Monday Buzz: Weekend highlights, lowlights
MONDAY BUZZ: Roosters’ quiet achiever, record crowd caps off bumper month 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
Cooper Cronk’s extraordinary courage to stay on the field against the Rabbitohs with a bung shoulder. He hid himself in defence like Johnathan Thurston in Origin last year.
HIGHLIGHT II
The Rabbitohs-Roosters blockbuster in front of the biggest crowd ever at Allianz Stadium capped off the most amazing month of finals football in recent memory.
LOWLIGHT
The terrible news that Tommy Raudonikis has again been struck down by cancer.
SPOTTED
Sharks tragic and Prime Minister Scott Morrison watching the Storm v Cronulla preliminary final on Friday night at Highfields Pub in Caringbah.
SPOTTED II
Roosters coach Trent Robinson at Coogee Oval on Saturday morning to watch Dave Warner’s grade cricket comeback for Randwick-Petersham.
SPOTTED III
Incoming NRL head of football Graham Annesley checking out the bunker on Friday night for the Melbourne Storm-Cronulla Sharks grand-final qualifier.
MORE NEWS
Brad Fittler: Why NRL must ban Billy Slater
Crook Cooper Cronk racing grand final clock
Roosters rock Rabbitohs with cocky post
SPOTTED IV
A couple of handy old footy players, Terry Lamb and Aaron Raper, on board a P&O Pacific Explorer weekend cruise, watching both NRL finals in the theatre on the big screen.
SPOTTED V
South Sydney Rabbitohs stalwart John Sutton celebrating the life of Bra Boy Ricky Taylor at Maroubra Bowling Club on Friday.
NRL 360
Catch you tonight on NRL 360 on Fox Sports at 6.30pm with Ben Ikin and Paul Kent to begin discussions in the countdown to the grand final. And don’t forget to catch Controversy Corner in its new timeslot of 8pm with Graeme Hughes, Blocker Roach and Billy Harrigan.
FRONT-ON CAMERA CAN SAVE BILLY SLATER
SURELY no genuine rugby league fan wants the great Billy Slater rubbed out of the grand final and the last game of a wonderful career.
The NRL match review committee has done the right thing by charging the champion fullback.
Yet I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets off via the front-on camera angle of the shoulder charge.
It clearly shows Slater’s right arm coming into contact with Sharks winger Sosaia Feki first before the shoulder makes impact. It will be touch and go yet there is enough doubt for a not-guilty verdict.
The shoulder charge crackdown was introduced to stop incidents like when Greg Inglis flattened Dean Young in 2012 at ANZ Stadium and put him in hospital.
Slater’s tackle was nothing like it. It was a borderline incident but not an act of foul play.
ROOSTERS YOUNG GUN A QUIET ACHIEVER
THE most underrated player in the NRL is Sydney Roosters centre Joseph Manu.
All year we’ve been talking about Latrell Mitchell on the Roosters’ left side while Manu has quietly gone about his business on the opposite side.
In a grand-final qualifier the Roosters won on the back of their magnificent defence, it was Manu’s tackle on superstar Greg Inglis in the 61st minute that stood out above everything else.
To bundle the champion into touch at a time when his teammates were exhausted was a matchwinning play.
Manu, 22, is going to be a very special player. The complete footballer. Few centres in the competition can find the line like this guy.