Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield’s weekend highlights and lowlights: Daly Cherry-Evans circus hurting Manly
All in sundry will deny it but there’s no hiding the fact Manly is suffering from the Daly Cherry-Evans contract drama as evidenced in the club’s diabolical loss to Melbourne at Brookvale Oval. Plus Buzz’s highlight, lowlight and spotted.
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Manly is playing like a team torn apart by the Daly Cherry-Evans contract drama.
When was the last time the Sea Eagles turned in such a lacklustre performance like on Sunday against Melbourne Storm at Brookie?
Take nothing away from Storm but Manly were awful.
It would be very easy to sit back and blame the absence of champion fullback Tom Trbojevic.
And that front-row metre eater Taniela Paseka is out for the year.
Coach Anthony Seibold will deny it had anything to do with the Cherry-Evans circus.
But you could almost tell from their body language.
That they just didn’t turn up.
And you can almost understand why the players looked so dispirited.
How are they supposed to feel when their captain so publicly admits he no longer wants to be there?
That he’s bailing out.
Jake Trbojevic is already on record as saying he could never do it.
His brother Tom offered to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars of his contract when he was sidelined for a long period.
That’s what the jersey and logo mean to them.
Before the Cherry-Evans story broke we were talking about Manly as a definite top-four side and a serious contender to go all the way.
Their late tries made the scoreboard look slightly more respectable.
But they got pumped and conceded 48 points at what is normally their fortress.
We concede that DCE is not the first player to announce he is leaving a club well in advance.
But there’s a difference.
Dylan Brown has 13 million reasons to declare he was leaving at the end of the season.
The same with James Fisher-Harris at Penrith when he revealed his plans to join the Warriors midway through last year.
Teammates could understand the reason why.
In DCE’s case he supposedly has nothing planned. He just doesn’t want to be there beyond this year. Simple as that.
HIGHLIGHT
The Latrell Mitchell cut-out pass to set up Isaiah Tass’ match-winning try for Souths against the Roosters. Yes, it went forward, but we’ve seen worse. It was a smart and adventurous play and one that Latrell read beautifully. He told teammates afterwards he noticed in play that opposition winger Dom Young was looking tired which was why he backed himself and took a gamble against the possibility of an intercept.
LOWLIGHT
A slight overreaction from the bunker over the weekend on high shots. I applaud the NRL for taking a stronger stance on head contact but we need a more common-sense approach. Only the bad ones warrant players being sent to the bin.
SPOTTED
A Rabbitohs diehard turning up to Allianz Stadium on Friday evening for the Roosters-Souths clash and looking a little bewildered by all the Matildas fans. The NRL game was at Accor, Souths’ home (for now at least). Our man was last seen doing a U-turn and heading back to Central Stadium to catch a train to Homebush.
SPOTTED
Canterbury Bulldogs stars Connor Tracey, Josh Curran and Reed Mahoney having breakfast and a coffee at Loaf cafe in Cronulla on Saturday morning.
SPOTTED
Triple M Sunday sin-bin host and commentator Ben Dobbin at a Wiggles concert in Brisbane on Saturday morning before calling the Broncos match against the Wests Tigers.
SPOTTED
South Sydney Rabbitohs third party sponsor Steve Nasteski, better known as The Art Dealer, celebrated his 50th birthday in Byron Bay on Saturday. The guest list included Souths CEO Blake Solly, senior NRL official John Vellis, player agent Mario Tartak and Craig Wing, the former NRL glamour boy. Nasteski’s cousin Tony, a groom on MAFS, was also there.
SPOTTED
Fox League caller Andrew Voss and family watching AFL juniors at Sydney Park. Can’t confirm if he was calling the game.
360 VIEW
360 VIEWCatch you on NRL 360 at 6.30pm on Fox League with Braith Anasta, Dan Ginnane and Brent Read. Special guest is NSW State of Origin coach Laurie Daley to discuss his plans to take the Blues to back-to-back series wins.
JOURNO AND THE PREMIERSHIP STAR
It’s not every day that a Daily Telegraph rugby league reporter gets to play in a forward pack alongside an NRL grand final legend.
Tyson Jackson, 22, is an impressive up-and-coming footy writer on this newspaper.
He also spends his Saturday afternoons playing in the front row in A-grade in Cronulla juniors for De La Salle.
And on Saturday Cronulla’s 2016 premiership hero Andrew Fifita, who scored the match-winning try in the grand final victory, played his first game of the year for the club.
Fifita is still only 35. He retired from NRL three years ago but keeps going because he wants to put back into grassroots footy.
De La Salle lost to St Joseph’s 26-22 but Tyson said it was an incredible experience.
“He was so helpful,” Tyson said, “When you’re defending alongside him he’s telling you exactly what you need to do.
“It was an amazing experience, not just for me, but the whole team.
“I’m really keen to learn more from him over the rest of the season.”
Fifita finished a tough game with his head wrapped in bandages but loved every moment of it.
DAZN’S NRL SPECTACLE
The NRL’s multibillion-dollar TV deal negotiations kicked off inside a corporate suite at Friday night’s Rabbitohs v Roosters game at Accor Stadium.
The global chief executive of DAZN, Shay Sergev, was there as a guest of NRL bosses Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo to watch his first ever game of rugby league alongside other media heavyweights - Foxtel chief Patrick Delany, Fox Sports boss Steve Crawley, Kayo CEO Julian Ogrin and Daily Telegraph editor Ben English.
And he loved it.
“The CEO is a very impressive man and a trailblazer,” V’landys said.
“He was certainly impressed with the game and the constant action and entertainment.
“We have explained to him the growth in our audience figures. That when the last TV deal was done our audience was 119 million but is now 201 million. He was impressed with the numbers.”
Delany gave his new boss a sideline experience.
“We took him down to the sideline and, for most foreigners, when they see these big men and how physical rugby league is, they’re in awe of it. He loved it.”
NRL’S FAN-FIRST MENTALITY
NRL boss Peter V’landys was shocked by my column item on Sunday revealing that Rugby Australia’s cheapest available ticket for the Sydney Test against the British and Irish Lions was $279 – even for kids and concession card holders.
“That’s ridiculous,” he said, “We’re always looking at the price point for fans and making the game affordable to everyone.
“Right now, we’re looking into subsidising the cost of jerseys because they’re just too expensive.
“You’ve got to prioritise your fans to ensure nothing is out of their reach.”
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