Canberra coach Ricky Stuart slams NRL, RLPA following further concussion controversy

Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has accused the NRL and RLPA of not trusting coaches, joining Wayne Bennett in calling for the league to overhaul the role of the independent doctors in the Bunker.

The Raiders lost two players, fullback Sebastian Kris and backrower Corey Harwira-Naera, to HIA checks in their 19-18 loss to North Queensland on Saturday night, after both players were removed from play by the independent doctor.

“The RLPA, the NRL, they don’t trust coaches. Do you think I’d let a player play if he had a concussion or was concussed?” Stuart said.

“I don’t just trust the player’s comments when he comes to the sideline with that, but when he’s down getting his leg attended to and I ask him?

“Corey might have had the HIA, but we had to sit two players in very important positions for 30 minutes in that game. But the RLPA, they don’t trust coaches.

“All they want to do is come and talk to me about how much more time off the players are going to get and how much more money.

“I didn’t hear anyone from the RLPA come out and talk to the NRL about us coming up here to play at 4:30 in the afternoon.

“We were very lucky it wasn’t the humidity it was yesterday afternoon, because I think it could have been dangerous for the players’ welfare.”

Stuart is the third coach this weekend to call for an overhaul to the HIA system, with Newcastle’s Adam O’Brien and the Dolphins’ Wayne Bennett also criticising the current system.

“I don’t agree with him [Bennett] very often, but I do on this,” Stuart said.

Bennett insisted on Saturday the system would be better placed solely in the hands of the clubs.

“The game has never been more conscious about head injuries, and I think we do a lot of things right,” Bennett said ahead of the Dolphins’ first game on Sunday.

“But all they have done is take the onus off the clubs and put it to somebody independent.

“The clubs have got to own it. The game, when they had a few moments in the last couple of years, didn’t punish the clubs enough.

“They took some soft options with them, but if you make clubs more accountable you don’t need an independent doctor.”