Saint, Sinner, Shoosh: Michael Slater opens up on Channel 7 sacking | Buzz Rothfield
SAINT, SINNER, SHOOSH: Souths are desperate to avoid another Adam Reynolds-like situation in their Cody Walker negotiations. But Wayne Bennett could hold a winning hand.
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Old super coach Wayne Bennett is about to start looking for a marquee signing for the NRL’s soon to be revealed 17th team in Brisbane.
There are a number of stars who will be available for 2023, headed by Melbourne trio Cameron Munster, Brandon Smith, Harry Grant … and a handy old five-eighth by the name of Cody Walker.
Bennett is already on record in saying Walker is as skilful as any player he has coached.
But surely the great man couldn’t pinch him from the Rabbitohs.
Souths have wasted no time kicking off negotiations to lock down Walker on a new contract.
“We’re talking to Cody’s management right now,” said CEO Blake Solly.
“We’re really optimistic we’ll sign Cody for 2023. We’re confident he wants to stay. He’s made a home at the Rabbitohs.”
This could, however, become an issue for the Rabbitohs over the length of the contract.
Walker is under contract for next year but the Rabbitohs at this stage are talking about only a one-year extension.
He will turn 33 in 2023.
Walker’s management wants a three-year deal to stay at Redfern.
Souths cannot afford another contract stand-off like the Adam Reynolds negotiations.
They have youngsters coming through who will need the guidance from a steady and experienced player in the halves.
SLATER OPENS UP ON SHOCK SACKING
Michael Slater has opened up about his shock axing from Channel 7 for the Ashes series, revealing the anxiety of seeing dead bodies on the streets in India was the trigger for his social media attack on Prime Minister Scott Morrison that may have cost him his job.
The former Test opening batsman has been in TV and radio commentary for 20 years but faces an uncertain media future with many blaming his behaviour on social media.
Slater controversially accused the Prime Minister of having “blood on his hands” for locking Australian citizens out of returning from Covid-ravaged India where he had been covering the IPL tournament in May.
“I’ve never experienced anything like India with the Covid in all my life,” Slater said.
“The tweets came from a place of sheer desperation and wanting to get home to crying kids worried about their father.
“It got very emotional. We got to Ahmedabad and we went past a Covid testing site. We’d see all these dead bodies on the side of the road. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. It was so horribly confronting.”
Slater admits in hindsight he would handle things differently.
“I didn’t want to be disrespectful,” he said.
“I was highly emotional and people know I handle things differently.
“I was feeling completely overwhelmed.
“If I had my time again, bearing in mind it could have had a link to what’s just happened to me at Channel 7, no I wouldn’t do it again.”
Asked would he apologise to the Prime Minister, Slater said: “All I’ll say is that I’ll be voting for ScoMo at the next election. I admire what he does.”
Slater insists he has more to achieve in the cricket media.
He denies there were other issues regarding his behaviour, including rumours he came to blows with Aussie opener Dave Warner when they were staying in the Maldives after the IPL.
“There is absolutely nothing to the rumour mill Buzz,” he texted me back in May.
“Davey and I are great mates and absolutely zero chance of (having) a fight.”
His agent Sean Anderson is now looking for other opportunities for his client.
“I’m fit and healthy and I’ve got to provide for three kids who go to school and their fees aren’t cheap,” Slater said.
“While it’s disappointing to be leaving Seven before an Ashes series, I’ll soldier on and keep pushing forward.
“I don’t know if it’s related to what I said about Sco Mo but it got a lot of airplay at the time.
“The head of sport said it was a budgetary decision.
“I was on a good wicket but they’ve made a business decision.
“It’s a bitter pill to swallow because I loved the job so much.”
All the latest NRL chatter and more in Australia’s hottest sport gossip column.
SAINT
Benji Marshall inspired more youngsters to take up rugby league than any other player of his era. Every kid wanted to sidestep like Benji, flick-pass like Benji, get a haircut like Benji or wear footy boots the same colour as Benji. What a career and what a champion.
SINNER
Sex-tape grub Tyrone May and his shocking social media post after the grand final. The broken trophy. It’s wonderful to win a premiership but it’s important the Penrith Panthers don’t wreck what’s been a sensational season.
SHOOSH
Penrith Panthers owe the Sydney Roosters a huge favour as a result of their grand final victory. With their regular doctor stuck in Sydney, the Panthers ‘borrowed’ the Roosters’ medico Tom Longworth for the decider. Dr Longworth was kept busy getting fullback Dylan Edwards and half Nathan Cleary on the park with all their painkillers, let alone looking after the rest of the team.
SHOOSH
We told you back in July that journalist Michael Cain was working on a bombshell story that would rock women’s soccer in Australia. Finally the shocking truth was revealed, only because The Daily Telegraph had the courage to publish the story when others knocked it back for legal reasons. Cain is a freelance journalist but didn’t want money: “I didn’t ask for a cent,” Cain said, “I just wanted people to know I was doing it for the right reasons to force change for the next generation of young women in sport.”
SHOOSH
Which NRL assistant coach recently signed a new contract but changed his mind and quit last week over a disagreement with the head coach.
SHOOSH
Who is the ex-NSW and Kangaroos star who has been offered a new two-year deal at his club but is shopping himself around to rival teams to try to get more cash.
SHOOSH
Channel 9 has come under fire again over its coverage of rugby league. A number of officials raised concerns at the NRL’s chairmen and CEOs conference on Thursday over the negativity of their coverage.
SPOTTED
Rabbitohs centre Dane Gagai and hooker Damien Cook at Sea World on the Gold Coast with their families on Friday.
SPOTTED
Sydney Roosters enforcer Victor Radley with a great hook up on a fishing trip off the Sunshine Coast.
ANOTHER CLEAL GOES FROM THE BUSH TO BONDI
If rugby league bloodlines count for anything, the Sydney Roosters have signed another outstanding young NRL prospect.
Liam Cleal, 18, is the nephew of club legends Noel and Les Cleal, the barnstorming “bushranger” brothers who took the NRL by storm in the early 1980s.
Like his uncles, Liam hails from Warialda in the state’s central west, and is just as adventurous.
His weekends are spent playing footy and chasing down wild pigs.
He is strong enough to lift and carry one that weighed over 110kg on his back.
This youngster is an impressive self-starter. He left school, taught himself to shear via a YouTube videos, and now earns $400 a day shearing sheep.
The adjustment from living on bush acreage with his dad Billy Cleal (youngest of the brothers) in Covid-free Warialda, to wearing a mask in Sydney, will be massive.
Yet the youngster says he is up for any challenge ahead.
“It’s like anything in life,” Liam said, “It’s a challenge to sheer 100 sheep a day and it’s a challenge to make it to the NRL.
“I love the game and I want to give it a go.”
Liam wasn’t around when his famous uncles became rugby league household names.
“I’ve watched some of their old games on video,” he said, “The goal is to achieve something similar.”
Cleal has been named as part of the Roosters’ summer SG Ball squad.
It’s the beginning of the same program that unearthed the likes of Victor Radley and Joey Manu.
PANTHERS PRIMED TO REPEAT?
Punters believe the Penrith Panthers can win back-to-back premierships.
The TAB already has a market out on the 2022 premiership and 50.5 per cent of the money has been outlaid on the Panthers, who are the $5 favourites.
The next best backed team is Melbourne Storm with 16.8 per cent of the pool at odds of $6.
BENJI EVEN TOPS SONNY BILL
Tim Sheens is a better judge of football players than most.
He has coached Mal Meninga, Johnathan Thurston, Darren Lockyer, Greg Alexander, Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley and many of the greatest players in rugby league history, including Benji Marshall.
The four-time premiership-winning coach has no hesitation in putting Benji in the same lofty bracket. It’s why we’ve rated the retiring champ even higher than Sonny Bill Williams in the top 10 Kiwis in the NRL of all time.
“Benji’s up there with any of them,” Sheens said, “He played 346 games and scored nearly 100 tries.
“What the statistics don’t show is how many he set up.
“He won a premiership, he captained his country, won the Golden Boot and played until he was 36 despite shocking injuries earlier in his career.”
As coach of the West Tigers, Sheens won the 2005 premiership with Benji and the famous flick pass try in 2005.
“Benji was the Wests Tigers,” Sheens said, “His DNA was the Wests Tigers and the style we played.”
KYLE’S FIGHT FOR NRL FUTURE
Most NRL players are on a well earned break before pre-season starts next month. Not Kyle Flanagan, though, who is playing for his career at Canterbury. Flanagan was spotted in Cronulla last week working out in the boxing gym where Paul Gallen trains. He is doing at least two sessions a week.
DRAGONS LOSING SONS OF GUNS
It’s such a shame the Dragons are losing some outstanding juniors and sons of former Illawarra Steelers players David Riolo, Rod Wishart and Brett Rodwell.
Toby Rodwell has joined the Sydney Roosters, Max Riolo is at the Cronulla Sharks and Tyran Wishart is at Melbourne Storm.
This is the club that also lost Jason Saab and pointscoring machine Reuben Garrick from the south coast nursery to the Manly Sea Eagles.
TOP-RATING DALEY’S NEW NRL DEAL
Laurie Daley has agreed to a new contract as the host of the Big Sports Breakfast in the same week that the show scored its biggest ever ratings.
His co-host, former cricketer Michael Clarke, has also been offered a new deal.
The Big Sports Breakfast rated 2.7 in the latest survey, demolishing sporting rival SEN’s breakfast show with a SEVEN times bigger audience.
The Weekend Big Sports breakfast hosted by colleagues Ray Thomas and Dean ‘Bulldog’ Ritchie also achieved record ratings on Sunday mornings.
Meanwhile the news was grim at 1170 SEN. The station has now been on air in Sydney for 12 months but has made little or no traction. Even the big names aren’t rating. Andrew Voss on breakfast rates only 0.4 and Brian Fletcher and Joel Caine 0.4 on drive.
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