Penrith Panthers: Phil Gould tries to end speculation over coach Anthony Griffin’s future
FED up of the rumours about replacing Penrith coach Anthony Griffin with Trent Barrett, Panthers supremo Phil Gould has blown up on Twitter. PLUS the Eels’ footy review and another stink at Manly.
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TRENT Barrett’s name continues to be linked with — and then distanced from — a move back to Penrith, but the impending doom for current coach Anthony Griffin refuses to die down.
Griffin and Panthers general manager of football Phil Gould have had their differences in the past 12 months but worked through them.
However, it appears the relationship is nearing an end.
The speculation got too much for Gould on Twitter on Thursday night.
If one more journalist suggests Trent Barrett &/or John Cartwright are coming to Panthers next season, I will scream. Read my lips: ITS NOT HAPPENING. It’s never been suggested. It’s never been considered. Apologies to fans of both clubs. I don’t know who starts this stuff.
— Phil Gould (@PhilGould15) August 2, 2018
Barrett was urged to walk from Manly during the salary cap fiasco earlier this season but, as is his way, refused to quit on his team. However, he continues to feel like he is working one man out at the club.
Owner Scott Penn is often overseas on business and chief executive Lyall Gorman has also been overseas recently for personal reasons.
Barrett sees himself as a career coach and, given the crumbling happening around him, is being urged to make a call for the sake of his long-term future.
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EELS GET REFLECTIVE
PARRAMATTA’S eight-week football department review is in full swing and due to be completed by the end of the month.
Players and staff have been interviewed as the club searches for answers to why it has performed so poorly this year.
What has become glaringly obvious is the Eels have been found desperately lacking in the head of football department.
Their recruitment has been way off the pace the past 18 months and the club still has a major decision to make around whether to offer Jarryd Hayne another contract.
The committee heading up the review is comprised of champion Bulldogs and Kangaroo winger Greg Brentnall, Richmond Tigers leadership consultant Shane McCurry and former general manager of football at Essendon, Rob Kerr.
Given the length of the review, the Eels owe it to their fans to get things right.
IT’S BRAITH’S ROUND
BRAITH Anasta not only made his caddie debut in the Fiji Open this week but the retired Kangaroos star also played in a Pro Am alongside Ernie Els.
Anasta is a keen golfer and jumped at the opportunity to caddie for Australian Matt Stieger, who is one of the first clients of his sports management company.
“I’ve just stepped into the world of sports management and it’s something I’m really looking forward to sinking my teeth into,” Anasta said.
“It’s set to be a massive week for my guys. Matt Stieger, who I’m caddying for in the Fiji Open, is an Australian amateur champion and Grant Booth is making his US PGA debut next week at the Barracuda Championship in Nevada.”
While Anasta was prepared to caddie for Steiger, the opportunity to play with the former world No. 1 Els proved an opportunity too good to miss. The pair finished third.
“Ernie has been a hero of mine since I was 13. I grew up on Randwick Golf Course looking up to guys like Ernie Els and Greg Norman, so to get the chance to play with Ernie was incredible.
“There I was standing on one of the most picturesque golf courses in the world, the weather was perfect, I’m taking it all in and then I turn around and there’s The Big Easy.
“He’s 6ft 3in and is big enough to play in the forwards in any team in the NRL.”
Anasta also ran into another former world No. 1 VJ Singh — who designed the Natadola Bay course.
The Fiji Open is shown live on Fox Sports 507 from 10am today and 9am tomorrow and Sunday.
MARTY’S A LITTLE ON THE NOSE
THE latest problem for Manly centres around Kiwi Test prop Marty Taupau and rumours he’s offside with some of his teammates.
Rival clubs are aware of the drum on Taupau and some have baulked at looking to sign him given the rumblings coming out of the Sea Eagles’ dressing room.
Taupau is still contracted to Manly for the next two seasons but other NRL sides have been quietly made aware that if they want to make a play, the big prop could be available.
Intriguingly, coach Trent Barrett benched Taupau against the Penrith Panthers last Saturday after initially naming him to start.
Taupau has again been named to start against Cronulla on Sunday.
There is no questioning his talent, but as we saw with Daly Cherry-Evans, Anthony Watmough and the Stewart brothers a few years back, divided dressing rooms are never an easy fit.
GESTURE THAT FORGED ANOTHER FIGHTING CHANCE
JEFF Fenech held Billy Dib in his arms and the pair just cried.
It was in 2013 after Dib had just lost his second fight to Evgeny Gradovich and his boxing was career at the crossroads.
Fenech was just another face in the crowd in Macau that day but the former world champion made a beeline for Dib’s dressing room.
“I can never forget it,” Dib said. “He came in and gave me a big hug and told me that I was a warrior and I’d fought my heart out and that I had nothing to be ashamed of.
“For this guy, a legend of the sport, a Hall of Famer, to come in and show me that love was big for me.
“ We’ve never spoken about it but I will never forget it. I wrote it down.”
They have a chance to forge their own history when Fenech sits in Dib’s corner for his world title fight against Tevin Farmer on Friday night.
“When I saw him in that fight and the courage, and to see how tough he was, that night it blew me away,” Fenech said. “We’re now together finally.”
WHISPERING KNACK
THE Sydney Roosters’ “football whisperer”, Bradley Charles Stubbs, has had rival clubs in stitches with some of his spin-doctoring ways.
A self-styled “one percenter” guru, Stubbs can supposedly read the energy of an NRL side. Can anyone else feel the positive chi?
Stubbs is apparently also an expert at critiquing high-profile sporting coaches on how to best handle press conferences and interact with the media.
Stubbs has worked with the Wallabies, the England rugby union side, Sydney FC and even Michael Maguire when South Sydney smashed a 43-year premiership drought in 2014.
There are unconfirmed reports that he also works as an Amway representative on the side.
These days he considers himself a Rooster and has been working closely with coach Trent Robinson.
Last week Stubbs was spotted at the Allianz Stadium cafe Azure, where onlookers were bemused when he bumped into South Sydney CEO Blake Solly.
After introducing himself, Stubbs promptly volunteered: “You’re only going to win three out of your last six games.
“We’re going to win the minor premiership and then go on and win the premiership.”
Stubbs then continued with his assessment of where and why things would go wrong at the Rabbitohs this season before Solly pointed out he was in the middle of a business meeting.
At that point Stubbs asked: “Can I get a photo?”
Solly politely declined.
WHICH WAS THE GREATEST?
VOTING remains open on the Men of League’s most memorable grand final. The deciders were chosen by an elite panel but now the public will have the final say ahead of the unveiling at the Men of League gala dinner at the Westin next Wednesday.
1989: Canberra 19 bt Balmain 14
The Raiders won their first grand final in a dramatic game which included a Benny Elias field goal hitting the cross bar, a controversial Bill Harrigan penalty call and Tigers forwards Steve Roach and Paul Sironen somehow benched late as the Raiders won in extra time.
1997: Newcastle 22 bt Manly 16
With time running out, Andrew Johns’ blindside run found Darren Albert, who scored to snatch Newcastle’s first premiership in a moment for the ages.
2003: Penrith 18 bt Sydney Roosters 6:
That Scott Sattler tackle on runaway Roosters winger Todd Byrne helped swing the game the Panthers’ way.
To purchase tickets to the dinner log onto: menofleague.com
LIPS ARE SEALED OVER IMMORTAL CALL
THEY ran a tight ship at the Immortals judging during the week after deciding a captain’s call was necessary to properly honour the pre-War players, Dally Messenger, Frank Burge and Dave Brown.
A good number of judges were contacted but all refused to divulge the shock decision to name five Immortals instead of the planned two.
Eight of the 10 judges called NRL boss Todd Greenberg to inform him word might have slipped out and tell him they had nothing to do with the leak.
The best roadblock to inquiries came from Ray Warren, who said: “I’ve got absolutely nothing
to offer.
“You’re not going to break Rabs.”
The 10 judges were Warren, Wally Lewis, Andrew Johns, Bob Fulton, Phil Gould, Ian Heads, Steve Crawley, Norm Tasker, Wayne Bennett and Greenberg.
Johns was sick but called in his votes.
😀😀 #WSW pic.twitter.com/7Dv11hHhKW
— WS Wanderers FC (@wswanderersfc) July 31, 2018
SPOTTED
Liverpool great Didi Hamman (left) visiting his former Reds teammate and Wanderers coach Markus Babbel at training this week. We’re told the German midfielder will be back in Oz to visit his old mate again soon.
MARK Riddell is obviously planning on spending a little more time doing breakfast radio than his predecessor Beau Ryan.
We’re reliably informed “Piggy” — who has teamed up with Mark Levy to host the new Macquarie Sports Radio breakfast show — loaded up on 500 capsules for the coffee machine he brought into the studio.
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FOR what it’s worth, NRL referees’ boss Bernie Sutton has backed the matchwinning try awarded to the Cowboys’ Gavin Cooperagainst Newcastle last week.
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WANT to know why Bevan French is on the nose at Parramatta? The Eels flyer ran for just 19 metres last week against the Rabbitohs, easily the least of any winger from last round, which shows how much they are missing big Semi Radradra.