Cooper Cronk proven right as Ricky Stuart's massive mistake comes back to haunt Raiders

NRL legend Cooper Cronk has declared the Raiders needed to win in week one of the finals to have any chance at winning the premiership, after calling out a massive mistake Ricky Stuart made before the playoffs even began. Canberra became the first team since 2009 to crash out of the finals in straight-sets after winning the minor premiership, going down to Cronulla 32-12 on Saturday night.

It came after a devastating loss in golden-point against the Broncos after they led by 16 points in the second half. Speaking last week before the Raiders' loss to the Sharks, Cronk suggested Stuart made a big mistake to request a Sunday afternoon qualifying final against Brisbane.

The Raiders-Broncos game would have been played on the Saturday night in the first week of the finals, but Stuart requested a Sunday game to give his team at least seven days of rest. The Raiders had to play on the final day of the regular season (a Sunday) and Stuart wanted at least a week in between because the Broncos were coming off a nine-day rest.

But Cronk believes it took away a massive advantage for the Raiders and played into the Broncos' hands. Cronk said it would have benefited the Raiders to play a night game in slippery conditions as opposed to a Sunday in blazing sunshine when the Broncos' attacking weapons like Reece Walsh would thrive - and they did.

"It looks like Ricky is regretting playing on a Sunday afternoon. It just opened up Reece Walsh didn't it?" Cronk said on Fox League. "If that was on a Saturday night, cold in Canberra, he does not have the speed, the time and the ball security to do those things.

"It brings Reece Walsh back from being a 10 out of 10 threat to a seven-and-a-half to eight threat (if it's a night game). And when the Broncos were coming (in the second half), every time Reece Walsh got that ball (Savelio) Tamale and Jed Stuart on the wings were almost guessing because they were under that much threat."

Loss to Broncos was too much to overcome for Raiders

A night game didn't help the Raiders on Saturday as they were well below their best against Cronulla. But the request to play Sunday against the Broncos meant they only had a six-day turnaround before facing the Sharks, and the Raiders were sapped after playing 94 minutes against the Broncos due to extra time.

“Last week, that’s got to have taken (a toll), physically, emotionally, mentally," Braith Anasta said on Saturday night on Fox League. "Then you lose Ethan Strange, who’s been close to their best player all year, the day of the game. That’s got to have some input into that loss.”

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Cronk added: “In our careers, you get to a final and you feel confident, you feel like you can do something … but then just something happens in a game that knocks your confidence around. Unless you’ve got experienced players to overcome that, it’s really hard for young guys to forget about it and move on and play their best football.

“I absolutely put down the loss tonight to what happened in week one. They, for me, to win the comp needed to win week one, get the weekend off, have that confidence, momentum.”

Canberra proud despite unwanted slice of NRL history

Despite making unwanted history, Stuart was proud of how his team defied the critics in 2025. "Obviously disappointed," the coach said. "We built something pretty special and just lost a couple moments that lost us two games."

Captain Joseph Tapine added: "There's so much we learned, not just as a playing group, but as boys. I said to the boys, 'don't let this disappointment fade from you. Remember it for next year, and you don't want to feel like that again'."

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