Saint, Sinner, Shoosh: Can Phil Gould and Trent Barrett coexist at Bulldogs?

Trent Barrett walked out on the Sea Eagles because he wanted to be his own man … how’s that going to go under Gus Gould? That and Saint, Sinner, Shoosh.

Rabbitosh legend Bob McCarthy. Picture: Warwick Lawson.

Phil Gould has always wanted to be involved in coaching at his footy clubs.

Ask Ricky Stuart, Ivan Cleary or Anthony Griffin. Gus can’t help himself and loves being hands on.

Warriors head coach Nathan Brown, to his credit, kept Gus at a distance. He rarely consulted him. Gus addressed the players before one game and turned up to a couple of training sessions but that was about it.

Watch new FOX SPORTS Original Production ‘Wild Wests: Tales from Tiger Town’ on Kayo >

Phil Gould will bring plenty of attention to the Bulldogs. Picture: AAP Image/Darren Pateman

This is one of the reasons why the great man left the New Zealand Warriors for the Bulldogs, apart from the payrise.

He was not employed to be Brown’s boss and got bored just being a development consultant.

At the Canterbury Bulldogs, Gus is now general manager of football and in charge of their entire rugby league business. And this is where his relationship with Trent Barrett will be most interesting and one to watch.

In his last job at the Manly Sea Eagles, Barrett worked under the late and great rugby league immortal Bob Fulton, who was their Head of Football.

It didn’t work out because Barrett wanted to be his own man. Fulton eventually quit to spend more time with his family.

Without Bozo as a sounding board and buffer between the coach an management, Barrett fell out with the Manly Sea Eagles hierarchy.

He spat the dummy, inexplicably walked out and left Des Hasler with a roster including Daly Cherry Evans, Tom and Jake Trbojevic and the best young emerging talent in the NRL.

A crazy decision over his backyard furniture!

This is what makes the Gould-Barrett relationship such a potential train crash. Watch this space.

All the latest NRL chatter and more in Australia’s hottest sport gossip column.

SAINT

The Daily Telegraph’s NRL chief of staff and Sydney Roosters tragic Russ Jackson has been in hospital fighting Covid. Our great mate and colleague has a heart – and appetite – as big as his favourite player, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, and we’re backing him all the way to make a complete recovery in time to cheer his Roosters in another finals campaign.

SAINT II

The appointment of Sydney Roosters and NSW Blues forward Hannah Southwell to the board of the Rugby League Players Association is a great move for women in rugby league and the future growth of the NRLW competition, especially if Hannah can tackle the big issues as hard as she knocks over opponents.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH PODCAST

Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield, Michael Carayannis and Adam Mobbs give an insight into the nightmare facing NRL families inside Queensland quarantine and analyse the Tevita Pangai Jr’s short-term deal with Penrith.

SINNER

Rugby League World Cup organisers are behaving appallingly in regard to Australia and the Kiwis withdrawing from the tournament for player welfare and safety concerns.

SHOOSH

The wife of one NRL star was late for her flight to the Gold Coast on Wednesday, keeping a planeload of WAGS and their kids waiting on the tarmac at Bankstown Airport for an hour.

SHOOSH

Which player agent has rung Wests Tigers at least half a dozen times in the past three weeks to push for Michael Maguire’s axing.

SPOTTED

A sneak preview of the jerseys for the three Brisbane clubs — the Jets, Firehawks and Dolphins — all bidding to become the NRL’s 17th team. Plans for a 2023 entry into the competition have been put on hold for at least 12 months due to Covid.

Jerseys for NRL expansion hopefuls the Jets, Dolphins and Firehawks.

SPOTTED

Not everyone in rugby league is struggling in hubs or in lockdown. Channel 9 caller and Maroons legend Paul Vautin has spent the week relaxing on Hamilton Island and having a punt at the Marina Tavern sports bar.

SPOTTED

Wouldn’t you think the CEO of an NRL club would put on a collared shirt and jacket when the Fox Sports cameras are around for a club documentary? The Wests Tigers’ Justin Pascoe looks like he’s dressed to mow Leichhardt Oval, not run a multimillion-dollar sporting organisation.

Wests Tigers CEO Justin Pascoe in the doco Wild Wests: Tales From Tiger Town.

WIVES, PARTNERS DOING IT TOUGHER

Spare a thought for the rugby league WAGS who are living in difficult conditions on the Gold Coast — banned from their balconies for the next 10 days, looking after little ones and generally having a nightmare quarantine experience.

Imagine how well it went down when the trapped mums, wives and partners learnt that shipping containers were arriving on the Sunshine Coast full of golf clubs and surfboards for their other halves.

The players are out of their quarantine from next Wednesday and will be free to roam the golf courses and go surfing on their breaks from training and days off.

They deserve it but, meanwhile, some of the WAGS are cramped in hotel rooms with up to four kids and allowed out only three times a day for meals. The boys will no doubt be on full duty when their loved ones join them for the remainder of the season.

CHEESE NOT CRACKERS

In a huge boost for Melbourne Storm, utility forward Brandon Smith has ditched plans to quit the club at the end of the season

There had been huge interest from Canterbury, Gold Coast and Wests Tigers on the understanding the Storm would only release him in a swap deal for a player of similar quality.

This has since changed because Smith has now established himself as a starting forward at either hooker or lock.

With Dale Finucane likely to leave, Storm coach Craig Bellamy will throw the big bucks at the Kiwi Test hooker to keep him in Melbourne long term.

Storm hooker Brandon Smith is set to stay at the Storm. Picture: Grant Trouville/NRL Photos

RABBITOHS CHAMPION’S HUGE HEALTH SCARE

An old back injury from his playing days in the 1960s and ’70s has floored rugby league legend Bobby McCarthy.

Just a few days short of his 77th birthday, the old South Sydney Rabbitohs champion is recovering from surgery under specialists in the spinal unit at Royal North Shore Hospital, who saved him from becoming a quadriplegic.

“I’ve had a few rods and brackets put into my back,” McCarthy said. “The doctor said if someone had bumped into me heavily, I could have been a quadriplegic.”

It started last Christmas while McCarthy was lying in bed one morning.

“Suddenly I got all this pain and burners shooting right up into my neck,” he said, “I thought f …, what’s going on. It was shocking.”

Rabbitohs legend Bob McCarthy is on the mend after back surgery.

The pain soon settled but flared up again more recently.

“I saw a specialist and got X-rays,” McCarthy said. “There was bone pressing on my spinal cord. He said it was a similar injury to the one Superman actor Christopher Reeve suffered.

“It was that nasty. He operated and I’m out of pain now but it’s bloody uncomfortable wearing this harness.”

“Macca” has no doubts the injury is footy related, even 45 years into retirement.

“I copped a lot of coat hangers back in those days,” he said. “Even big Norm (Provan) got me once when I was a kid in a grand final. He went whoosh with that big arm of his. My body was going one way, my head the other.

“The old coat hangers plus all the back pressure in the old days just pushing in the scrums. It was hard work against big, strong and powerful blokes.”

At least McCarthy is enjoying retirement without any concern from old head injuries, like other old teammates from his era.

The big man still talks and communicates as sharp as ever.

“I wouldn’t swap my rugby league career for anything,” he said, “This has been painful, but geez, there’s still some great memories.”

Bob McCarthy copped plenty of hits during his rugby league career.

WOOLFORD’S BIG SERVE

Maybe it’s not Michael Maguire’s fault the Tigers keep missing out on big signings.

Former Canberra Raiders hooker Simon Woolford — who now coaches in bush footy — blames the club’s general manager of football, Adam Hartigan.

“With people like Adam Hartigan (who doesn’t return phone calls or emails) it doesn’t really surprise that they miss out on key targets like Tevita (Pangai Jr),” Woolford wrote on social media.

KYLE TO KEEP SEAT ON GUS BUS

The appointment of Phil Gould as general manager of football has probably saved Kyle Flanagan’s career at the Canterbury Bulldogs for at least another 12 months.

Gould wants to see how Flanagan can perform behind a stronger pack with Tevita Pangai Junior and Paul Vaughan set to join the club.

He also wants him to get an opportunity with players around him like Matt Burton and Josh Addo-Carr, who are both also on their way to Belmore in 2022.

It also helps that Flanagan is managed by veteran agent Wayne Beavis, who also looks after Gould and the Bulldogs’ coach Trent Barrett. Before Gould arrived, there were reports Flanagan had been shopped around to UK Super League clubs.

Kyle Flanagan is likely to stay at Canterbury for at least another season. Picture: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

NEW BADGE FOR MADGE

Poor old Michael Maguire has a new nickname at the Wests Tigers. Some players are calling him David Jones — because he’s always shopping his players. It was revealed last week that half Luke Brooks had been offered to a number of the Wests Tigers’ rivals as has utility back Moses Mbye.

MG BACKSLAMS GB

NRL legend Mark Geyer has scored a huge victory in the latest Sydney radio ratings survey.

MG’s Rush Hour show on Triple M at 6pm rated an 8, easily knocking off Mark Levy on 2GB’s Wide World of Sport with a 5.5.

Humble in victory, Geyer said: “I just love rugby league and talking about footy.”

The ratings are a huge concern for 2GB after we revealed last week the Continuous Call Team had also slumped three ratings points since the departure of Erin Molan last year.

Rabbits to rescue with love and care.

Souths Cares delivering groceries to struggling fans during Covid.

RABBITS TO RESCUE WITH LOVE AND CARE

The South Sydney Rabbitohs are doing some mighty great stuff — both on and off the footy field.

The Rabbitohs’ charity arm — South Cares — has been busy lately delivering groceries to battling residents and fans, since the Covid lockdown began in Sydney late last month.

The Souths Cares team has handed out more than 700kg of fresh fruit and vegetables, with volunteers all wearing masks in contact-free drop offs.

Ex-Rabbitohs Rhys Wesser and Yileen Gordon are heavily involved in the initiative.

“It was great to be able to support our families and elders and keep them safe during these difficult times,” Souths Cares general manager Alisha Parker-Elrez said.