“The club had put so much time and effort and money into the trip; it was going to be a really big trip, and I thought, f— you.
“But then I had to protect the players. And that became my priority.”
Hudson Young experienced a wild week in Vegas.Credit: Getty Images
Stuart never once feared the incident would become a distraction and ruin their chances of an opening-round win against the New Zealand Warriors. The shenanigans actually helped the Green Machine.
“Hudson and Morgan are two great blokes,” Stuart says. “The fight did not worry me one bit, and it was never going to derail us from a football point of view.
“If anything, it helped us because it allowed me to coach with a really cranky head for a week. I said to them after the game, it’s my best way of coaching. You can’t do it every day, but you need a degree of an edge. But it was every day over there. And we won.”
Stuart admits he’s lost every fight he’s had with a teammate, and every time alcohol was involved.
The Raiders celebrate their stunning win over Penrith in Mudgee on their way to the minor premiership.Credit: NRL Photos
“Bourbon makes sparrows want to fight emus,” he says, breaking into that trademark laugh as he sits in the office of Raiders chief executive Don Furner.
Furner knew that if the Raiders lost to the Warriors, the Young-Smithies cruiserweight bout would have been blamed.
“We can laugh about it now, but I remember saying to Ricky, ‘We really need to win this game’,” Furner recalls.
“All these good things happened over there, like visiting the Las Vegas Raiders [NFL] facilities, Xavier Savage proposed to his girlfriend, and we had that recovery session when we first arrived that ended up happening in the middle of a Vegas pool party.
“If we’d lost, people would have been saying, ‘What were they doing over there? They never focused on the actual footy’. That’s how fickle things can be if you win or lose. We needed to win.
“I was in bed in LA when I received a call from [NRL CEO] Andrew Abdo, and he asked me, ‘What’s going on over there?’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ And Andrew said, ‘Haven’t you heard what’s happened?’
“I told him I was still in LA and not in Vegas until the following day. When I phoned Rick, he said he didn’t want to ruin my final night in LA with my wife.
“On a scale of one to 10, what happened with Morgan and Hudson was a one. All the journos were saying that.
“It wouldn’t have happened had the players had their keys for the room [there had been a delay due to a technical fault at the hotel]. It wouldn’t have happened had hotel security known to call one of our guys.
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart and captain Joseph Tapine pose with the JJ Giltinan Shield after winning the minor premiership.Credit: Getty Images
“But it was the first big [league] story for everybody. Nobody ever got hit with baseball bats, but a little thing became a big thing.
“We needed that win. Looking back now, I think that moment brought the group even closer together.”
Young, who has blossomed into a representative back-rower, knew he had done the wrong thing, but also knew he had to be upfront with Stuart, no matter how bad the spray was going to be.
Like Stuart, Young at no stage feared the incident would have a serious impact on the club’s season.
Hudson Young has blossomed into a regular for NSW.Credit: Getty Images
“It was two mates coming back from a night out after having too much to drink,” Young says. “We took full accountability for what happened.
“We apologised for the team because it was stupid. I actually rang ‘Stick’ [Stuart] when it happened. He found out about an hour afterwards. I explained the situation.
“Sticky is one of those coaches that if you tell him the truth from the start, he’ll back you to the hilt. That’s why we love him.
“There were never any issues with me and Morgan. We went back into the same room a minute later. Security saw [what happened] differently. There was an inflatable bat, but me and Morgan didn’t have it. It was just in the elevator at the time.
“My phone was blowing up once the story broke. But it didn’t affect the group. We actually used it as fuel because people always try to drive a wedge in when things like that happen.”
Young said the team could not have trained better in the days that followed. There was no awkwardness.
“We were so confident going into that first game; we knew we weren’t going to lose because we knew how hard we had trained,” Young says. “Morgs and I [also] owed it to the team.
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“We knew how close we were as a team. That’s why we’ve been playing so well all year, because we play for each other. We all love each other on and off the field, and we’re all such great mates.”
Smithies, a hard-working Englishman who grew up on his grandfather’s farm in the country’s north, said the matter was forgotten once he and Young stood side by side in front of the cameras.
“We were never going to let the outside noise break us,” he says.
Smithies knew Stuart would back his players, just as he had done countless times over the years. The coach’s loyalty had been a major factor in his decision to join the club.
The Raiders defeated the Warriors 30-8 in Vegas. They then upset Brisbane 32-22 in round two, after the Broncos had run up a cricket score against the Sydney Roosters the previous week.
As Smithies points out, the brotherhood at Canberra is partly driven by the fact that so many players are not from the city, and they lean on each other as a family. Even the closest families get on each other’s nerves.
“Morgan loves the club, and Hudson is the culture through and through, who is bringing Morgan into that next stage of his career here,” Stuart says.
What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas. But Sin City might just have helped the Raiders hit the jackpot.
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