'He was courageous in the end': An NRL great's words of wisdom for under-fire Raiders young gun

Slater said he wouldn't talk much footy with Stewart if he chatted with him, instead he'd just check in on the 18-year-old ahead of their game against Cronulla at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

Then he'd focus on how Stewart put his body on the line, as well as work on some positional play.

Stewart had a tough first half in the Raiders' 34-10 loss to the Brisbane Broncos on Saturday.

The Green Machine found themselves on the wrong end of a 20-minute Broncos blitzkrieg where they scored five unanswered tries.

Stewart struggled under the high ball and made a couple of errors in slippery Lang Park conditions.

But he came out in the second half and continued to put his body on the line in a much-improved second half.

It showed his character as he refused to allow his errors to get to him.

"To his credit, he kept getting up, he kept playing and I thought he was courageous in the end," Slater said on Channel Nine's The Sunday Footy Show.

"But it was a really tough night for him. He's going to learn from it.

"He's going to look at this game and look back on it and I'm sure he'll grow from it because he looks like that sort of character.

"He doesn't look like someone who will shirk this."

The Queensland State of Origin coach - who was a star for Melbourne, the Maroons and Australia - backed Stewart to bounce back.

Slater said he would just work on a few subtle things about Stewart's positioning - after he said he was caught out of position for Broncos hooker Billy Walters' try.

"I probably wouldn't talk to him much about footy - probably just ask him how he's going," he said.

"He's going to be OK. He's obviously a very talented player. To play first-grade at 18 - there's not too many that do that.

"He had a great debut last week. He put his body on the line.

"I'd be focusing on that sort of stuff, work a bit of development on his positional play and get out there and play footy again."

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart said the fact Stewart didn't crumble highlighted his toughness.

He said the way he responded after half-time showed the coach - who will take charge of his 500^th NRL game against the Sharks - his young gun had an NRL future.

Stuart said his fullback wasn't his only player who would benefit from the experience.

It was Stewart's second NRL game, five-eighth Ethan Strange's eighth, James Schiller's 14^th, Morgan Smithies' seventh, Simi Sasagi's 18^th and Trey Mooney's seventh.

With Raiders halfback Jamal Fogarty (biceps) off injured in the second half, their oldest player in the backline was just 24.

"It'll be an unbelievable lesson for all the boys - some of them haven't got 20 first-grade games yet," Stuart said.

"With Ethan and Chevy only having a handful of games that type of experience is going to be [invaluable] - you've got to be in it to experience it.

"That was a pretty tough environment that first 40 minutes of football.

"For us to keep composure and not have panic or frustration creep in it's difficult and I was happy with how we kept some composure in the second half because it could've got ugly if we lost our way."

NRL ROUND EIGHT

Sunday: Canberra Raiders v Cronulla Sharks at Canberra Stadium, 4.05pm.