I can still picture it. Ricky Stuart has the ball and is running for all he is worth. He is urgently looking over both shoulders for the support required to achieve the redemption he so badly wants.

It is November 1990 at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground and it looks like the whole of Great Britain is chasing the boy from Queanbeyan.

Just minutes earlier he had thrown a pass that was intercepted by Great Britain's Paul Loughlin. The subsequent try levelled the scores at 10-10. Losing the series had become a real possibility for Australia and the weight of the world was on Stuart's shoulders.

"I felt like I had a death in the family when I threw that pass and I saw them score. I let all the boys and the whole touring squad down," Stuart said.

To make it worse, he was playing just his second Test for the Kangaroos and his first in his favoured half-back position. He had dislodged Allan Langer from the coveted number seven jersey following Australia's loss in the first Test.

It is now rugby league folklore that with less than a minute to go Stuart made a break and ran like a man trying to escape a lynch mob. And support finally arrived in the form of a rampaging Mal Meninga who scored the winning try. Stuart had redeemed himself, but he is no stranger to the concept of redemption.

Near the business end of the 1993 season - arguably his best ever as a player - Stuart broke his ankle making a meaningless covering tackle in a match the Raiders were winning easily.

Without him, the side that he had marshalled so brilliantly all year fell away badly. They lost their next three games straight to be dumped out of the finals.

That he subsequently received the Dally M Medal - Rothmans Medal double would have provided some consolation. The very next year Stuart made amends by helping his side win the premiership.

Raiders Steve Walters, Ricky Stuart, Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley, Bradley Clyde and Brett Mullins celebrate after winning the 1994 ARL grand final. ( File photo: Getty Images )

Now the prodigal son has arrived back in Canberra, 16 years after ex-Raiders CEO Kevin Neil unceremoniously cut him from the Green Machine's roster.

In lots of ways his current coaching predicament is just like that Test way back in November 1990.

He is running like hell to try and achieve coaching redemption by proving to his many detractors that he is, in fact, a good coach. And, just like back in 1990, it may be his last chance.

Stuart is running from a popular view that the 2002 premiership with the Roosters was not due to his coaching but rather because of a side that Graham Murray had created, that Brad Fittler captained and because of the controlling hand of Gus Gould.

And the stats add some weight to that theory.

Following the retirement of Fittler, the Roosters results dropped away sharply. While Fittler was playing at the Roosters Stuart's win ratio as coach was 79%. It dropped to 39% post Fittler.

While his overall win-loss ratio sits at 51%, Stuart has won just one in three matches (35%) in his NRL coaching career since 2005. In that year the Roosters finished ninth and missed the finals. In 2006 they plummeted to 14th. Shortly before the end of the season he was sacked as coach.

Stuart then joined the Cronulla in 2007. In 2008 he managed to get the Sharks to equal first place - third on points differential - before they were bundled out in the preliminary final by a Melbourne side later found to have breached the salary cap.

This was no mean feat at a club that had virtually no resources and a no-frills playing roster, a feat Stuart has received little credit for.

His last three finishes as coach - two second-lasts and of course Parramatta's wooden spoon in 2013 - have not helped his cause.

Stuart is also running from a perception held by some that all he did at Parramatta was make things worse. Detractors believe the sacking of 12 players mid-2013 was disastrous for a club already in turmoil on and off the field and that walking out on his contract at the end of the 2013 was appalling.

Stuart needs support for his redemption

Where will the support come from to help him achieve redemption, to prove his detractors wrong?

In Canberra he has inherited a team of under-achievers who are trying to forget a horror year.

His many challenges include:

An aging and injury-prone front-row;

An aging and injury-prone front-row; No settled dummy half;

No settled dummy half; Holes in the roster left by Joel Thompson, Blake Ferguson and Josh Dugan;

Holes in the roster left by Joel Thompson, Blake Ferguson and Josh Dugan; A five-eighth in Terry Campese who has lost a great deal of pace and rarely takes on the line;

A five-eighth in Terry Campese who has lost a great deal of pace and rarely takes on the line; A star player in Anthony Milford who may have his eyes on the 2015 season with Brisbane rather than the task at hand; and

A star player in Anthony Milford who may have his eyes on the 2015 season with Brisbane rather than the task at hand; and The need to rectify a 2013 away record that featured only two wins outside Canberra with an average of only 13.5 points scored and a massive 28 conceded. In their last six games of 2013 the Raiders conceded an average of 41 points a game.

Ricky Stuart has a big job ahead of him at the Canberra Raiders. ( AAP: Alan Porritt )

Redemption will not be easy.

And regardless of these pre-existing issues, and any others that arise during the season, the responsibility for poor results will surely be laid directly at the feet of Ricky Stuart, whether fairly or not.

This prodigal son must unite the Raiders club and its supporters behind him.

While his task is a big one, Stuart may find the support he needs at the Green Machine.

The leadership group of Campese, David Shillington, Brett White, Tom Learoyd-Lars and Shaun Fensom is experienced and determined after the horrors of 2013. They will bring great support to Stuart.

In Jack Wighton he has a player extremely reminiscent of a young Laurie Daley in both his ferocious attack and defence. Wighton has just re-signed with the club and, barring injury, he is a future captain and superstar.

Anthony Milford's undoubted skill may come to Stuart's aid by adding the line breaks and tries his side needs to triumph.

There is also large stable of potential stars from the likes of Edrick Lee, Paul Vaughn, Jack Ahern and Brenko Lee that may well help Stuart mastermind a Raiders fairytale.

Support may also come from the halves Josh McCrone and young Mitch Cornish. If Stuart can mould them into the style of on-field generals he once was, then the Raiders could deliver him not just coaching redemption but coaching greatness.

And support may come too from aging captain Terry Campese. With a full pre-season under his belt for the first time since 2010, Campese may reprise his barnstorming form of 2008 and 2010 and lead his team to great heights.

So just like on that November day at Old Trafford all those years ago, Stuart is again running and running hard. He is training his squad hard. Marshalling and encouraging them to become the support that he so urgently requires.