Ricky Stuart confident the Canberra Raiders can rise above adversity

Scott fired a parting shot at the Raiders, describing his sacking as a "low act" and claiming the club has no regard for player welfare after his contract was torn up on Monday.

The 23-year-old is planning to fight an assault charge which was laid over an incident at a Canberra nightclub in May, while it is believed other factors were at play when the Raiders cut him loose.

Players have reached out to their former teammate but Stuart is confident it will not overshadow a must-win clash with the New Zealand Warriors in Mackay on Friday.

"It hasn't been a distraction. It's been a year of distractions, and they've become pretty used to it, the boys, as the coaches have," Stuart said.

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"We've just finished our captain's run and apart from a couple of hurdles with our team in regards to niggles and whatnot, they trained really well. I just finished talking to them about how impressed I was with their training.

"Take the scoreboard away from the last few games, which we are very disappointed in because they were losses, and I couldn't ask for a greater effort and energy that has been produced over the past two games as it has over the six-week period we've been here in Queensland."

Scott's sacking is the latest chapter in a tumultuous campaign for the Green Machine which has seen Josh Hodgson stand down as captain and George Williams leave early for England.

"We've got a lot out of the season in regards to handling adversity and handling uppercuts," Stuart said.

But more pressing than any of those distractions for the Raiders mentor is the matter of nailing his rotations on the bench against a Warriors side fighting to save an unlikely finals dream.

Siliva Havili returns on the Raiders bench, deputising for starter Hodgson with Tom Starling - one of the "shining lights of the season" - out with a fractured jaw.

Jordan Rapana holds his place at fullback while Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad will wear the No. 14 jumper for Canberra with Stuart confident his best may be around the corner after returning from a long injury layoff.

"At [Thursday's] session, he was really starting to move well again," Stuart said.

"Once Charnze gets some minutes under his belt, he is going to be back to normal, and hopefully he can get some of those minutes this week.

"At training over the last two or three sessions, and I mentioned it to him [on Thursday], he is starting to really move again and show some real speed in his activity.

"Charnze is there to cover me in the outside backs, he can play a few positions. Last week, when I took [Rapana] off, I know there was a lot of questions about it but I was going to keep Rapa on but he wanted to have a spell. If you watch the game closely, he did an enormous amount of work, Jordan, and he was stuffed.

"I thought bringing Charnze on was going to provide some more energy and then I was going to get Rapa back on. It didn't go that way and that's the breaks."

NRL ROUND 24

Friday: New Zealand Warriors v Canberra Raiders at Mackay, 6pm.

Raiders squad: 1. Jordan Rapana, 2. Bailey Simonsson, 3. Sebastian Kris, 4. Matt Timoko, 5. Harley Smith-Shields, 6. Jack Wighton, 7. Matt Frawley, 8. Josh Papalii, 9. Josh Hodgson, 10. Joe Tapine, 11. Hudson Young, 12. Elliott Whitehead (c), 13. Ryan Sutton. Interchange: 14. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad, 15. Emre Guler, 16. Corey Horsburgh, 17. Siliva Havili. Reserves: 18. Sam Williams, 19. Dunamis Lui, 20. Semi Valemei, 21. Trey Mooney.

Warriors squad: 1. Reece Walsh, 2. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak, 3. Peta Hiku, 4. Adam Pompey, 5. Marcelo Montoya, 6. Sean O'Sullivan, 7. Chad Townsend, 8. Addin Fonua-Blake, 9. Wayde Egan, 10. Matthew Lodge, 11. Josh Curran, 12. Euan Aitken, 13. Bayley Sironen. Interchange: 14. Kodi Nikorima, 15. Bunty Afoa, 16. Eliesa Katoa, 17. Jazz Tevaga. Reserves: 18. Jamayne Taunoa-Brown, 20. Rocco Berry, 21. Kane Evans, 22. Jack Murchie.

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