand-alone coach, after losing his club & country jobs. Conveniently so, he was also an ex-Blue, and a halfback, with NSW's most disappointing performances coming from the halves. The perfect position for him? He certainly thought so, and managed to convince a lot of others too. So this part of his career was an absolute doozy in terms of hypocrisy. Jarryd Hayne was not selected at fullback, because, in Stuart's words, he was a five-eighth, and Stuart would not pick players out of position for such crucial games. So Hayne was left out of Game 1. When NSW lost, he picked Hayne on the wing for Game 2. Then in the centres for game 3. He would also claim that Queensland were so dominant because they showed loyalty. So NSW should do the same. From game 1 to game 2, he made 12 positional changes, bringing in 6 new players. Loyalty, it seems, was only reserved for the halves, who he picked for all 3 games, with Pearce continuing to be picked for 2012 as well.
Aaaand next we have the Eels. When Stuart spoke of passion about the Eels job it sounded very familiar. Like the sort of lines he was vomiting out to the media about the NSW job. Passion, passion, passion. To me, it looked as though Stuart's ultimate goal was always to get back in to club coaching. The NSW job was just a stepping stone, a way to get back in the public eye to advance your career. I mean, if he had that much passion for the NSW job, surely you wouldn't quit unless you'd succeeded, right? Nope. As soon as the ink was dry on the Eels contract, the NSW job was dropped. One could argue that if he'd continued in both jobs it would be hypocritical, as he originally took on the role as NSW coach because it needed a stand-alone coach. Yeah, Ricky, you'd hate to sound hypocritical. In dropping the NSW job, he lost arguably his only bargaining chip, and that was the ability to attract aspiring and up-and-coming NSW players to the Eels. With that lost, his only means of recruiting was how he'd always done it - and that's offering massive overs to players in the mistaken belief that you can coach them to be better. Just like Anthony Tupou, who Stuart turned in to an Australian representative (cough), he'd turn these players in to the best of the best, justifying their at-the-time massively inflated contracts. Like Darcy Lussick. Recruited to be a top prop, at close to $400,000 a season. He finished the season at lock for some reason. Or Corey Norman. $450k. Playing as fullback for the Broncos, Stuart saw him as the future Qld 5/8. Norman would see out the season in Qld cup. But how did Stuart go in terms of coaching? Well, surprise surprise, the Eels got the spoon. Throughout the year, the passion that Stuart so often told the media that he had for the eels, was overcome with the need to tell everyone who'd listen that the players weren't good enough. He even dragged the players in front of the members to answer questions on why they were going so shit. Oh, and once again blamed the refs. And got fined for doing so. Ricky's never to blame. After telling half his squad that they weren't good enough, he then jumps ship himself, leaving a tattered mess. There are probably 5 or 6 really decent young players that I'd be surprised if their confidence ever recovers enough for them to reach their potential, such is Ricky's poisonous blame game.
So now he's coaching the Raiders. And guess what. Passion, passion, passion. This time it is kind of believable because he made a name for himself playing for them. But that doesn't help the Eels fans who were told that all he wanted to do was pull the Eels name out of the mud. Or the Blues fans who were told the same. More hypocrisy. He escapes his Eels deal because he has a clause in his contract that stipulates if the Raiders job comes up, he can take it. For family reasons. His first job as Eels coach? Sit down with Anthony Milford to convince him that he shouldn't activate his clause that stipulated he can go home to Brisbane. For family reasons. He once again shows us how clever he is, by offering Milford one million dollars a year to stay, claiming that if he goes to Brisbane then they'd have to match that figure under the cap. He truly, seriously, undoubtedly believes that he's pulled a sharp one here. That he'll scare Brisbane in to offering him close to the same amount, therefore impacting our salary cap heavily, effectively sabotaging us. I truly believe that he thinks that he's some kind of genius, that he can play these games and manipulate players, clubs, and the media. Now that Milford looks like he's gone, he gets his big recruitment / retention 'win' by re-singing the next-best promising juniors. Undoubtedly to massive deals. I suspect that he believes that he'll be able to coach them in to being future representitive stars, justifying their price tags. Sound familiar?
How anyone can fall for his blatant bullshit, or look at his coaching record and consider it even remotely positive, just baffles me. He is a dead-set idiot. He tries to be a Todd Greenburg and spin any story to make himself smell like roses, but is in no way as convincing. He is a liar, he is a hypocrite, he is a fraud.
