A Tiger’s early morning Maccas run, Manly’s salary cap verdict, Todd Greenberg’s classy gesture and Cronulla’s financial fail
A TIGER sprung eating Maccas in Melbourne at 6.30am, death rider Finchy, Todd Greenberg’s classy gesture and Cronulla’s financial fail. IT’S ALL IN WHAT’S THE BUZZ.
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A TIGER sprung eating Maccas in Melbourne at 6.30am, death rider Finchy, Todd Greenberg’s classy gesture and Cronulla’s financial fail. IT’S ALL IN WHAT’S THE BUZZ.
SAINT
NO more business class airline travel for independent commissioners. And about time. The NRL under Peter Beattie will slash costs in all areas of the business to direct more money and resources to the grassroots where it’s desperately needed.
WHAT’S THE BUZZ: Gus would take Lodge to Penrith
SINNER
STORM v Cowboys is normally a marquee NRL game. An absolute must-watch blockbuster. On Thursday night it had more stoppages than an NFL game. Everyone is at fault here. The players, NRL, the coaches and referees. Just fix it and stop ruining our game.
SPOTTED
LEGENDS Bob Fulton, Bob McCarthy and Ron Coote visiting the great Johnny Raper at his Miranda nursing home on Wednesday morning.
SPOTTED II
JEFF Horn in his new Lexus, a far cry from the old Toyota Camry he drove before beating Manny Pacquiao last year to become a boxing superstar.
SPOTTED III
A COUPLE of handy sporting types — Melbourne fullback Billy Slater and Supercars champ Jamie Whincup at the Grand Prix in Melbourne.
SPOTTED IV
COMICAL scenes in Melbourne on Thursday when Paul “Fatty” Vautin and Ray Hadley rented a car at the airport to get them to their hotel before calling the Storm-Cowboys game on Channel 9. Hadley claims Vautin assured him he knew the way but, after circling the southern capital for 30 minutes, Hadley pulled up alongside a cabbie and pleaded for directions to Crown. Obviously they’ve never heard of Google Maps.
SPOTTED V
FOOTY bad boy Todd Carney having coffee with “The Mole” at Coogee’s Tropicana Cafe. Not surprisingly, Carney paid.
SHOOSH
WHICH Wests Tigers player was sprung returning to his team hotel in Melbourne last weekend worse for wear at 6.30am while demolishing a feed of McDonald’s? He was caught by an NRL official who happened to be checking out before his flight home to Sydney.
SHOOSH II
WHICH rugby league club official has been under investigation for the sale of iPads and other computer goods? It may be of interest to the integrity unit.
SHOOSH III
WE’RE hearing Rabbitohs superstar Greg Inglis wasn’t the only Souths player abused by a Penrith fan last weekend. The Burgess brothers were also on the receiving end of expletives when they left the field at halftime.
CAP OF A CENTURY
ONE of the real achievers in Australian sport, Matildas co-captain Clare Polkinghorne, will be presented with a cap for clocking up 100 games for the all-conquering Matildas on Monday night in Perth, where the girls take on Thailand. Soccer boss David Gallop will fly direct from London, where he has been watching the Socceroos, on the new Qantas non-stop service to Perth to make the presentation to Polkinghorne.
NO BELLYACHING, PARTNERSHIP OVER
SUPER coach Craig Bellamy and his agent of 16 years have split. As he negotiates a new contract at the Melbourne Storm, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal his long-time manager, John Fordham, will not be handling negotiations.
The Fordham Company recently cut ties with Bellamy and confirmed the split when we phoned on Friday to find out why. “The Fordham Company has decided to move on from our formal, longstanding association with Craig Bellamy,” managing director Nick Fordham said.
“We are extremely proud of the many benefits we’ve achieved for Craig throughout his long and celebrated career with Storm.
“However, with uncertainty surrounding his own future beyond this year, as well as a marked change in direction we’ve gradually undertaken in developing a wider scope for our business, the time arrived to bring the association to an end.”
SHARKS FINANCIAL FLOPS
WINNING an NRL premiership doesn’t guarantee financial security.
Cronulla Sharks announced a loss of $2.5 million to members at their AGM on Thursday.
That’s on the back of winning the 2016 grand final which, you’d think, would lead to improved corporate and sponsorship sales.
The $2.5m deficit is one of the reasons why the Sharks board was happy to release CEO Lyall Gorman from his contract to join the Sea Eagles.
Gorman walked away with huge bonuses that he hadn’t taken in 2016.
Nowhere near the $1m bonus he got in his previous gig at Western Sydney Wanderers but around the $500,000 mark from the Sharks.
DIVIDED LOYALTY
AMANDA King, the mother of Parramatta hooker Cameron King, has a foot in both camps for the Eels’ clash with the Sharks at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night. Obviously Amanda is loyal to her son but could be excused for cheering for the Sharks as well. She works for Cronulla in the welfare department.
CHERRY FIGHTS TO CHANGE A LIFE
WHEN old boxer Dennis Cherry heard a seven-year-old cerebral palsy sufferer needed $70,000 for life-changing surgery in the US, he decided to do something about it.
Little Sean Lynch is off to New Jersey in June for an operation that, if successful, will allow him to walk. To help raise the money, Dennis is stepping back into the ring at 72 years of age on the undercard of Dennis Hogan’s huge bout against Jimmy Kelly on April 7 in Brisbane.
A percentage of ticket sales goes to the family.
The guy Dennis is fighting is 10 years younger and certainly no mug. Graeme Prowse is a Masters champion who has fought and won in the US.
FINCHY THE DEATH RIDER
MATTY Johns reckons he could have been a handy goalkicker in his playing days if it wasn’t for his old Newcastle Knights sand boy and now Fox Sports stablemate Brett Finch.
It’s hilarious listening to the pair discussing it.
“His old man Robert coached reserve grade, about 1992, and Finchy was the sand boy,” Johns explained.
“Now you know goalkicking is all about confidence. Well in one game, he runs out with the sand and says, ‘mate, you won’t get this’ and sure enough I completely duffed it.
“A bit later I get one in front and he runs out again and says, ‘you’ll miss this, too’.
“Anyway, it’s hit the post … but bounced in.
“He was the worst sand boy ever. I’ve always blamed him for ruining my goalkicking career.”
Finch was 12 at the time and still laughs about it.
“It’s a bit rich ... him blaming me,” Finch said.
“He was an old toe- poker and just a back-up goalkicker. I remember the first kick went closer to the corner post than the upright.
“My old man shouldn’t have been using him.”
SEA EAGLES TO DISCOVER FATE
THE NRL will finally hand down its verdict on the Manly Sea Eagles’ salary cap investigation on Monday after months of deliberation.
Chief executive Todd Greenberg informed the independent commission of the integrity unit’s findings and the planned punishment at their meeting last week.
The Sea Eagles are expected to be fined about $400,000 and have a similar amount deducted from their 2018 salary cap, which will prevent them from signing any players this year.
NICE ONE, CHIEF
IT was a lovely gesture by NRL boss Todd Greenberg to join footy nice guy Brett Kimmorley and his daughters for breakfast in Cronulla last week to mark 12 months since the sad passing of their mum, Sharnie. Noddy is doing a wonderful job of combining his busy media schedule with raising and caring for his four beautiful daughters.
LOCKING HORNS WITH MUNDINE
IF the bookies are right and Jeff Horn loses his fight to American Terence Crawford, there’s every chance he’ll step into the ring against Anthony Mundine in October.
While trainer Glen Rushton is totally focused on Crawford and is tipping a Horn boilover — he refuses to rule out a domestic blockbuster with Mundine.
“A lot of Australians want to see the fight,” Rushton said. “Look, we’re not chasing it. We only want the big fights.
“I guess it could be a changing of the baton fight. Jeff would be too strong and technically superior.
“He once sparred Choc in Brisbane. I actually had to hold Jeff back a bit. He was making him look silly.”