Monday Buzz: Weekend highlights, lowlights

BRILLIANT NRL atmosphere, Blues State of Origin bolters, tackling troubles and more — check out the talking points from another big weekend in sport.

Mitchell Pearce celebrates kicking the winning field goal for Newcastle.

CHECK out the highlights, lowlights and talking points from another memorable weekend in sport.

HIGHLIGHT

The wonderful atmosphere in Newcastle on Friday night at the golden-point thriller. No press box. No corporate suite. Sitting out with the punters. Incredible noise and emotion. And then the blast when Mitchell Pearce landed the field goal.

MORE MONDAY BUZZERS: Winners and losers from Round 1 of the NRL

Mitchell Pearce celebrates kicking the winning field goal for Newcastle.

Knights players celebrate during their win over Manly.

LOWLIGHT

James Tedesco’s poor first-up performance for the Sydney Roosters against his old club the Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.

SPOTTED

* Sharks halfback Chad Townsend buying an ice-cream at Cold Rock in Cronulla on Saturday night.

* The great Noel Crusher Cleal at Forster Tuncurry races on Saturday afternoon.

* Knights veteran Chris Heighington at McDonalds on the M1 after the win over Manly

Brodie Croft in action for the Storm against the Bulldogs.

NEEDS A BRODIE GUARD

There is no question Melbourne Storm halfback Brodie Croft is a wonderful talent yet there is serious work to be done on his defence. The rookie missed NINE tackles against the Bulldogs in Perth on Saturday night.

THE BLUE V

A number of St George-Illawarra players are shaping up as potential NSW State of Origin candidates under Brad Fittler judging by their form against the Broncos. Centre Euan Aitken and lock Jack de Belin were outstanding.

Jack De Belin was superb for the Dragons against the Broncos.

GOLDEN GOOSE

There’s again talk the NRL should abolish golden point. So we want $2 billion from the broadcasters but we want to dump some of their most exciting content. It’s ridiculous. Without TV money there is no game.

360 VIEW

Catch you on NRL 360 tonight at 6.30pm with Ben Ikin, Paul Kent and James Hooper to discuss the biggest issues from the opening round of the competition. Dragons coach Paul McGregor will be making a guest appearance. And don’t miss Yvonne Sampson’s new show at 7.30pm, Big League Wrap, and the return of Controversy Corner.

NRL SELLS A DUMMY ON SIN BIN VOW

IT took only one game for the NRL to renege on one of its pledged pre-season rule changes.

We were told players would be sin-binned for an act of foul play that caused an opponent to leave the field.

This was a follow-up to the sickening Sia Soliola late shot that knocked out Billy Slater in the national capital last season.

Towards the end of the Broncos versus Dragons game at Kogarah, Brisbane forward Jaydn Su’a took out Paul Vaughan with a real dog shot when Vaughan did not have the ball.

It was deemed serious enough to be placed on report.

Vaughan was assisted from the field by trainers. There was a suggestion he was vomiting blood in the dressing sheds ­afterwards.

Paul Vaughan was assisted the field after being shoulder charged.

I made inquiries with the NRL’s head of football Brian Canavan about this during the off-season.

He emailed me a copy of the new rule.

It said: “A player will be sin-binned for foul play in circumstances where, in the opinion of the referee, the foul play does not warrant sending off but is serious enough to place the player on report and the player injured from the foul play is unlikely to take any further part in the game.”

The match review committee caught up with Su’a the next day. He’s facing a two-week suspension. That’s not the point. If a player is sin-binned next time, as per the rule book, we’ll all be blowing up at the inconsistency.