He is widely known for his father being Rugby League legend Johnny Raper and he also is the only Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks coach to win the President's Cup (under-21s) for the club in 1994.
Raper originally signed on to play with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the early 1980s, and made his first grade début at the age of 18 against the Illawarra Steelers in round 25 of the 1983 NSWRFL season.
Stuart Raper played loose forward, in Oldham's 6–27 defeat by Wigan in the 1986–87 Lancashire Cup Final at Knowsley Road, St. Helens on Sunday 19 October 1986.
Here Raper inherited an extremely talented side (featuring Adam Dykes, Geoff Bell and David Peachey) and with them excelled as he took the team to the club's first President's Cup in his début season as coach.
After a successful 1996 season at home with Cronulla, Raper was offered the head coaching role at English Super League club the Castleford Tigers and joined on 27 April 1997.
[3][4] At the start of 1997's Super League II Castleford were seen by many as a team simply making up the numbers and few held hopes for their survival to avoid being relegated.
Raper masterminded the side past Wigan Warriors and local rivals Leeds Rhinos and took the Tigers within 80 minutes of the Grand Final at Old Trafford.
Raper did however enjoy his first piece of English rugby league silverware in 2002 when he took his Wigan Warriors side to victory in the Challenge Cup.
At the start of his tenure at the Sharks, the former Cronulla pupil was given the task of rebuilding the club after they failed to make the NRL playoffs in 2003 for the first time in four seasons.