Stuart offered a mea culpa to netball for an off-the-cuff comment questioning the toughness of the sport.

But the Green Machine mentor hoped the silver lining for one of Australia's most-played team sports was it generated good publicity for the game.

Stuart was quoted as saying "if I can't have tough conversations with my better players I might as well coach netball" on Fox Sports program NRL360 on Wednesday night.

The comment was made by one of the show's hosts Paul Kent in regards to Stuart's conversations behind closed doors with some players in his struggling team.

There's been talk of rifts between him and some senior players, including former co-captain Josh Hodgson, which both he and the players have dismissed.

His comments sparked outrage from the netball community and they were seen as a pot shot at not only at netball, but women's sport in general.

Netball's biggest names, including former Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander and former Australian captain Liz Ellis, have condemned the comments.

Netball ACT chief executive Matthew Battams said Stuart's comments were unhelpful and reinforced the importance of language.

He felt it was naive to say netball coaches and players don't have strong conversations.

"It's unhelpful. I hoped Ricky said it in the moment without really believing what he said and I think he's come out today and apologised, which is really important," Battams said.

"I do think it reinforces the importance of language and I think sometimes we say things without really understanding the consequences of them.

"Obviously it's upset quite a few people in the netball community and I think many of them would welcome Ricky coming along to watch some netball if he hasn't previously.

"I know he's said he respects the game, but we'd love his team to come down and have a game of netball against our girls and just see how physical it is, and how athletic and strong the girls are that play our sport."

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A sheepish Stuart apologised and said he respected netball on Friday ahead of the Raiders' must-win clash against the Canterbury Bulldogs at Lang Park.

The Raiders have lost their past five games and were desperate for a win to turn their season around.

He hoped his comments would help generate publicity and debate around the game, which was played by more than 900,000 people in Australia in 2019 according to Sport Australia statistics.

Netball ACT's participation is up nine per cent on their figures from two years ago.

"I respect all sports and it was an off-the-cuff comment," Stuart said on Friday.

"I've had a laugh about it. I've had some journalists ring me up last night and we had a laugh about it - but they've probably flogged the hell out of me today.

"I respect netball. I'm sorry if I offended any girl or boy that plays netball. All sports are tough and I understand that.

"But as [my late manager] John Fordham once said to me, 'Any publicity is good publicity as long as they're spelling your name right'.

"I hope netball take it as good publicity for them."

NRL ROUND 10

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Canterbury Bulldogs at Lang Park, 3pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Caleb Aekins, 2. Bailey Simonsson, 3. Sebastian Kris, 4. Curtis Scott, 5. Semi Valemei, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. George Williams, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Tom Starling, 10. Emre Guler, 11. Corey Harawira-Naera, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Hudson Young. Interchange: 14. Josh Hodgson, 15. Dunamis Lui, 16. Corey Horsburgh, 17. Ryan James. Reserves: 18. Sam Williams, 19. Matt Timoko, 20. Siliva Havili, 21. Harry Rushton.

Bulldogs squad: 1. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 2. Nick Cotric, 3. Will Hopoate, 4. Nick Meaney, 5. Tuipulotu Katoa, 6. Brandon Wakeham, 7. Jake Averillo, 8. Dylan Napa, 9. Sione Katoa, 10. Luke Thompson, 11. Adam Elliott, 12. Chris Smith, 13. Renouf Atoni. Interchange: 14. Bradley Deitz, 15. Corey Waddell, 16. Ava Seumanufagai, 17. Matt Doorey. Reserves: 19. Kyle Flanagan, 20. Joe Stimson, 21. Aaron Schoupp, 23. Ofahiki Ogden.