NRL 2021: Will Chambers dropped, Sharks coach Josh Hannay reveals reason for star’s axeing

Sharks coach Josh Hannay insists veteran centre Will Chambers was dumped from first grade on form and not for the sledging storm he created in recent weeks.

Sharks coach Josh Hannay has declared Will Chambers has been dropped from first grade due to form — not for his two-week sledge-a-thon.

Hannay went further to concede that the club had contributed to his poor performances by requiring him to play two games in five days following four weeks out and a marathon mission from Melbourne to be part of the team bubble in Brisbane.

Chambers was selected among the reserves list for Cronulla’s must-win clash with Newcastle at Redcliffe on Sunday.

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The coach’s call led to the assertion that Chambers was being punished for his polarising verbal barrage of firstly Manly’s Dylan Walker, followed by his next target, Warriors forward Kane Evans last Saturday.

Warriors CEO Cameron George took great umbrage to Chambers’ sledging, claiming it had crossed the line.

Will Chambers has been dropped to the reserves list this weekend. Picture: NRL Images

After two tardy performances, most notably against the Warriors that included five carries for just 23 metres, six missed tackles and defensive involvement for three of the Warriors tries, Chambers sat down with Hannay on Monday.

“I had a chat with Will yesterday about the sledging situation and I was really clear about my feelings around that,” Hannay said.

“He (Chambers) was really respectful of that and the decision not to pick him — and again I was really clear with Will on this — had nothing to do with the sledging situation, it was just purely on form.

“He’s his own harshest critic. He knows he hasn’t been playing well, so he’s really clear on what he needs to get back in the team.

“The sledging played zero part of it.”

Hannay explained that Chambers’ return to the Sharks’ bubble, after he was required to quarantine in Melbourne following the birth of his baby, resulted in undue pressure on the 33-year-old to re-join the side on a limited preparation.

“I said to him, to be really frank, as a club we let him down by how we dropped the ball around him coming back into the bubble,” Hannay said.

Sharks coach Josh Hannay said Will Chambers was dropped because of his on-field form.

“Prior to that, he was starting to find his feet again with his footy and if you recall, there were some sections calling for him to be selected for Queensland in game two.

“I do feel we are a bit responsible for the rut that he‘s come back in.

“I called it rust. He had four or five weeks off and we rushed him back in and the only thing we can help him with now is putting the work in on the training paddock.

“He’s been around long enough to know what he needs to do to get back into the team.’’

Siosifa Talakai has instead been named in the centres for the Sharks.

How scattergun sledging could cost Chambers big time

— Brent Read and Dean Ritchie

Will Chambers’ future at Cronulla is on thin ice after it emerged that his scattergun sledging of Warriors players at the weekend reached a tipping point with prop Kane Evans over attempts to intimidate teenager Viliame Vailea.

There were also claims on Monday that one of Chambers’ own teammates may have confronted him in the dressing sheds after the game, although those suggestions were refuted by Sharks officials.

News Corp was told that Evans lost patience with Chambers — he was sin-binned for punching the Sharks centre — after becoming angered at the verbal attacks on 18-year-old Vailea, who was playing only his second game for the Warriors.

Will Chambers is fighting for his career.

He was just one of Chambers’ targets during a caustic afternoon at Cbus Super Stadium that resulted in five charges — four of the incidents involved Chambers.

Warriors chief executive Cameron George told News Corp on Sunday that Chambers had crossed the line with deeply personal attacks on his players. It is understood Warriors pair Matt Lodge and Sean O’Sullivan were also targeted by Chambers.

Lodge is married to O’Sullivan’s sister. He is also good friends with Sharks forward Andrew Fifita, prompting suggestions Fifita had confronted Chambers after the game. The Sharks denied there was an altercation or an incident involving the teammates.

Chambers has only signed a one-year deal with the Sharks and the club had been interested in extending his stay. However, it is understood they are now leaning towards letting him go given his recent behaviour and his form.

There is a view in some quarters that Chambers has ramped up his sledging to compensate for his eroding skills — he missed a notable tackle on Warriors backrower Euan Aitken that contributed to Cronulla losing the game.

Sources at the Warriors confirmed Chambers had targeted Lodge, O’Sullivan and Vailea during the game. At one point in the first half, he threw Vailea’s shoe into the stands, prompting the NRL match review committee to charge him on Monday with contrary conduct.

Vailea only recently made his first grade debut for the Warriors and while he gave away years in experience, he lost nothing in comparison to Chambers in terms of performance.

Psychological warfare? Kane Evans punches Will Chambers during a flare-up.

If anything, Vailea lowered his more experienced opponent’s colours. The end result is that Chambers is losing his fight to secure a contract with the Sharks next season, when Sydney Roosters assistant Craig Fitzgibbon will take over.

NRL head of football Graham Annesley personally reviewed the footage and the audio from the game on Monday morning to ensure nothing untoward had taken place.

“There were a lot of incidents in that game,” Annesley said.

“Obviously the match review committee was quite busy reviewing that game and there were a number of charges that came from it.

“My understanding is the match review committee did monitor the referee’s audio for any comments that may or not have been made.

“My understanding is they could not determine anything that was said. To back that up this morning when we did our regular weekend review … I looked at and listened to the footage of that game using referee’s audio and I couldn’t hear anything either.

“That’s not to say nothing was said, only that they couldn’t pick it up on the audio.

Matt Lodge was reportedly also a target.

“The match review committee can only deal with the incidents that they have evidence to proceed with.

“There was nothing there they could find and certainly nothing I could hear when I looked and listened to the particular incident.”

Annesley admitted the NRL could do little to remove sledging from the game.

“Sledging is something that I think should not be encouraged,” he said.

“We all accept from time to time things will be said in the normal cut and thrust of what is the toughest body contact sport in the world.

“So it would be ridiculous and ill-conceived of me to suggest that there shouldn’t be anything said between the players.

“If it oversteps a boundary — and I think there is a boundary particularly if it is a result of anything of a racial nature or oversteps common decency — than, yes, there is a role for the match review committee or NRL to get involved in those incidents.

Could Kyle Flanagan make a return to the Sharks?

“There is a line in the sand and they shouldn’t overstep that.”

Meanwhile, Cronulla’s crisis in the halves has prompted the club to discuss former favourite son Kyle Flanagan on a list of potential loan candidates should they suffer more injuries to their playmakers.

Flanagan has been in and out of first grade at Canterbury and it is understood his name has been mentioned among a slew of possible back-ups should they suffer an injury to Braydon Trindall or Connor Tracey.

Warriors boss lets fly at Chambers over ‘very personal’ sledging

Cronulla’s Will Chambers has come under fire from his own coach as well as New Zealand officials after three Warriors players were charged by the NRL’s match review committee for reacting to his “very personal” sledging over the weekend.

For the second straight week, Chambers got under the skin of rival players with his on-field sprays but it failed to help the Sharks secure the two competition points as the Warriors secured an 18-16 victory at Cbus Stadium.

It’s led Cronulla coach Josh Hannay to claim Chambers’ taunting of opponents was “counter-productive.”

“I’m not a fan of sledging,” Hannay said. “It’s not how I think competition should look like.”

Warriors chief Cameron George took his own swipe at Chambers, adamant the former representative centre “crossed the line” with his taunting of forward Kane Evans, who was sin-binned twice and placed on report three times during a spiteful game.

“I am privy to what was said out there and I don’t approve of that. There is a line you don’t cross and from the feedback I have got, that was crossed. It was very, very, very personal from what I have been told,” George said.

“I understand the art of sledging and what it is designed to do. For the second week in a row he’s caused a bit of drama. If that is the way he wants to play, that’s his call. He hasn’t won any games has he?

“He got fined $1500 for throwing a boot into the grandstand. I understand it and I generally don’t have a problem with it. When it crosses the line, I don’t approve. For the last two weeks, it has been notable it hasn’t helped his side win a game.”

Evans could be suspended for one or two games for twice attempting to punch Chambers, and he was also hit with two fines totalling $3350 for dangerous contact towards Chambers.

Warriors prop Matt Lodge was charged with a grade one careless high tackle charge on Chambers and could be suspended for two games depending on his plea. And Warriors winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak is facing a one-game ban for a contrary conduct charge on Chambers.

Boo Bailey’s view of Will Chambers’ sledge game.

Cronulla have slumped from seventh to 10th following consecutive losses to Manly and New Zealand, which both coincided with Chambers’ verbal battles.

“I’m not a fan of it (sledging),” Hannay said.

“For me, and where we sit, I can put it this way, I don’t feel like we’re in a position to be particularly vocal to our opponents when we’re not putting our opponents away.

“I know they (Warriors) got a couple of guys put in the sin bin on Saturday probably as a result of his sledging and baiting. But I also think it can be counter-productive in that sometimes it can spur on the opposition to have the final say, the last laugh, by winning.

“And in the last two weeks, the teams we have played and have beaten us so ultimately they have had the last laugh haven’t they?

“On a personal level, it’s not how I think competition should look like. I’m not a fan of sledging, whether it’s one of my players or sport in general.”

Hannay admitted “it’s always been part of Will’s game”.

“He has been doing it his whole career so I don’t think I’m going to change it,” Hannay said.

“He’s certainly a player that plays with a lot of emotion and wears his heart on his sleeve. That’s probably been one of his strengths.

“And Will getting the best out of himself is having those psychological battles with those players on the field.”

Sharks coach Josh Hannay isn’t a fan of sledging. Picture: Ashley Feder/Getty Images

Former Warriors hooker Issac Luke condemned Chambers on social media.

Luke had been told what Chambers allegedly said to Evans and wrote: “Kane Evans incident has a lot more to it than everyone thinks. Rumour has it that his own teammates are off him (Chambers).

“Don’t know if it’s true. If it is, I would have done the same thing (thrown punches). Some pretty bad accusations. They were ‘off him’ about what he said apparently.”

Chambers attracted his own charge for contrary conduct on Warriors centre Vilami Vailea and faces a $1150 fine.

Speaking after the game, Warriors coach Nathan Brown said: “Probably the most disappointing thing was we had some senior players, I suppose, just engaging with Will.

“And, as I explained to a couple of them at halftime who had lost their way, Will can engage in it and still play reasonably well. Our blokes were engaging in it and not playing well.

“It had a bad effect on our football team. We pretty much leaked two tries because Will was a bit smarter than us. That was the disappointing thing.”

Originally published as NRL 2021: Will Chambers dropped, Sharks coach Josh Hannay reveals reason for star’s axeing