Canberra will rally around coach Ricky Stuart and get on with keeping their NRL season alive, captain Elliott Whitehead says.

The Raiders skipper, who was sitting alongside Stuart when he called Penrith half Jaeman Salmon a “weak-gutted dog” in Saturday’s post-match press conference, said the controversy wouldn’t distract the team at a critical stage of their season.

Overshadowed by the storm over Stuart’s comments has been the fact the Raiders’ season is teetering on the brink, one game and considerable point differential back from the eighth-placed Sydney Roosters with four games to play following their loss to the Panthers.

In a week dominated by unwanted headlines about their coach, Whitehead said his players stood by him.

“We’ve got his back, he had his reasons,” Whitehead told reporters on Tuesday.

“I’m not going to go into them but we’re all supportive of Ricky and he knows he probably shouldn’t have said it on that platform.

“He’s upset he let his emotions get the better of him.”

Stuart is expected to be suspended from coaching this weekend, with reports assistant Brett White will take the reins in his absence.

A former Raiders player, White would face a daunting challenge in his first game at the helm, tasked with steering the side to the first of four consecutive wins they likely need to play finals.

Whitehead said their gameplan would need to come to the fore to make his job as easy as possible.

“Whoever comes in, nothing changes … we’ve got a gameplan that we’ve got to stick to, we’ve used that for the last couple of weeks so nothing will change in that department either,” he said.

“As a club we’re moving forward and not trying to worry about last week, we’ve got a job to do this week and that’s to win a game of footy.

“We are disappointed we lost last week but we’re trying to bounce back from that because we have to.”