Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock: Ezra Mam set to be the biggest loser in explosive Thurston-Leniu confrontation

Hidden behind the explosive feud between Johnathan Thurston and Spencer Leniu lies the harsh reality facing Ezra Mam when he returns to first grade football, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

Hidden behind the explosive feud between Johnathan Thurston and Spencer Leniu lies the harsh reality that Ezra Mam’s ordeal is far from over.

Leniu is furious at Thurston for suggesting Leniu got off lightly with an eight-match ban for calling Mam a “monkey’’ last year, but saying nothing after Mam injured three people by driving his Ford Ranger on the wrong side of the road while unlicensed and with drugs in his system.

Thurston argues no one asked him for his response to the car crash and given that it happened on October 12 – the start of the off-season – that may well be the case.

It’s a complex argument, but it did not take long for it to reopen discussion about the Mam car crash and the merits of the several embarrassingly light penalties handed down to him.

Former Cronulla star Wade Graham spoke for many on Triple M on the weekend, when he said he thought Mam would have been banned for a season when he first heard details of the crash, but he received just a nine-week ban from the NRL.

It will be interesting to see how much heat awaits Mam from fans and critics when he returns for the Broncos in round 10.

The NRL penalty came after the Brisbane Magistrates Court fined Mam a mere $850 and disqualified him from driving for six months, with stunned critics pointing out he would get a stiffer financial fine for a high tackle than injuring a four-year-old girl.

Old Ezra Mam wounds are set to be ripped open.

Attorney-General Deb Frecklington flagged changes to the state’s drug driving laws after pointing out the $850 fine was less than a driver would get for using a mobile phone while driving.

The anger did not rest there. I have recently received several emails from high-ranking Brisbane legal practitioners expressing their bewilderment at the $850 fine.

By no means were they placated by the fact that the Broncos fined Mam $90,000.

“The problem with the Mam sentencing was not the magistrate, but the charge sheet,’’ one said.

“He should have been charged with dangerous driving, but wasn’t. If that’s not dangerous driving what on earth is?’’

RAMPAGING RABBIT

Jye Gray is the rampaging Rabbit who got away.

The pocket-sized South Sydney fullback is a deserving leader of the Dally M award after some thrilling performances for the Rabbitohs.

The Southport School product may have been born in Sydney, but he played his junior football for the Parkwood Sharks and Runaway Bay Seagulls, before shining for the Burleigh Bears and Souths Magpies and having a brief stay with the Broncos.

For the majority of his career he had to battle suggestions that he was too small, but his form for Souths is making a mockery of that theory.

Jye Gray turning out for Burleigh Bears in 2021. Picture Scott Powick Newscorp

THE CAP FITS

The salary cap gets blamed for a lot of things, but every now and then it works to a tee.

Cap pressures meant Valentine Holmes left the Cowboys for the Dragons, which was in no one’s plans a year or two ago. But that gave the Cowboys clear air to give 19-year-old Mackay product Jaxon Purdue more responsibility, and his pace and poise have made him an instant drawcard.

DOLPHINS SWAP

The Dolphins have bolstered their ranks with the recruitment of Newcastle prop Sebastian Su’a.

Su’a was scheduled to join the club next season, but AAP reported he will join them in a swap with Mason Teague, who played eight games in 2023-24 but none this season.

The Dolphins will be grateful if Su’a can reach somewhere close to the potency of another Knights prop, Daniel Saifiti, who has shone since arriving.

Originally published as Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock: Ezra Mam set to be the biggest loser in explosive Thurston-Leniu confrontation