Canberra Raiders head coach Ricky Stuart has revealed he was less than impressed with his side's attack, or Corey Horsburgh pushing a pass out of his own end leading to an error on Saturday evening during a tense loss to the North Queensland Cowboys.
Played in heatwave conditions with the NRL's heat policy enacted for the game, Horsburgh had a disappointing run early in the game where he made two errors and gave away a pair of penalties in an eight-minute window.
The penalties came in the same play, with an offside turning into a verbal dissent penalty.
Stuart admitted post-game that Horsburgh knew he wouldn't be happy with him.
โWe have spoken about that [Corey Horsburgh pushing passes]. He is actually an intelligent football person in regards to the game. He knew straight away that I wouldn't be happy and it wasn't what we planned in that part of the field,โ Stuart said during his post-match press conference.
โBut then again, he is the sort of player that can do that up the other end of the field and cause all sorts of problems for defence. It wasn't the plan we had coming out of our own end of the footy field, but again, Red knows that and he will be cranky on himself too.โ
Stuart was also unimpressed with his team's general work in attack, where they ultimately made 14 errors and squandered an early lead, having had all the running to lead the contest eight points to nil after 22 minutes.
โI don't think we capitalised on that [a strong start]. I thought our attack was poor tonight,โ Stuart said.
โI think they were prepared to work longer in the game than we were. That doesn't mean at the back end or in the middle, it was the first half. We got really sloppy both in attack and defence, and there was a period of play in the second half where we weren't consistent either.
โIt was very clunky. Players have more responsibility than others in attack, but we will deal with that. I'm not a coach that is going to throw any of my players under the bus, but we will keep improving.
โIt's just disappointing when I know we are better than that with the football.
โAgain, they did a good job. They stretched us a number of times, did a good job with their attack. We need to be better.โ
The Raiders will have a chance to do just that next weekend back at home, but on a five-day turnaround as they prepare to clash with the Cronulla Sharks who will be seething from their own loss to the Canterbury Bulldogs on Saturday evening.
The Raiders are back on the road straight after that, heading to Darwin to play the Parramatta Eels, and then the Gold Coast to play the Titans.
