Revealed: Why Kane Evans lost the plot with Will Chambers

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

Will Chambers is on thin ice at Cronulla over his sledging

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 afternoon 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.

The Australian 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.

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 The Australian 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 Aiken 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.

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.

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“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.

“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 word.

“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.

“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.