Monday Buzz: Weekend highlights, lowlights
MONDAY BUZZ: Phil Rothfield’s highlights, lowlights and talking points from another memorable weekend in sport.
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THE highlights, lowlights and talking points from another memorable weekend in sport.
HIGHLIGHT
Manly’s outstanding win over the Gold Coast Titans, even without fullback Tom Trbojevic. Despite being overlooked by most tipsters for the top eight, Trent Barrett has got a serious football team that could even be headed for the top four.
MORE MONDAY BUZZ: Woeful Warriors holding back NRL
BLUES TEAM: Wallace injury opens door for Origin rookie
LIKELY TEAM: Maroons shocks as Milford eyes Origin debut
ROBERT CRADDOCK: Maroons selection now a risky business
CASUALTY WARD: State of Origin carnage as trio grounded
HIGHLIGHT II
Sydney plumber Marty Carmichael, who smashed the course record at Castle Hill golf club on Saturday, shooting a spectacular 14-under-par round of 58. And he plays off a handicap of six.
LOWLIGHT
The worst Friday night of football I can ever recall. Two hopelessly lopsided games.
CHARITY HAUL
Like the great Ray Warren, former cricketer Greg Ritchie has a fear of flying. It didn’t stop the Tweed Heads-based after-dinner speaker from travelling to Sydney on Friday for a junior rugby league fundraiser on the North Shore. He drove 20 hours for a 20-minute speech.
HUNTER REGION
The Newcastle Knights will announce Monday that Maroons Origin star Dane Gagai is leaving at the end of the season to join the South Sydney Rabbitohs. With Jarrod Mullen gone and doubts about Trent Hodkinson’s future, it leaves coach Nathan Brown with $3 million to spend in his 2018 salary cap.
SPOTTED
Soccer boss David Gallop playing in a social game of soccer against Argentine legend Diego Maradona in Bahrain last week under the Fifa congress.
SHOOSH
Which NRL star had to break up push and shove between two well-known soccer identities after the A-League grand final?
360-DEGREE VIEW
Catch you on NRL 360 tonight on Fox Sports to discuss all the big weekend issue with Ben Ikin and Paul Kent.
$16M LURE FOR GRANT TO GO
DESPERATE NRL clubs are preparing to offer a $16 million incentive for John Grant to quit as chairman of the independent commission.
A meeting of the 16 club chairs in Sydney on Tuesday will consider accepting a $12 million grant next year — instead of the original $13 million — but only if Grant steps down to end years of financial wastage in the game.
The deal would put the commission boss in a position where he had no choice but to go. Under the proposal the $1 million the clubs are prepared to sacrifice would be paid to them over the next five years when the NRL’s cash flow problems improve.
NOT ALL OFFICIALS ARE EQUAL
SOME NRL match officials are held accountable for their mistakes but others are not.
The touch judge who missed the worst forward pass in 40 years in the Brisbane-Manly game last Friday week was dropped from the NRL to Queensland Cup over the weekend.
Not so Gerard Sutton, who missed the crucial Sosaia Feki forward-pass try at Kogarah, despite being right in line with it. Tony Archer’s pin-up boy handled Sunday’s Canterbury v Sydney Roosters game.
A review of Feki’s try found Sutton was at fault because the touch judge was correctly positioned and watching the touchline instead of the pass.
FREDDIE DROPS ‘F BOMB’
FREDDIE Fittler needs to be more careful whenever he has a Channel 9 microphone in his hands. During a commercial break after the Sharks beat the Cowboys on Thursday night, Freddie dropped the “F bomb’’ while joking around on the sideline and singing the Cronulla Sharks team song.
It went live overseas while Nine was showing commercials in Australia.
A fan in Canada posted it online and it went viral over the weekend. Nine’s sports director Tom Malone refused to be critical of Fittler.
“It was a production error to have a live microphone on during an ad break and we’ll leave it at that,” Malone said.
‘A coach who cares’: Titans owner breaks silence on Hasler spray
Titans owner Rebecca Frizelle had a front-row seat to Des Hasler’s savage dressing-room tirade. Speaking for the first time since the incident, the boss has defended the coach’s epic spray, while also addressing the current state of the club.
Brailey, Sharks at odds over extension after double rejection
Blayke Brailey is in career-best form and is in the midst of contract talks with the Sharks. Find out why the local product has rejected Cronulla’s deal, and why they rejected his counter.