Monday Buzz: Weekend highlights, lowlights
MAGNIFICENT tribute to Johnathan Thurston, the biggest NRL game of the year and more — check out the highlights, lowlights and talking points from another memorable weekend in sport.
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CHECK out the highlights, lowlights and talking points from another memorable weekend in sport.
HIGHLIGHT
The Sydney Roosters’ magnificent tribute and recognition of Cowboys superstar Johnathan Thurston after his last game at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
MONDAY BUZZ: More Broncos drama as another club legend exits
Johnathan Thurston is given a guard of honour by the @sydneyroosters! 🙌#TelstraPremiership moment of the match.#NRLRoostersCowboys #NRL pic.twitter.com/Cn5sOy1XPT
— NRL (@NRL) August 4, 2018
HIGHLIGHT II
Just four sleeps until the biggest NRL game of the year between the premiership’s oldest and most bitter rivals the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Sydney Roosters.
LOWLIGHT
The fact the combined crowds for four Sydney NRL games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday was smaller than the 39,000 who watched the Sydney Swans beat Collingwood in a thriller at the SCG on Saturday night.
SHOOSH
The assistant coach of which struggling club is telling anyone who cares to listen that he is leaving at the end of the season because the head coach is a control freak?
SHOOSH II
Which former rugby league media man has left the industry to buy and run an ice cream van?
BUSH CALL
What happened to taking more NRL games to the bush? Surely matches like the Parramatta Eels v Gold Coast and Canterbury v Brisbane would be better scheduled in regional centres.
SPOTTED
Cronulla Sharks star Josh Dugan at the Billy Dib fight on Friday night at Australian Technology Park.
360 VIEW
Catch you on NRL 360 on Fox Sports tonight with Ben Ikin and Paul Kent. Storm coach Craig Bellamy will be joining us live from Melbourne plus women’s NRL stars Isabelle Kelly (Roosters) and Sam Bremmer (Dragons) will be special guests in the studio.
POINTING FINGER OVER REFEREE CRISIS WON’T FIX PROBLEM
JUNIOR rugby league refereeing numbers have fallen by nine per cent in the Sydney metropolitan area in the past 12 months.
It is even more alarming in Sydney’s west, where the numbers are down by as much as 15 per cent and some young referees are doing as many as six games a weekend to cope with the demand.
And, apparently, it’s the media’s fault. People like me who have campaigned all year to improve the standard of refereeing have forced young whistleblowers to quit.
Never mind the abusive sideline parents on Saturday mornings who harass and swear at these youngsters, who are out there to earn some pocket money and possibly make a career out of it.
And it has nothing to do with the NRL’s early-season penalty crackdown.
Nothing to do with Todd Greenberg telling the referees after 14 rounds to stop the nitpicking. Then the next crackdown a few weeks later.
And nothing to do with the nepotism or the unfairness of appointments every week where young referees can’t see a career pathway.
No, this is all the media’s fault.
Even though former leading whistleblower Bill Harrigan told me he was being abused by parents and spectators on the sidelines in the Parramatta junior league 30 years ago.
With this media blame game, the standard of refereeing will never improve.
All we can do is highlight their shortcomings. The NRL needs to take some ownership itself.
It could start by putting the right people in charge of the football and refereeing departments and then introduce better coaching.
It can then get rid of the nepotism in the ranks and pick the best referees for the best games to restore confidence among the fans and the clubs.
The reason we’ve had shocking crowds of 6000 at Belmore, Brookvale and ANZ Stadium this year is partly due to the fact fans were turned off the opening 14 rounds by all the stop-start football.