Stuart: Disruption no excuse for flat-footed Green Machine

Ricky Stuart says the disruption caused by Queensland's snap COVID lockdown had zero role to play in Canberra's sub-par 34-24 loss to the Knights on Sunday afternoon.

The Raiders were caught totally flat-footed by the fast-starting Knights, who were up 12-0 inside 10 minutes and then 18-0 before the Raiders finally found their first points almost half an hour into the game.

"We didn't start anywhere near the way we had to," Stuart said.

"We lost all our momentum in the start of the game, it sucked a lot of juice out of us, we looked very flat then.

"We weren't a shade on the team we have been over the last two or three performances and that's the disappointing part, that wasn't us today."

Both sides were getting ready to play on Saturday before being delayed by the snap lockdown, with discussions going late into the night on Saturday to get the game up and running on the Sunday.

Stuart had nothing but praise for those that got the game off the ground and said the disruption had nothing to do with his side's performance.

"Nothing at all," he said flatly.

"Certainly the disruption, what went on yesterday, has no bearing on how we performed today at all. All I've done is compliment the NRL and officials with regard to what they have given us.

"They're working tirelessly with the government at the moment to keep this game going … I was on a Zoom last night at 11 o'clock, our leader [NRL CEO] Andrew Abdo is at the forefront, running the Zoom.

"My management here Matty Ford was still sending out emails at half past one, two o'clock in the morning, everyone's doing everything they possibly can.

"No one's upset about the changes, the league are doing everything they can to keep the game going. So are we and the players. The disruption had nothing to do with that poor performance."

If anything dealing with that sort of disruption is a welcome test of character, according to Stuart.

"I think we've become accustomed to understanding that anything on the day can happen," he said.

"For example yesterday, it's a good test of character. We handled it fine.

"It didn't affect our preparation, didn't have any disruptions toward the way we played, we got to the sideline ready to play.

"I was just disappointed with the start of our game because we couldn't get into it.

"That was a game today when you're losing momentum, you get six-again against you, roll down the field and get a try against you, I think we scored off a six again coming out of our end of the field.

"We just couldn't regain momentum then when we started flat like we did, not being able to get any momentum sucked the life out of us."