What’s the Buzz: Stark contrast between Dylan Edwards and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii
Two injured stars got on separate flights to Melbourne - one went to support his teammates during their NRL loss, the other flew down as a guest of Louis Vuitton for the F1 race.
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This is a story of two great footy players but their contrasting commitment to their clubs.
Four-time premiership winning Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards and rugby's $6 million man Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii are polar opposites in their devotion to Penrith and the NSW Waratahs.
Last week Edwards suffered a groin injury that ruled him out for a month.
But it didn’t stop him from jumping on a plane to Melbourne for Penrith’s match against Storm on Thursday night to sit with Ivan Cleary in his coaching box.
He just wanted to be there for the team. To help out and advise rookie fullback Tom Jenkins.
Suaalii is out injured for a month as well.
He, too, hopped on a plane last weekend – but not to Suncorp Stadium where the Waratahs were playing the Queensland Reds in their biggest game of the year.
Instead, the face of Australian rugby popped down to Melbourne for the Formula One GP as a guest of Louis Vuitton, alongside all the A-list celebrities in the fashion giant’s corporate areas at Albert Park.
To hell with the Waratahs!
Wouldn’t we all prefer the glamorous, rock-star lifestyle.
According to Rugby Australia — as expected — Suaalii did nothing wrong.
We got this response from a spokesman: “Joseph is making good progress in his rehabilitation from a toe injury and continues to make a positive contribution to the Waratahs and Wallabies environments.”
This comes back to perception.
Here we have our highest paid footballer in any code.
A young man who earns four or five times more than many of his Waratahs teammates.
He has played just one of five Super Rugby games this year.
Suaalii spoke about his injury on a Stan Sport podcast.
He said: “Obviously, you don’t want to get injured, but in this period I’ve just been studying the game differently, from a coach’s perspective.”
Not that there was much studying going on at the car race.
He did say he spent time on the grid with All Blacks legend Dan Carter, another Louis Vuitton guest.
“I was pretty stoked to meet him and then start talking about rugby,” Suaalii said.
“Just picking his brain to see what he does to prepare and how he can attack training and different things.”
Seriously, if that’s his best justification, it fails the pub test.
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Originally published as What’s the Buzz: Stark contrast between Dylan Edwards and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii
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