NRL grand final: Roosters NRLW team ready to make history, NRL crack down on off-field behaviour and why judiciary drama was good news
THE Roosters women looking to make history, the reason Joey Johns quit coaching the Chooks, and why Billy Slater’s judiciary drama was good news for the NRL. Plus lots more in a special edition of What's the Buzz.
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THE Roosters women looking to make history, the reason Joey Johns quit coaching the Chooks, and why Billy Slater’s judiciary drama was good news for the NRL. It’s all in a special GF edition of WHAT’S THE BUZZ.
SAINT
WE’RE loving the sportsmanship of Sydney Roosters and the fact there was no whingeing or a blow up over the Billy Slater judiciary verdict. This is the club that lost Dylan Napa and Latrell Mitchell to suspensions during the finals and also the club that copped the $125,000 fine and eight-week ban for Mitchell Pearce but had to watch last week as the Rabbitohs escaped punishment for an alleged sexting scandal.
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SINNER
WE’RE feeling for every decent touch judge in the NRL this weekend who has become a victim of nepotism in the refereeing ranks. That refs boss Bernard Sutton appointed his little brother Chris as standby touch judge over men and women who have performed superbly all season is a disgrace. And I rang Todd Greenberg and told him so.
SHOOSH
WHICH very senior sporting administrator has applied for the SCG Trust chief executive role as a replacement for Jamie Barkley to oversee the redevelopment of Allianz Stadium.
SHOOSH II
NO prizes for guessing which highly paid but injury prone centre is being shopped around to NRL clubs at a bargain price.
SHOOSH III
WHICH struggling NRL coach has been given until round 10 next season to get his team into finals contention or face the chop.
SHOOSH IV
WHICH organisation has offered to buy the NRL building at Moore Park for $21 million and take over the long-term lease? It would allow the independent commission to buy the NRL its own admin base and add a valuable asset to the game’s balance sheet.
SHOOSH V
WHICH two Souths stars have fallen out and barely spoke to each other during the finals series. It’s that serious, one may ask for a release.
SHOOSH VI
WHICH highly paid NRL refereeing official will struggle to keep his job next year once incoming head of football Graham Annesley settles in.
SPOTTED
Brett Finch enjoying a free haircut in the make-up department at Fox Sports in preparation for his grand final media commitments.
SPOTTED II
CHANNEL 9 sports reporter Neil Breen reduced to courier duties as he collected tickets to Wednesday night’s Dally Ms for Erin Molan, Daryl Brohman and Mark Riddell from NRL headquarters.
SPOTTED III
EX-Channel 7 sports reporter Josh Massoud selling ice creams out of a van at the NSWRL grand final at Leichhardt Oval last weekend.
THUMBS UP FOR ROOSTERS GIRLS
IF the Roosters girls are feeling nervous about being the underdogs in Sunday’s NRLW grand final against the Broncos it’s certainly not showing.
Not judging by their mood and these fun pictures taken at the official team photo on Thursday. You’ve never seen a more relaxed footy team.
While the Broncos are raging hot favourites to win the first ever NRLW title, there are good judges who believe the Roosters girls will cause the first upset on grand final day at ANZ Stadium.
There was little between the two sides when they last met three weeks ago at Allianz Stadium. It should be a ripping contest to kick-off grand final day.
HANNAH’S ROCKING
IT’s been a big grand final week for Fox Sports star Hannah Hollis, who has been spotted wearing a huge diamond engagement ring. Hollis will marry her longtime partner next year. The ex-SBS presenter has also signed a new two-year contract.
TOP DOG FOR FINAL
IT can often be difficult getting accreditation to a rugby league grand final. The NRL’s Saskia Taylor is notoriously strict on issuing passes. This hasn’t stopped Ziggy — the pooch of Aussie music legend and Storm fanatic Molly Meldrum — from getting a special pass into ANZ Stadium.
ROLL OUT THE BARREL
THE highest grand final consumption of alcohol at ANZ Stadium was the 2015 NRL decider when 30,000 travelling Queenslanders drank the joint dry of XXXX beer and Bundy Rum. At Sunday’s game, caterers expect fans to chug 120,000 cups of beer, 6000 wines and 28,000 bottles of water.
SUPER BUSH BOOST
IN a wonderful boost for bush football, we’re hearing the NRL is planning to launch the 2019 season with its major function in Bathurst. This is a fantastic idea that was pushed by Peter V’landys and Peter Beattie, two passionate country rugby league supporters on the independent commission.
PEPONIS PULLS PIN
FORMER Kangaroos skipper George Peponis has quit the Canterbury Bulldogs board after 15 years in administration, eight of those as chairman. Peponis handed in his resignation last Tuesday in protest at the recent dismissal of their leagues club CEO, Dave Brace.
NRL PLAN TO GRADE THE GRUBS
THE independent commission will look at new ways to bring down more consistent penalties for off-field misbehaviour as part of its end-of-season review.
It will explore a range of options including a grading system similar to what is already in place for on-field offences.
Chairman Peter Beattie raised the idea before the case that saw the Souths forward Sam Burgess escape any punishment over the video texting scandal relating to his social media account.
Some clubs believe Burgess got off lightly given the damage the case caused during the middle of the finals series, before it was found there were no breaches.
Beattie has asked CEO Todd Greenberg and the integrity unit to come up with alternative models which could be to bring more consistency to sanctions.
The key issue is that, while there are 16 cameras following every move on-field, many off-field cases are difficult to investigate. Beattie will take a proposal to the December meeting of club CEOs and chairs.
JOEY-FREE ROOSTERS
THE Roosters have made it to the grand final without rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns who mysteriously disappeared from their coaching staff after a mid-season blow-up. Joey upset some players over his comments on Channel 9’s coverage of their Anzac Day loss to the Dragons.
He was also clashing with attacking coach Jason Taylor over the team’s structures. I spoke to Joey and he insisted he left for personal reasons, not because of the difficulty of juggling commentary with coaching.
GALLOP BREAKS THE ICE
WE’RE hoping Melbourne Storm fans have finally forgiven former NRL boss David Gallop for stripping the club of two premierships for salary cap rorting.
The soccer boss is attending the grand final, his first game since he was sacked by independent commission chairman John Grant in 2012. Gallop will be a guest in the NRL suite.
“I am pleased to be going to the game after taking a long break,” Gallop said.
“I’ve had ups and downs with both the Roosters and the Storm. Nick Politis and I had some huge arguments but some good laughs, too. I helped John Ribot and Chris Johns set up the Storm but later we had to make some tough decisions over their salary cap issues.”
NRL HONOURS YOUNGSTERS
The ball boys and girls at Sunday’s grand finals will receive these medallions in presentations after each game. Independent commission chairman Peter Beattie will hand them out after the Roosters-Storm decider.
Female commissioners Megan Davis and Amanda Laing will officiate at the NRLW game with Wayne Pearce handing them out after the Intrust Super Cup grand final. Players from the Narrabri under 11 juniors will present the NRL grand final rings to either the Melbourne Storm or Sydney Roosters players at full-time.
KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSE
THE Roosters and Storm squads spent Saturday night just 100m apart in hotels overlooking ANZ Stadium at Sydney Olympic Park.
But it was the Storm who got one up on their rivals, with their players tucked into five-star luxury at the Pullman Hotel while the Roosters made do with the four-star Novotel.
Both teams made inquiries about the chance of a light morning run on the training field at the NSWRL Centre of Excellence, just a punt kick from the gates of ANZ. That was until they worked out their opponents would only need to look out a hotel window to see them.
Buses will transport both squads to the stadium. Security advised the teams against walking to the arena like Brad Fittler’s NSW Blues did before Origin II, due to the large number of fans who will be enjoying grand final celebrations outside ANZ Stadium.
PAY FOR PLANE
THE private jet Melbourne used for Billy Slater’s judiciary hearing will be included in their football club cap despite the fact it was provided by a sponsor. The NRL introduced the cap on spending for the 16 clubs this year and the $13 million grants were spent wisely. Storm will have to include the cost of hiring a private jet for a Melbourne to Sydney return flight, estimated to be close to $30,000.
YOUR COMFY GRAND FINAL SEAT
EVERY fan in the stadium on Sunday will have their own sports seat cushion courtesy of a Chemist Warehouse promotion, with the company hiring 180 agency staff to put down branded cushions on all of the 83,000 seats in the venue.
The cushions double as a small carry-bag and fans can take them home when they leave after the big game. Gates open at 1.15pm with the historic Holden NRL Women’s Premiership grand final expected to draw a healthy crowd early in the day from 1.35pm.
TO BE FRANK, AWARDS ARE A JOKE
THE NRL has had an embarrassing year with their major awards. Billy Slater won the Wally Lewis medal from the losing Origin team and after missing the first game.
The Dally M positional awards were a joke, too. How did Joey Leilua get centre-of-the-year ahead of Latrell Mitchell? How about Josh Jackson getting the second-rower gong ahead of Billy Kikau, Tyson Frizel, Tariq Sims or Felise Kaufusi.
And some past Medal winners like 1992 recipient Gary Freeman were not even invited.
Former player Frank Puletua is the man in charge of all these NRL awards. This is the bloke who inexplicably refuses to honour and acknowledge the late and great Peter ‘Chippy’ Frilingos in the media section of the NRL museum.
MELBOURNE WIN
THE Billy Slater judiciary hearing was actually a huge positive for the NRL in Melbourne. Slater’s clearance on Tuesday night knocked the AFL grand final off as the No.1 story on the Herald Sun website even as Collingwood’s Nathan Buckley was being named coach-of-the-year. This is unheard of in an AFL-mad city where nothing else matters than their own big game at the MCG.
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