'Embarrassed' Ricky Stuart puts Canberra Raiders on notice

It's the second time this season Stuart has said changes were needed. The first time was after the 35-10 loss to the Parramatta Eels when he was angry with the second-half performance.

This time it more devastation after the Green Machine were blown off Canberra Stadium 44-6 on Saturday night.

It's their heaviest defeat since 2014, when Stuart was first rebuilding the Raiders.

But this would have been much harder to take, given the quality of players at his disposal and against a struggling Gold Coast side.

Raiders prop Josh Papalii was a rare shining light for Canberra, making his and Canberra five-eighth Jack Wighton's absence for Thursday night's Manly game an even bigger blow.

While those two will need to be replaced as they go into State of Origin camp, Stuart said there could be more to come.

He said he needed players that would bring energy - putting everyone's spots on the line.

"I've got to find some energy and the only way I'm going to find energy is with new faces," Stuart said.

Stuart apologised to the 7646 hardy fans who braved freezing cold conditions, saying they deserved better than the performance the Raiders dished out.

While he's long been an advocate for there being no easy games in the NRL, he said maybe they were the exception to the rule.

Especially given they missed 69 tackles.

He admitted they were a shadow of the side that made the grand final two years ago and last year's preliminary final.

They've lost nine of their past 11 games, but somehow they're still within touching distance of the top eight.

"There's no easy game in the NRL. At the moment, we probably can't put our hand up and say that because we're making it pretty easy at the moment," Stuart said.

"It doesn't take a lot to beat us if you're missing that many tackles.

"It's very disappointing and I'm as embarrassed as anyone for these poor people who come out here and brave these conditions and watch us play.

"We play like that and I feel very sorry for our hard and loyal supporters. We're not a shadow of ourselves in regards to where we've got to be.

"It's sad to put on that type of performance with those people there tonight braving those conditions."

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