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I have been a Greg Bird fan for much of his career, but no more. He has lost me as an admirer, most probably forever.
This bloke was once a highly respected, tough, hard working and skilful footballer.
But now? All I see is a player seemingly obsessed with the grubby side of the game.
It has become an ordeal to watch any game he plays in. And, hopefully, he will not be there when the State of Origin series begins.
Bird has done a number of z-grade things on the field in the past couple of seasons. I didn’t like them at the time but I gave him a little latitude as you tend to do with rugby league’s so-called ‘hard men’.
But Bird keeps on keeping on. His cheap shots are becoming cheaper and I will be running without him from now on.
In the modern game you can still be a hard-arse, but it’s a very fine line. Bird does not tread that. He oversteps it virtually every time he laces up his boots. If it’s not a facial, it’s a high or late shot on an opponent. Cheap is cheap no matter how you look at it.
In last Sunday’s game at Cbus Super Stadium, Bird creamed Knights pivot Jarrod Mullen in a late ‘tackle’, effectively taking the Newcastle playmaker out for the rest of the game. Incredibly, Bird’s teammate Dave Taylor was placed on report for the incident, but even when the tribunal viewed footage and watched the real culprit’s dirty work, Bird escaped without penalty.
It showed that the review system is seriously flawed, and Bird is free to smash another unsuspecting victim at Cronulla this weekend.
Greg Bird can be a very good footballer without resorting to gutter tactics, but he is fiercely proud of his ‘tough guy’ reputation and wants to hang out a sign every time he runs onto the field.
He no longer ranks with the game’s elite. He’s little more than a cheap shot merchant with incredibly poor discipline and little or no respect for the opposition.
If he makes the Blues Origin team this year it will surely be on past performances alone.
I’d like to think that Laurie Daley and his selectors are seeing exactly what we are seeing, and give his jumper to someone more deserving.
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