Monday Buzz: The highlights, lowlights and talking points from round 7 of the NRL
PHIL Rothfield runs his eye over the highlights, lowlights and talking points of another bumper weekend of rugby league action.
Phil Rothfield
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PHIL Rothfield runs his eye over the highlights, lowlights and talking points of another bumper weekend of rugby league action.
HIGHLIGHT
Storm v Broncos. Few penalties. Breathtaking attacking football. The wonderful skills of Origin winger-in-waiting Josh Addo Carr. Let the games flow and we’ll be treated to this glorious football every week.
HIGHLIGHT II
Just two sleeps until my favourite game of the NRL season – the Roosters v the Dragons on Anzac Day at Allianz Stadium.
LOWLIGHT
Surely someone at the NRL will eventually get the message that Thursday night football and Friday 6pm games do not work at major stadiums.
A back drop of 75,000 empty seats at ANZ Stadium for the Bulldogs v Roosters looked embarrassing on TV. The game should have been at Belmore.
MONDAY BUZZ: Burgess needs to ditch the thug act
UGLY COMEBACK: Paul Carter in brawl on return to footy
HOLE IN THE STORY
Manly CEO Lyall Gorman claims to have no knowledge of a hotel room being damaged in Gladstone two weeks ago and says Rydges will welcome the team back.
This is surprising considering repairs to a hole in the wall of the room where Daly Cherry Evans and Jackson Hastings fought have already been paid for.
SPOTTED
Interesting timing in the sudden departure of Manly Sea Eagles media and communications boss Liam Taper after just four months in the job. He has gone to work in the greyhound industry.
SPOTTED
Families always comes first at Melbourne Storm and here’s another example. Chief executive Dave Donaghy was seen leaving Suncorp Stadium at half-time of the Broncos-Storm game to catch the last light home to Melbourne to watch his son’s Auskick debut on Saturday morning.
SPOTTED
The great Greg ‘Brandy’ Alexander at the 7 Eleven store in Narrabeen buying ice-creams with his children.
SPOTTED
Roosters skipper Boyd Cordner leaving the Coogee Bay Hotel on Friday night and jumping into UBER.
SPOTTED
Braith Anasta enjoying a beer and a bet with his mates in the TAB area at the Coogee Bay Hotel on Saturday afternoon.
FAMILIAR TRENT
Catch you Monday night on NRL 360 on Fox Sports with Ben Ikin and Paul Kent to discuss the biggest issues from round seven of the competition and the build up to the Anzac Day game. Roosters coach Trent Robinson is the special guest in the studio.
RESPECT FOR HASTINGS
Jackson Hastings is a very decent young man.
Your columnist spent an hour last Friday morning at Balmoral beach with the 22-year-old who has been treated disgracefully by the Manly Sea Eagles.
I really admired him from the moment we sat down and got the tape rolling.
“One thing,” he said, “I’m not going to bag Manly or Chezza.”
What a good bloke. The way he’s been treated, Hastings was entitled to rip in.
Instead he spoke honestly and openly about his own problems.
There are personality issues in every workplace.
TOUGH WEEK: Barrett fury as Hastings drama continues
EXCLUSIVE: Hastings on trying to be a better bloke
We’ve all worked with people we don’t particularly like but we get on with it.
It should be the same with footy. It’s not a popularity contest. Pick the team on form.
And if Trent Barrett is fair dinkum Hastings will be the first player chosen next judging by Sunday’s debacle.
Right now the Manly culture stinks.
Strip clubs, salary cap rorts, fights and possible bullying.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg needs to send in his integrity unit.
As their old coach Geoff Toovey once famously said: “There needs to be an investigation.”
No player deserves to be treated as poorly as Hastings has been.
PUSH FOR BUSH NRL GROWS WITH TAMWORTH SPECTACLE
SATURDAY night was the best advertisement for rugby league in country NSW for years.
The Knights’ stirring last-minute victory against the Wests Tigers was as good as it gets.
I could have tweeted #NRLtalkthegameup 1000 times.
Your columnist has been campaigning for more bush football for years.
Imagine had that game been played in a big empty stadium.
Surely now the NRL has to build on the Scully Park experience.
Proper premiership games mean a lot more than one City-Country match.
Let’s go to Wagga Wagga, Mudgee, Dubbo, Parkes, Albury and Armidale as well.
Get there early and do the coaching clinics, school visits and autograph sessions.
Spread the word that rugby league is the greatest game of all, especially in the towns the AFL have invaded over the last decade or so.
Make it one game every fortnight and use the Thursday night timeslot or the 6.00pm Friday game.
For too long we have ignored the plight of struggling bush clubs.
Saturday night was the shot in the arm they desperately needed.
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