Monday Buzz: Phil Rothfield’s weekend highlights and lowlights
A miserable round for the Broncos was compounded by just how poor some of their recruitment decisions have been of late. Buzz’s highlights and lowlights.
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Phil Rothfield reveals his weekend highlights and lowlights in sport’s best gossip column, Monday Buzz.
HIGHLIGHT
The Daly Cherry-Evans masterclass in Mudgee on Saturday afternoon in a performance which indicates he will not easily give up his Kangaroos jersey to Nathan Cleary.
LOWLIGHT
Poor recruitment decision that allowed former Brisbane players Matt Lodge, Reece Walsh and Jesse Arthars to play key roles in the Warriors win over the Broncos.
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SPOTTED
Ash Barty can’t keep out of the sports pages. The golf results page in the Sunday Mail newspaper in Brisbane revealed the tennis legend won the ladies tournament at Brookwater on Saturday.
SHOOSH
Melbourne Storm is looking at an exciting prospect from the UK Super League – 20-year-old backrower Joe Chan from the Catalans Dragons. His dad Alex played at Storm, the Northern Eagles, Parramatta and for the Kiwis.
SHOOSH
Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett was not just in Sydney to meet Kalyn Ponga on Saturday. We’re told the old SuperCoach also had separate meetings with two other NRL players.
SHOOSH
The Sydney Roosters don’t often lose any of their best young players but boom halfback Ronald Volkman is stuck behind Sam Walker and Luke Keary and is tipped to join the New Zealand Warriors at the end of the season.
TIGER CUBS
It’s not all bad news at the Wests Tigers. The Wests Magpies Harold Matthews team remains undefeated and flogged premiers Manly 42-4 on Saturday. There are at least half a dozen youngsters in the team who are shaping up as future NRL players.
BUY OF THE YEAR
Your columnist was a staunch supporter of previous Sharks coach John Morris and fell out with CEO Dino Mezzatesta and the Cronulla board when he was sacked last year. We didn’t speak for months. The decision however to sign Craig Fitzgibbon has, in hindsight, been a masterstroke. It’s early days but Fitzy is my tip for buy-of-the-year.
A CLASS ACT
The one bonus for the Roosters from Trent Robinson’s bout of Covid was the public emergence of assistant coach Jason Ryles, who spoke so articulately and impressively at the post-game press conference. This guy will eventually make a great head coach.
SPOTTED
Adam O’Brien and Danny Buderus taking a beer into the Sharks dressing room on Friday evening to share with Craig Fitzgibbon.
SPOTTED
Club legend and former Rothmans Medal winner Barry Russell being appointed a life member of the Cronulla Sharks at last week’s AGM.
360 VIEW
Catch you Monday night on NRL 360 on Fox League at 6.30pm with Braith Anasta, Paul Kent and Cooper Cronk to discuss all the biggest issues from round four of the competition.
Could Payne be playing future club?
Broncos front-rower Payne Haas is facing a huge test next weekend against the Roosters, the club he is tipped to join.
He is very much in Kalyn Ponga’s position in that uncertainty around his future could potentially start affecting his form.
Statistics will show he made his usual 170 metres and 40 tackles against the Warriors yet he was clearly outplayed by Matt Lodge and Addin Fonua-Blake.
There was little or no mongrel in his game.
Haas is currently involved in court proceedings against his old managers Chris and Gavin Orr that could see him become a free agent.
In a wide-ranging interview with colleague Peter Badel before the start of the season, Haas was remarkably open about his hopes to play for a strong side.
“Any rugby league player at this level wants to win,” he said, “No NRL player wants to sit there for five years and keep winning wooden spoons and miss finals.
“Every player in this game wants to make the top eight and win premiership rings. We all want success and I’m no different.”
The 22-year-old Broncos forward is being advised by Sonny Bill Williams and his manager Khoder Nasser, who have close connections to the Roosters.
This is what makes the game on Friday night at Suncorp so interesting.
A good news story
We told you in The Sunday Telegraph about the boys from the flood devastated Northern Rivers who had made it to the final of the prestigious Andrew Johns Cup (Under 16’s).
They’d had to borrow jerseys after losing their own in the floods and couldn’t train in the lead up to the game.
In an absolute thriller, they beat the Tigers 24-22 with a conversion after the full-time siren in St Marys on Sunday.
We feel for the Tigers but this win will give their suffering families on the north coast a huge lift.
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