Son shines in Canberra as Jed passes history lesson in style

On a day when club history echoed loudest through the walls of GIO Stadium, it was fitting that Jed Stuart stepped up to honour the past and help deliver a crucial win.

Stuart, the son of Canberra Raiders legend and head coach Ricky Stuart, didn’t just play on the club’s annual Old Boys Day, he understood it.

With Green Machine royalty watching from the stands, Stuart rose to the moment with maturity beyond his years in Canberra's 40-16 win over the Eels in honour of the entire Raiders family who had worn the jersey before him.

“It probably gives you that extra bit of motivation to get the win,” Stuart said.

“The last thing you want to be doing is playing and then going up and having a beer with all the old boys and just talking about what you should have done better and why you didn’t do that and what not. Hopefully they are proud.”

Few players are as closely connected to the club’s DNA as Stuart, who had been a Raiders ball boy.

Now, many of those players he once looked up to are the same ones shaking his hand after full-time.

"It is an honour," he said.  “I remember ball boy-ing for some of them and then some of them have come up to me and go, ‘I remember you when you were little, mate, you wouldn’t remember me,’ but obviously I know who they are because we do so much on our past with the club.”

For the 24-year-old Stuart, the history and legacy of the Raiders isn’t confined to one themed round or weekend. It’s embedded into the club’s culture, something he sees and feels every week.

“The Old Boys is not just this week inside our walls. We do so much on all the Old Boys and how much they mean to us and what they’ve done before us," he said.

"We recognise them all the time. They’re a big part of our club. It is just another week really, but it’s good that they all can be here and have a beer."

And while his father's focus was squarely on the team performance, there was pride in watching Jed contribute meaningfully to a day that meant so much to them both.

“We turned it around, and it was a day we had to turn it around because we were playing for a lot of people here in regard to who’s played in our jumper before and played in our number," the coach said.

"We had to turn it around and show a little bit of pride in the jumper itself, and we did."

The Raiders were slow to get going in the first half but responded with renewed purpose in the second in front of another boisterous home crowd.

“We got a bit of a spray at half-time so to come out and square up our attack a bit and start playing some more front foot footy and executing probably did the old boys proud on Old Boys' Day," Jed said.

Just four games into his NRL career, Stuart is already showing the traits that built the storied history of the Green Machine.

Surrounded by a squad full of mates and first-graders setting the standard, he’s soaking it all in as the Raiders continue their charge towards the club's first minor premiership since 1990.

“I think it helps playing with the quality of boys that are playing first grade now," he said. "They’re not on top of the ladder for no reason.

"They’re a bunch of class players and they’re all good mates so it makes it easy to play when everyone is so close.

"I don’t think anyone’s getting too far ahead of themselves. Finals are still a long way away and the ladder can fluctuate so much within a week or so."