now ricky stuart is getting in on the action:
Ricky Stuart takes swipe at Wayne Bennett after win over Bulldogs
RICKY Stuart has taken a swipe at Wayne Bennett and any other coach who is complaining about the impact Origin has on the NRL season.
Just days after Gorden Tallis lined up his former coach for making Adam Blair the captain of the Broncos, Stuart fired his own shot at the Brisbane coach about the mid-season scheduling controversy.
“The day I have got six players going to Origin you won’t hear me being critical,” Stuart said after his side’s thrilling, come-from-behind 32-20 win over the Bulldogs.
While the Broncos had six Origin players missing in their loss to Wests Tigers on Friday night and the Cowboys five, yesterday the Raiders were without only Josh Papalii, while the Bulldogs didn’t have Josh Morris, David Klemmer and Josh Jackson.
Morris was a late scratching yesterday after being rushed into the Blues side to replace the injured Josh Dugan.
But after watching his side fight back from trailing 20-10 early in the second half to race in four unanswered tries, Stuart was explaining how the welcomed addition of Parramatta’s Junior Paulo was going to create more competition at the Raiders when he raised the issue of Origin.
“We are in the final stages with Junior’s contract with our club and he came in the sheds there and it was great to see him there as a part of the group,” Stuart said.
“And he will be welcomed with open arms. He does create depth and that is something I have spoken about for years.
“You need depth. You see Canterbury have their Origin players out tonight and we had our Origin player out. But we only have one.
“And I hear about these other clubs and coaches who are consistently negative about the fact their Origin players have to go.
“I can’t wait until I have four, five, six Origin players here. I will be happy for my Origin players to go because those Origin players get you into semi-finals.
“Those Origin players win you grand finals.”
While the Raiders’ first half yesterday was close to diabolical, they showed why they are such a dangerous team with a late fightback to score a crucial victory and lock up a place in the top eight.
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