FOR the second time in as many years, Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart departed from Bathurst’s Carrington Park as a bitterly disappointed man after watching his side suffer a narrow loss to NRL rivals Penrith.
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In 2016 it was a late field goal which saw the Raiders suffer a 19-18 loss, while on Saturday night the Panthers scored two tries in the final minutes to snatch a 24-20 victory.
The Raiders held an eight-point lead as Saturday’s match entered the dying stages and looked set to seal victory with four minutes remaining with a third try to winger Nick Cotric.
However, he knocked on.
Panthers skipper Matt Moylan then set up two late tries for his side and consigned the Raiders to their eighth loss of the season.
Unlike last year when Stuart was left fuming as he felt his players were prevented from making a block attempt on Peter Wallace’s successful field goal shot in the dying minutes, this time he had much less to say.
“Four minutes to go and eight or 10 points up, it was there to be won. It doesn’t matter now, we had the opportunity to win it and we didn’t,” Stuart said.
When asked if he felt his side was unlucky not to have come away from Bathurst with the points, Stuart said: “You can say that, if I say that I am probably going to be biased – we didn’t win.”
He had even less to offer when asked what his next move would be.
"Jump on the bus and go home, that's what we'll do," he said.
Earlier in the match, the Raiders were denied a try by the bunker when Kurt Baptiste was ruled not to have grounded an Aidan Sezer grubber.
That was one of 10 errors the Raiders made over the course of 80 minutes.
Still, Stuart’s men did make five fewer errors than the Panthers and other statistics weighed in their favour as well.
Canberra enjoyed more possession (53%), completed more sets (81%), conceded three less penalties and had 17 fewer missed tackles.
But that just added to the frustration of missing out on the competition points.
“It’s disappointing. The effort’s been there every single game, but just two little plays there towards the end just proved costly,” Raiders skipper Jarrod Crocker said.
The loss leaves the Raiders sitting 10th on the ladder, but Crocker and his team-mates are only one win outside the eight.
“There’s no reason why we can’t [turn things around], but we’re going to have to do it, do it now,” the skipper said. “Obviously the boys are very disheartened, but that’s expected.”
The Raiders have a bye this round.
