Ricky Stuart

READ: Ricky Stuart’s 81-second press conference in full

“I’m here because I have to be here.”

Published by
Scott Pryde

Canberra Raiders head coach labelled his side's performance "embarrassing" during an 81-second press conference following a heavy loss to the Melbourne Storm on Sunday afternoon.

In pursuit of a top-four spot, the Raiders dished up arguably their worst performance of the season, falling 48 points to 2.

It leaves the Raiders in sixth spot on the table, and, instead of fighting for a top-four spot, now needing to win games to make the top eight over the final weeks of the season.

Stuart labelled what his side had dished up as "crap", with only 241 words being spoken by either journalists or the coach at the press conference. Ultimately, Stuart left his press conference after just five questions.

The standard length for a press conference tends to be around five minutes or more.

Here is the full transcript of Stuart's press conference.

Question: "Ricky, was that a tough one to swallow today?"

Ricky Stuart: "No, it wasn't tough at all. It was just embarrassing. Absolutely embarrassed."

Question: "How do you sum up the game other than embarrassing?"

Ricky Stuart: "I don't think I can say much more than that to be honest. It was just a really, really embarrassing performance. We went away after 20 minutes."

Question: "Is it frustrating for you to see - there was so much scramble. There was an incredible try-saving effort on Young Tonumaipea in the opening minutes and then to just be torn apart in the middle in the back-end of the game - is that frustrating?"

Ricky Stuart: "We weren't prepared to fight for the 80, and they were. We were fighting for a top four spot today and delivered up that crap. That's the embarrassing part. I'm lost for words on a lot of it."

Question: "What was your message to the players immediately Ricky?"

Ricky Stuart: Ask them mate, they are allowed to talk now apparently."

Question: "It was announced that Jarrod Croker is finishing up. It was announced a few hours ago. Was that emotional for the players Ricky and can you talk a little bit about his contribution?"

Ricky Stuart: "No. I'll talk tomorrow about it. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be disrespectful to you mate, I'm just not in the mood for talking really. I'm here because I have to be here. We all good?"

Published by
Scott Pryde