What’s the Buzz: SBW meets with Roosters, Souths’ over Bennett
With room left in their salary cap, could a breakfast meeting in Sydney mean Sonny Bill Williams is returning to Bondi? Plus, South Sydney are already fed up with Wayne Bennett.
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With room left in their salary cap, could a breakfast meeting in Sydney mean Sonny Bill Williams is returning to Bondi? Plus, South Sydney are already fed up with Wayne Bennett.
SAINT
STEPHANIE Gilmore equals Layne Beachley as our greatest female surfer with seven world titles in 11 years. What an absolute superstar and a champion in and out of the surf.
SINNER
THE useless Brisbane taxi driver who didn’t know his way to Suncorp Stadium when your columnist was heading to the fight weigh in on Thursday. Luckily we got a lift back to the hotel with the great George Rose.
SHOOSH
WHICH intoxicated NRL star behaved like an absolute idiot in the SCG Members Stand at Australia-India one-dayer.
SHOOSH II
WHICH Melbourne horse trainer is facing animal cruelty charges after an investigation that included secret surveillance cameras in his stables.
SHOOSH III
WHICH two South Sydney players are filthy about a senior Rabbitohs club official leaking stories to the media that they didn’t want to play under coach Anthony Seibold next season. They say it couldn’t be further from the truth.
SPOTTED
FOOTY stars James Roberts and Cody Walker in Moree giving away footy jerseys, shorts and socks to young rugby league fans in Moree.
SPOTTED II
RETIRED St George Illawarra winger Jason Nightingale riding his paddle board on Port Hacking last weekend with his dog on the front.
SPOTTED III
CANBERRA Raiders legends Ricky Stuart and Laurie Daley catching a Virgin Airlines flight from Sydney airport to the Gold Coast for a funeral.
SPOTTED IV
A passenger spilling a bottle of water over Val Holmes’ manager Chris Orr on the same Virgin flight to the Gold Coast. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.
SPOTTED V
Bookmaker Tom Waterhouse and his lovely wife Hoda ordering a coffee at Two Penny cafe in the Sydney CBD on Thursday morning.
SPOTTED VI
Rabbitohs, NSW and Kangaroos hooker Damien Cook making a very promising start to married life with wife Courtney as he hit the aisles to do the grocery shopping at Woolworths at Caringbah last week.
ROOSTERS’ BREAKFAST PITCH TO SBW
THE Sydney Roosters could be hatching a plan to bring back the great Sonny Bill Williams.
The Sunday Telegraph spotted the All Blacks superstar having breakfast with Roosters supremo Nick Politis and his agent Khoder Nasser in Rushcutters Bay on Friday morning.
Interestingly both Politis and Roosters coach Trent Robinson have told me they will not be spending the salary cap money made available from Dylan Napa’s departure to the Canterbury Bulldogs.
“We’ll need it down the track,” Robinson said
Your columnist spoke to SBW when he arrived in Sydney for Saturday night’s charity fight.
I asked him about the Roosters and the possibility of returning
to rugby league after the rugby World Cup next year when he is off contract.
“Well, we’re not getting any younger bro,” he said, “I’m 33 and I’ve got one more year on my contract back in New Zealand.
“If I’m playing good footy and I get some offers I’ll assess it with my wife to decide what’s best for us and the kids. Then we’ll move onto the next chapter. It’s not going to be boxing, especially being a man of faith. I put all my faith in God and I know everything is already written. I’ve just got to be the best person I can be day in day out.”
Politis has always said the door at the Roosters is open to Sonny Bill whenever he wants to return.
Whether that’s in 2020 and whether his body can handle another NRL campaign remains to be seen. The money available from Cooper Cronk’s retirement this time next year on top of Napa’s contract will make it financially feasible.
The other option is to sign him in an ambassador/mentoring type role.
KEOGH RETURN ON THE MONEY
THERE is talk in Cronulla about the possibility and need to bring back former chairman Damien Keogh to sort out the club’s financial mess.
Keogh’s departure in 2017, when he pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine, has had a catastrophic effect on the Sharks’ operations and it’s been downhill ever since.
He needed to spend time away from the game. Players caught with illicit drugs for the first time get a warning, a 10-week ban for a second offence and then a two-year suspension a third time.
Keogh’s two years is up in May next year. Obviously footy club directors have to be cleanskins. Yet Keogh has continued in his role as chief executive of Hoyts, a company that made a $158 million profit last year. It’s that sort of business expertise the Sharks are in desperate need of on its board. Otherwise they’ll be lucky to survive.
PEPONIS IN DEMAND
THERE are moves underway for Canterbury Bulldogs legend George Peponis to become the new chairman of the International Rugby League Federation.
Dr Peponis is currently the chairman of the NSW Rugby League and has the powerful Sydney clubs behind him. The former Australian captain chaired the 2017 World Cup, the most successful international tournament in decades. Peponis accepted an award this week when the NSWRL was named the state’s best sporting organisation.
What an embarrassment for the Canterbury Bulldogs, who sacked him as chairman earlier this year. His leadership at Belmore is desperately missed.
BUNNIES’ BENNETT IRE
THERE is talk that old super coach Wayne Bennett is becoming increasingly unpopular with South Sydney players over his point-blank refusal to leave the Broncos in 2019.
They are apparently taking it as an insult that Bennett keeps talking up his commitment to the Broncos players but never takes into account the weeks of uncertainty for the Souths boys and how it is affecting their own pre-season.
Even the Broncos fans I spoke to at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night are over it. Most favoured Anthony Seibold starting straight away rather than risking an unsettled season in 2019.
HOOP SCOOP
IT’S not just rugby league that has its player-misbehaviour scandals.
We’re hearing a leading Sydney jockey had a huge run-in with police last week and it’s a story we’ll be hearing a lot more about. It just goes to show participants in other sports are never under the same spotlight as NRL players.
LARGE ERROR TO WEAR
THERE were serious concerns for Anthony Mundine when he arrived at his pre-fight press conference last Wednesday in a shirt that was several sizes too big.
“No one can shrink and lose that much weight before a fight,” said one onlooker.
Turns out Choc had been so focused on the fight that he forgot to bring a collared shirt to Brisbane. He had to borrow one from his minder — the six-foot plus co-promoter Tristan Hay — to look the part.
BANDAGED CHOOK
COACH Trent Robinson has joined the casualty ward at the Sydney Roosters. We spotted him with a big bandage over his right wrist. Turns out it was minor surgery to do a biopsy to and remove bodies from the back of his hand. The good news is that he is fine.
TEX SHINING WITH KNIGHTS
Tex Hoy — the son of Newcastle surf legend Matt Hoy and godson of Matty Johns — is making a huge impression at the Newcastle Knights.
The just turned 19-year-old played SG Ball and NSW Cup last year and has joined the first grade squad this off-season.
He is an outstanding young fullback who will no doubt get an opportunity as a deputy to Connor Watson. Your columnist met him when he was a 15-year-old Harold Matthews rookie and found his beautiful manners matched his football ability.
RABBITS TUCK IN
A NUMBER of high-profile South Sydney Rabbitohs stars were spotted strolling along the Woolloomooloo Wharf last week in the direction of Russell Crowe’s pad.
Turns out Crowe was not even home. He’s in New York.
Sam Burgess, Greg Inglis, Damien Cook, Cameron Murray and several others were just catching up for a meal — and no doubt to discuss the Anthony Seibold/Wayne Bennett coaching debacle affecting both clubs.
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