Monday Buzz: Weekend highlights, lowlights

Cronulla are facing some tough recruitment calls, whingeing Wayne Bennett, Kevin Walters’ tough job and more — check out the talking points from another big weekend in sport.

• More Monday Buzz: Why Panthers are feeling pinch

• Casualty Ward: Titans ‘very concerned’ for skipper

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

HIGHLIGHT

The Sydney Roosters-Melbourne Storm thriller on Friday night. This was a magnificent exhibition of rugby league between two wonderfully talented football teams. The only difference between the two sides was the incredible contribution from Latrell Mitchell.

Roosters players celebrate Latrell Mitchell’s matchwinner against the Storm. Picture: Getty Images

HIGHLIGHT II

No more sleeps until the opening of the magnificent new Bankwest Stadium. This is going to be a memorable day for rugby league and the Parramatta Eels.

LOWLIGHT

Old Wayne Bennett whingeing about referees after the win over the Bulldogs, ignoring the fact games are much better this season without all the nitpicking penalties.

SPOTTED

Injured Cronulla Sharks star Matt Moylan cheering up sick kids and their families at Ronald McDonald House over Easter.

SPOTTED II

Former Wests Tigers and Cronulla Sharks enforcer Bryce Gibbs helping out as an assistant coach with son’s under-14s junior AFL team at Taren Point.

A WRIST OF FATE

The Brisbane Broncos are sure having a tough year. At their captain’s run on Saturday, Anthony Seibold’s assistant coach Peter Gentle suffered a dislocated wrist.

PENNY’S DROPPED

Finally NRL coaches have worked out it’s worth a gamble on short line drop-outs. You’ve gotta love a contest for possession.

HALF KEVVIE’S LUCK

Kevin Walters’ job to settle on Queensland’s halfback for State of Origin has spot a whole lot harder. Ben Hunt, Michael Morgan and Daly Cherry-Evans all played superbly on Saturday.

Ben Hunt and Daly Cherry-Evans had great games on the weekend. Picture: Getty Images

BALLIN’S BIG FIGHT

The knives are out for former Manly Sea Eagles hooker Matt Ballin as the club’s Jersey Flegg coach after they were flogged 50-nil by the Dragons over the weekend. Manly haven’t won a game and have a minus 180 for-and-against from five matches.

SPECIAL 360 VIEW

Join us for a special edition of NRL 360 live from Bankwest Stadium this evening. Ben Ikin is back from the US Masters to join Paul Kent for a 5.45pm start. Matty Johns, Nathan Hindmarsh and the coaches Michael Maguire and Brad Arthur will be part of the show.

SHARKS’ XERRI CONTRACT DILEMMA

The Cronulla Sharks are facing some tough recruitment calls.

The boom centre Bronson Xerri is on about a quarter of the salary of Josh Dugan, who has three years left on his contract. Xerri is off contract next year.

The local junior will attract huge interest from rival clubs. His scorching try against the Penrith Panthers was superstar stuff. Which brings us back to Dugan. It’s not his fault that the club agreed to pay him $800,000-a-season as a marquee player.

He was playing Origin at the time but it was a panic signing when they lost Jack Bird to the Brisbane Broncos. The Sharks need his money to keep Xerri. They can’t offload Dugan because no other club could afford him.

Bronson Xerri celebrates as he runs in to score a try for the Sharks. Picture: AAP

COOPER’S TIME COMING TO AN END?

There were a couple of signs in the gripping second half of Roosters versus Storm game to suggest halfback Cooper Cronk would be mad to try to play on next year.

A knock-on in Roosters territory and getting caught in possession on the fifth tackle allowed Storm crucial field position in the desperate final stages.

The Storm should have — but didn’t — ­capitalise on the errors from Cronk.

Interestingly, they happened while a concussed Luke Keary was off the field and the Storm had only one of the halves to concentrate on.

While Latrell Mitchell won man of the match, I thought champion hooker Cameron Smith was a nine out of 10 in how he engineered the magnificent second-half fightback.