Ricky Stuart has lamented a lack of professionalism with the football after Canberra's NRL loss to North Queensland left their finals hopes hanging by a thread.
The Raiders lost 31-18 to the Cowboys in freezing conditions at GIO Stadium on Saturday night, with the coach admitting they face an uphill battle to make back-to-back finals series for the first time since 2004.
Despite being touted as premiership contenders in the pre-season, the Green Machine are languishing outside the eight, two games off the pace after four straight losses.
Their tough run home begins with St George Illawarra in Canberra on Friday night and includes two matches with Melbourne, Cronulla away and the Warriors in New Zealand.
Errors and discipline were costly for Canberra against the Cowboys, along with a completion rate of less than 60 per cent.
"We lacked any professionalism with the football and we were very, very poor in the second half," Stuart said.
Centre Joey Leilua could face the scrutiny of the match review committee after being sin-binned over a striking charge on Kyle Feldt when the game was effectively over.
Stuart said Leilua's actions were stupid.
"There's four or five players there that can really put their hand up and say they had a valuable go tonight," Stuart said.
"But there's some other players there that it wasn't up to standard. I'm really disappointed with the fact that it's just not happening."
Stuart said teenage winger Nick Cotric, who scored a brilliant solo try and was lively throughout the match, carried too much of the burden.
"We were lucky we had Nick," Stuart said.
"He was superb and that's unfair.
"I don't think that's fair on him. I think a lot of us have to have a good look at ourselves in regards to an 18-year-old carrying us over the line there at times.
"Some of his runs were outstanding."
Another player who performed well was giant prop Dave Taylor who responded well after Stuart had publicly declared his job was on the line.
"He did a good job for us tonight in the time that he had," Stuart said.
It was Taylor's third match for the Raiders and first since round five after a rotten run with injury and illness.
