Buzz Rothfield’s weekend highlights & lowlights: Dane Gagai’s Byron Bay wedding

Newcastle Knights star Dane Gagai has taken advantage of the off-season to marry his long-time partner in a Byron Bay wedding featuring a guest list full of NRL celebrities.

Dane Gagai has married his partner Kelly.

It’s been a big couple of days of sport — both on and off the field. Check out Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield’s highlights and lowlights from the weekend.

HIGHLIGHT

He might have been totally outclassed but George Kambosos Jnr produced one of Australian boxing’s gutsiest performances to survive a brutal 12 rounds against world champion Devin Haney at Rod Laver Arena.

HIGHLIGHT II

The wonderful atmosphere at The Everest at Randwick on Saturday with a crowd of 46,221. This great race can now sit alongside the January Ashes cricket Test, State of Origin and the NRL grand final as Sydney’s biggest annual sporting events.

LOWLIGHT

The Samoan rugby league team, flogged 60-6 by England at the World Cup. This is a massive disappointment for a side that had Junior Paulo and Josh Papalii in the front row, Joseph Suaalii at fullback and four members of Penrith’s grand final winning side in the backline. Surely questions needs to be asked around Matt Parish’s coaching performance.

SPOTTED

The great Gus Gould getting it horribly wrong on Twitter when asked for his thoughts before the game. He declared: “England can’t beat Samoa.”

England can’t beat Samoa https://t.co/9oXf9kLFxF

— Phil Gould (@PhilGould15) October 8, 2022

SPOTTED

Israel Folau on a Qantas flight from Sydney to Brisbane on Saturday morning.

SPOTTED

Newcastle Knights centre Dane Gagai married his long-time partner Kelly Turner in Byron Bay over the weekend.

In front of friends, family and their two sons, Cruz and Dante, the pair took advantage of the NRL off-season to say ‘I do’.

Guests at wedding venue The Farm at Byron Bay included old Souths teammates Cody Walker, John Sutton and Adam Reynolds, as well as Knights players Daniel and Jacob Saifiti, Tyson Frizell and Hymel Hunt, former NRL player Trent Hodkinson and Alex McKinnon and Teigan Power.

Dane Gagai and his wife Kelly.

Tyson Frizell and wife Sammy.

Adam Reynolds and his wife Tallara.

Daniel Saifiti and his partner, Mikenzie McManus.

Cody Walker (right) at Dane Gagai's wedding.

Dane Gagai (centre) and Alex McKinnon.

Teigan Power (left) at the wedding of Dane Gagai and Kelly Turner.

R.I.P MONSTER

Sports journalism lost one of its great characters over the weekend with the passing of veteran scribe Peter Kogoy, best known as the Monster. This guy, in his prime, broke a stack of big stories and was an old-school character who had a heart of gold.

ANOTHER BLOODIED BLOW

Boxing can be a horrible sport.

That Cherneka Johnson was allowed to continue on the Haney-Kambosos Jr undercard in such a bloody mess is a disgrace.

Johnson, 27, suffered a shocking cut above her left eye in a head clash that left a wound that looked like she had been stabbed with a knife.

The poor woman could have been an extra from a horror movie.

That the referee, the doctor or those in her corner didn’t stop it is so wrong.

Afterwards Johnson said: “I nearly freaked out when I felt all the blood running down.

“When it first started, I couldn’t see out of my left eye but I knew if I used my jab and stayed away from a brawl I’d be okay.”

New Zealand’s Cherneka Johnson cops another punch to the face in her bout with Australia’s Susie Ramadan in Melbourne. Picture: AFP

The white top Johnson wore had turned a reddish pink from all the blood by the end of the fight.

Even Jeff Fenech and caller Ben Damon, commenting on Fox Sports, wanted the fight stopped.

Johnson fought on to beat Susie Ramadan for the IBF super bantamweight world title.

We understand boxing can be blood and guts.

Real courage is the story is Ella Boot winning an Australian title with a broken hand last weekend.

What we saw at Rod Laver Arena were sickening.

Johnson celebrates her brave win.