What’s the Buzz: Panthers at peace with Hook, Dogs’ City-Country snub, Wests Tigers recruitment plans

WHAT’S THE BUZZ II: Panthers at peace with Hook record, Bulldogs’ City-Country snub, Wests Tigers recruitment plans, and Mad Dog’s Man Shakes.

Adam MacDougall with Paul Roos and Merv Hughes and The Man Shake.

WHAT’S the Buzz: Panthers at peace with Hook record, Bulldogs’ City-Country snub, Wests Tigers recruitment plans, and Mad Dog’s man shakes.

SAINTS

YVONNE Sampson, Lara Pitt, Jess Yatesand Hannah Hollisare doing a fantastic job on Fox Sports’ new League Life show. Their past two interviews with Mitchell Pearceand Ricky Stuart were outstanding.

MORE BUZZ: Daley sounds Hayne out

PRIDE: What Meninga demands from Kangaroos

SINNER

CANTERBURY Bulldogs’ decision to withdraw their players from City-Country selection is unfair on every other club in the game and disrespectful to bush footy fans. Sadly, NSWRL chief executive Dave Troddencouldn’t do anything about it because the Bulldogs’ Ray Dib and George Peponis are theoretically his bosses as NSWRL board members.

LEAGUE CENTRAL PODCAST: David Riccio and Michael Carayannis join Fiona Bollen to discuss Josh Reynolds’ big bucks move, his true value and how Dogs fans will react.

SPOTTED

SACKED Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor at NRL HQ. Could he be doing a straight swap with Ivan Cleary who took his job and previously worked at the NRL with referees and the match review committee?

SPOTTED II

WINX’s jockey Hugh Bowman“enjoying” his riding suspension in the swimming pool at a luxury resort in Bali.

SPOTTED III

THE former chairman of Perth’s Western Reds, Laurie Puddy, at NRL headquarters last week to check on expansion plans.

SPOTTED IV

THE great Gus Gould and former Titans chairman Paul Broughton having lunch at Omeros Bros seafood restaurant on the Gold Coast.

SPOTTED V

BOXER Anthony Mundine at the popular Bianchini’s cafe in Cronulla on Thursday morning with his old mate “Pete the Greek”. He’s still talking up his hopes of making a rugby league comeback.

Mundine in the Shire with his mate “Pete the Greek”.

SPOTTED VI

BIG Sammy Burgess on a date night with his stunning wife, Phoebe, at the beautiful Catalina restaurant at Rose Bay.

SPOTTED VII

FORMER Kiwi starGary “The Wiz” Freeman lunching with business types at the flash Bodega 1904 restaurant at the Tramsheds near the old Harold Park trotting track.

SHOOSH

WHICH NRL club has secured a new front-rower for next season who, just a week before he signed, failed a medical with a rival club he was negotiating with?

SHOOSH II

WHICH Sydney-based junior rugby league club is under investigation for allegedly paying $60 a week to an under-13s player? True story.

SHOOSH III

WHICH NRL star is not coping well — on and off the field — after a messy split from his long-time partner? It might help explain why he’s been playing NSW Cup.

Adam MacDougall with Paul Roos and Merv Hughes and The Man Shake.

HE’S A MOVER AND SHAKER

FORMER Knights and Origin star Adam MacDougall is about to launch a national television advertising campaign for his flagship product The Man Shake.

MacDougall, who has fast become one of Australia’s leading healthy living entrepreneurs, has signed former AFL coach Paul Roosand cricket icon Merv Hughes to be part of the campaign.

Big Merv has always yo-yoed with his weight but recently started MacDougall’s The Man Shake program and has stripped almost 15kg in recent months.

The Shake It Off TV campaign is a sign that MacDougall is enjoying incredible success post-football. The millions of dollars the current stars are earning are dwarfed by McDougall’s multimillion-dollar business empire.

MacDougall has not only helped hundreds of thousands of Australian men’s lives but his business is now expanding into international markets, including China.

With a strong focus on giving back, he has supported former teammate Mark Hughes, donating over $100,000 to his charity foundation and sponsored his former team Newcastle for a reported $300,000 per season.

The NRL should be taking note and pushing MacDougall’s story to the current crop that so much can be achieved in life after football. Especially those like “Mad Dog” who studied commerce and economics at Sydney University while still playing.

GRIFFIN WON’T BE HOOKED

MOST coaches going as poorly as Penrith’s Anthony Griffin would be concerned for their future. Not at the foot of the mountains where Gus Gould and the Panthers management are actually considering a contract extension.

“The coach is as sweet as a nut,” said Panthers CEO Brian Fletcher. “He’s got a year to go on his contract and before the end of the season we’d be looking to extend it. He’s the right fit for all our young blokes. We’d like to be winning but there’s no drama in the place.”

WOODSY’S WICKED WIT

IT’S great that Wests Tigers skipper Aaron Woods can retain his sense of humour despite all the contract drama and being booed on to the field last weekend.

The banter between the Blues forward and some of the Bulldogs forwards last weekend was apparently priceless.

At one stage of the game, Woods cheekily said to his opposite Aiden Tolman: “Don’t get that jersey dirty because it’s mine next year.”

Connor Watson is on the Tigers’ radar. Photo: Gregg Porteous

TIGERS WON’T CHASE DUGAN

WESTS Tigers WON’T be chasing St George Illawarra fullback Josh Dugan to replace James Tedesco. They are far more interested in South Sydney’s Alex Johnstonand the Roosters’ Connor Watson — who can’t crack it for a start with the NRL team.

Coach Ivan Cleary is keen on both players although it is highly unlikely the Roosters will release Watson, who is not free until the end of next season. Johnston’s contract is up at the Rabbitohs this season.

WHY CHANGE, RICKY?

WHAT a difference 12 months can make. This time last season, before the Raiders became a premiership powerhouse, Ricky Stuart apparently loved the City-Country concept.

“I’m really proud of every player that’s going to be representing the club this weekend (before City Country) and I personally hope that every one of those boys plays their best game,” he said.

“We can’t continue to grow as a club if we haven’t got representative players in our squad.”

Now he doesn’t want a bar of it.

Veteran boxer Denis Cherry has plenty of punch left in him.

CHERRY’S RIPE

YOU’VE got to admire the courage of the old warriors competing at the Queensland Masters boxing titles. This is Denis Cherry. He’s 71 and a recently retired radio network executive. Cherry fought Melbourne’s Rick Hammond at Kirra Sports Club in the 69kg division in the over-60s and lost a tight contest. It was supposed to be his last fight.

“No, bugger it,“ he said. “I want a rematch.”

MAL INCLUSION PLAN

INJURED stars Greg Inglisand Matt Scottwill go into camp with Australia’s Kangaroos in Canberra this week in the build-up to the Anzac Test. “They’ve been an integral part of the squad for such a long time,” said coach Mal Meninga. “And hopefully they’ll be back for the World Cup at the end of the season.”

HEADS UP TO LEGENDARY PAIR

IT’s wonderful to see two great old Australian sportswriters acknowledged on the world stage. Ian Heads’ and Norm Tasker’s tribute to Richie Benaud, Richie: The Man Behind the Legend, has been short-listed for the UK’s Cricket Book of the Year.

It’s a nice tribute to the two great men with more than a century of sportswriting between them. Their relationship with Richie went back to the early ’60s, when they were at The Daily Telegraph and Richie wrote for The Sun.

Sam Burgess laughing after a flogging from the Sea Eagles.

NO LAUGHING MATTER

IS this a bad look for the Rabbitohs or is it just me?

After his team was thumped 46-8 by Manly on Friday night, skipper Sam Burgess didn’t appear to be all that upset. We’re all for sportsmanship and shaking hands with the opposition at fulltime, but in these pictures big Sam doesn’t appear to be hurting at all.

Take nothing away from Manly but the performance from the Rabbitohs was the weakest and most uninspiring I’ve seen from this club in many years.

GUS SUPPORTS CITY-COUNTRY

UNLIKE the Bulldogs and Raiders, Panthers boss Gus Gouldsupports all levels of representative football — including next Sunday’s final City-Country game in Mudgee.

“Provided they are fit and healthy, we would never prevent any of our players from playing in representative matches,” Gould told us.

TIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

THE secret behind Manly’s 46-8 flogging of Souths was a stirring pre-game speech from Steve “Blocker” Roach. The Sea Eagles stayed at the Novotel in Darling Harbour the night before the game and coach Trent Barrett called in his legendary old mate to address the players at a team dinner. Obviously it worked. It’s a shame the Tigers don’t use more of Blocker. They could sure do with him to lighten the mood after 18 tumultuous months.