Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has rubbished claims the Raiders prevented up to five of their Māori stars from playing in the recent All Stars rugby league match in Sydney.

The Māori All Stars held off a persistent Indigenous All Stars to win 12-10, however instead of triumphantly singing the praises of his side that captured their first win since 2022, coach Adam Blair instead spoke about being robbed of their best side on Saturday night.

He essentially accused the Raiders of exerting "pressure" on its employees including prop Joe Tapine, centre Matthew Timoko, and five-eighth pair Manaia Waitere and Kaeo Weekes, in addition to Canberra's outside back Sebastian Kris.

Tapine, Timoko, Weeks and Kris were all included in the Raiders' squad to fly to Las Vegas this month for the season kick-off against New Zealand Warriors.

Blair, who intimated the earlier start to Canberra's first game influenced the club's stance, felt there should be a form of repercussions for preventing players representing their culture.

"The more they hold everyone accountable, then it becomes easier for the clubs to go, 'Well, the game says you have to play – unless you're injured – you go and play'," Blair said.

"There's so many talented players that could have been here but due to pressures.

"For example, I love our Canberra boys and we could have taken five or so of them and put them in our squad.

"But I get it ... those are five of Canberra's best players."

Stuart was left seething at a press conference several days after the annual All Stars fixture, slamming Blair's earlier remarks as "childish" and without any semblance of truth.

The club has backed its coach played no hand in applying pressure to the Māori players over declining an invitation, and insists the Māori camp did not contact the club for a release of players for the week.

Stuart said the suggestion of questioning the club's integrity was "ridiculous".

"It was a childish comment; it comes from a very inexperienced coach," Stuart said

"He's obviously coaching the way he used to play, very selfishly.

"This club still has not got an email asking for any of the boys to play in the Māori football team.

"Blair has really tarnished our relationship with that game."

Stuart also felt Blair's words suggested the Raiders were insensitive to the contributions of the cultures that play the game.

"Anyone with an ounce of knowledge about rugby league would know how dedicated, and proud Canberra Raiders are in regards to supporting the development and the opportunity to play at the highest level of our Māori, Pasifika and Indigenous players,'' he said.

"Our longstanding support and absolute understanding how special the NRL All Stars game has been deeply tarnished by these naive comments from an inexperienced person.

"This proud club does more for our Māori, Pasifika and Indigenous players than Adam Blair would ever do and will ever know of.

"Our players made a decision not to play by themselves, many of which were without our knowledge, due to the way the Māori team conducted their communication."

Blair is yet to publicly respond to Stuart's firm allegations that the Māori management were to blame for the absence of more players.

While suggesting players would have been free to play, he also took a swipe at the scheduling of the occasion that infringes on the final weeks of preparation before the NRL season.

It is not the first time the scheduling of the All-Stars weekend had been questioned, after more than a dozen Indigenous stars were also missing on Saturday, including icons Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr.

There had been a proposal to play the match alongside the women's encounter on the Saturday night ahead of the NRL and NRLW grand finals, considering a number of Aboriginal players traditionally make themselves available for the Koori Knockout that long weekend.

"That game is played at the wrong end of the season, for a start," Stuart said.

"I'm probably the only courageous one who will actually say that.

"I enjoy the game, I like watching the game, but it's played at the wrong time of the season."