Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield’s highlights and lowlights: Mass player snubbing of Dragons’ premiership reunion

Two serious falling outs with the club are at the centre of St George Illawarra’s sad 2010 premiership reunion where only five players from the squad attended. BUZZ’S HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS.

Only five members of St George Illawarra’s 2010 premiership-winning squad turned up to a 15-year reunion on Saturday at Kogarah.

What a sad state of affairs that only Dean Young, Ben Creagh, Jason Nightingale, Michael Weyman and Dan Hunt, who didn’t play in the grand final, were there to be presented to the crowd with the trophy on old-boys day.

It’s no secret that two players from the premiership winning side – five-eighth Jamie Soward and centre Matt Cooper - have had serious falling outs with the club.

Three years ago, Cooper said in an interview: “there is no loyalty and honour anymore. It changed when Wayne Bennett left. It all starts from the top… that’s where the culture comes from.”

Jamie Soward was sacked as Dragons NRLW coach.

More recently Soward has spoken of his ill feeling towards the club.

He was sacked as coach of the club’s NRLW side last year and didn’t hold back in an interview with James Graham on his The Bye Round podcast, saying “I never felt wanted.

“People say, ‘Why’d you leave the Dragons?’ The Dragons got rid of me.

“For me personally, I’ve never felt comfortable, like I was part of the Dragons club.

“It’s really sad because it is such a proud, historic club.”

The Dragons have a new chief executive, Tim Watsford, who is a very good operator.

I spoke to him about the situation on Saturday night.

Matt Cooper (L) said the club lacked “loyalty” after Wayne Bennett’s exit.

He said some players were away on holidays, some were now living interstate.

That’s not good enough.

The Dragons are the proudest and most famous club of them all.

That 13 of 17 players didn’t show up is an embarrassment.

HIGHLIGHT

Cronulla’s $6 million halfback Nicho Hynes finally produced a performance worthy of his pay cheque in Friday night’s win over the Dolphins at Shark Park. He was outstanding.

LOWLIGHT

Rod Churchill is the son of legendary South Sydney Rabbitohs Clive Churchill. This guy has a shocking problem with his phone and text messages. On Saturday, Andrew Webster reported how Churchill sent a series of abusive texts to South Sydney CEO Blake Solly, calling him a “maggot”, among other shocking remarks. Two years ago, he sent a similarly shocking text to Souths chairman Nick Pappas about Latrell Mitchell. Rod needs to pull his head in.

SPOTTED

A nag called Sunday Buzz won at Geelong on Friday at $11.40. This horse goes a lot better than a Queensland pacer called Buzz Rothfield who has had two starts in four years in maidens for seventh and a last.

SPOTTED

The great Joey Johns having a quiet chat with Dolphins halfback Isaiya Katoa at fulltime at Shark Park on Friday night. Joey is a massive fan of the young playmaker.

SPOTTED

Old Manly Sea Eagles and media legend Peter “Zorba” Peters celebrated his 80th birthday on the Central Coast last week.

TV TURN OFF

Thank god we’ve had the last round of NRL that is affected by State of Origin. On Friday night the Sharks v Dolphins did only 510,000 on Channel 9. The AFL on Channel 7 at the same time did 750,000. Why wouldn’t league fans turn off when the superstars and excitement machines like Dolphins fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow can’t back up because of Origin.

WAKE-UP CALL

Laurie Daley’s alarm clock will go off at 4.30am for his return to his hosting role on the Big Sports Breakfast on Monday morning. With the dust having settled on the Blues’ State of Origin series defeat, the Blues coach will no doubt deliver a fascinating insight into why his NSW side fell short when it really mattered in the decider.

NSW Blues coach Laurie Daley returns to breakfast radio after the series defeat. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

KEVVY’S CALL

Sometimes you selfishly hope Kevvie Walters doesn’t get another NRL head-coaching role because he is so damn good and so entertaining as a commentator and analyst on Fox League.

WRONG ANALYSIS

Blues team performance manager Frank Ponissi has denied any suggestion that a man who calls himself the “The Analyst” and has a gig on SEN radio had any involvement with team selections for the NSW Origin team. “The selections were from internal people only,” he said. “Myself, Laurie (Daley), Craig (Bellamy) and all the coaches. No one else had anything to do with it. The process was extensively thorough and ultra professional.”

Frank Ponissi shuts down ‘The Analyst’ rumours.

360 VIEW

Catch you on NRL 360 at 6.30pm on Fox League with Braith Anasta, Gorden Tallis and Brent Read to discuss all the biggest issues from the weekend round. Special guest on the show is retiring Gold Coast Titans veteran Kieran Foran.

Originally published as Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield’s highlights and lowlights: Mass player snubbing of Dragons’ premiership reunion