Raiders coach Ricky Stuart rediscovers his 'ruthless' edge

Stuart promised to bring back "the old Ricky Stuart" and be tougher to get the best out of his players after they slipped out of premiership contention last year.

But by his own admission Stuart protected his players in the opening three rounds and perhaps the Raiders paid the price following a performance he slammed as "soft" in round four.

So Stuart responded by dropping one of Canberra's biggest stars in Josh Papalii to NSW Cup and it was just the wake up call the Green Machine needed.

Canberra then produced one of the toughest wins in Stuart's time at the club - as player or coach - and will look to back it up against the Parramatta Eels at Canberra Stadium on Saturday night.

Now Boyd hopes to put "the hardest four weeks" of his career behind him and help the Raiders back into the finals hunt.

"The approach Stick took [last] week is what we needed. He was ruthless, he just put everyone in their place and showed everyone exactly what they had to do," Boyd said.

"That really did help us and it was a big wake up call to be able to drop a player like Josh Papalii. He’s played Origin, he’s done everything you can do, he’s played for Australia.

"He’s one of the players that you come to in those tough games so to have him not there and for us to play that well, I think it’s a good thing to see what we’ve got in our depth.

"The last four weeks have been the hardest four weeks of my career. The first three games, we should have won them all, losing them in the last 10 minutes.

"We should be close to being on the top but instead we’re pretty much on the bottom. We’ll bounce back, we’ll get confidence out of that and that will take us through to winning a lot more games.

"It could be a blessing in disguise, those first four games, I think we’ll take a lot out of it. I know it’s been hard for the fans and it has been hard on us as well."

Papalii is desperate to prise his spot in Canberra's first choice 17 back after the Raiders posted their first win of the season with a gritty showing against the Canterbury Bulldogs in round five despite finishing with one man left on the bench.

The 13-Test veteran did his no chances no harm in an 80-minute showing for Mounties against Penrith in the NSW Cup on Saturday.

Papalii made 182 metres, 21 tackles and busted through four tackles as he played a crucial role in the middle, although it wasn't enough to avoid a 36-22 defeat.

Papalii is off-contract at the end of the season and will need to prove his worth to Stuart and the Raiders after negotiations stalled due to unfathomable requests.

Boyd says Stuart's merciless approach proves nobody is untouchable and it inspired the forward pack to dig deep or risk suffering the same fate as Papalii.

Stuart has clearly hit the mark - Dunamis Lui, Luke Bateman, Junior Paulo, Joe Tapine and Boyd were all immense for a Raiders outfit that finally broke the drought in their 2018 campaign.

"We spoke about it, we said no matter where you play or no matter what you have got to do, you do it," Boyd said.

"We had to win that game, we had to turn our season around. We dug deep, worked hard for each other and it paid off."

NRL ROUND SIX

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Parramatta Eels at Canberra Stadium, 7.35pm. Tickets available from Ticketek.

Raiders squad: 1. Jack Wighton, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Jarrod Croker (C), 4. Joey Leilua, 5. Jordan Rapana, 6. Blake Austin, 7. Aidan Sezer, 8. Sia Soliola, 9. Siliva Havili, 10. Junior Paulo, 11. Joe Tapine, 12. Elliott Whitehead, 13. Luke Bateman. Interchange: 14. Ata Hingano, 15. Shannon Boyd, 16. Josh Papalii, 17. Dunamis Lui, 18. Liam Knight, 19. Michael Oldfield, 20. Brad Abbey, 21. Jack Murchie

Eels squad: 1. Clint Gutherson, 2. George Jennings, 3. Michael Jennings, 4. Kirisome Auva'a, 5. Bevan French, 6. Corey Norman, 7. Mitchell Moses, 8. Peni Terepo, 9. Kaysa Pritchard, 10. Tim Mannah (c), 11. Manu Ma'u, 12. Tony Williams, 13. Tepai Moeroa. Interchange: 14. Beau Scott, 15. Kenny Edwards, 16. Daniel Alvaro, 17. Kane Evans, 18. Will Smith, 19. David Gower, 20. Suaia Matagi, 21. Josh Hoffman