Warriors fullback Kevin Locke added fuel to a potential Four Nations meeting with Australian hooker Cameron Smith, accusing the Melbourne skipper of collecting him with a cheap shot in the preliminary final.
Smith and Locke crossed paths twice during a tense second half of the Warriors thrilling 20-12 win over the Storm at AAMI Park on Saturday night, with both accusing each other of poor sportsmanship.
The Storm No.9 at one point complained to the referees that the New Zealand dynamo had deliberately stayed down to milk a penalty.
Locke admitted he did follow the advice of training staff and stay down to attract a crucial second half penalty after being hit high by Melbourne centre Beau Champion.
But Locke also criticised Smith over a previous incident, which went unnoticed by the officials.
Smith appeared to hit Locke with an elbow in a tackle, while the diminutive fullback claimed Smith also dropped his knees on his jaw.
Despite the attention, Locke gingerly rose to his feet to play the ball.
The 22-year-old was twice collected high during his team’s thrilling win, though neither incident was deemed serious enough to warrant a charge from the NRL match review committee.
Locke was none too impressed with the Australian representative’s actions.
“A little cheap shot from Cameron Smith – he kneed me in the jaw as well – it was pretty cheap, but it comes with footy and Melbourne are good at giving little sneaky (blows),” Locke said.
“It’s a bit cheap but winning the game and winning like that is unbelievable.”
Later in the second half, Locke heeded the advice of trainers to stay down after Champion had collected him high.
Champion was eventually put on report, but only after the video referee had intervened after play was held up as Locke sought treatment, with blood dripping from his nose.
“It rocked me a bit but I was going to get back up. If it wasn’t for the trainer (saying) to say stay down to milk the penalty, I would have got back up,” Locke revealed.
“He got me a beauty in the mouth – they weren’t going to call the penalty unless I stayed down.
“I was quite surprised when my nose started bleeding which was good.
“I copped one in the nose earlier in the game (from Smith) and just getting that little knock on the nose again made it bleed even more which probably milked the penalty better.”
While the two sides won’t face off again for some time, Locke’s comments could add some spice to this year’s Four Nations with Locke a strong contender to make his New Zealand debut against a Kangaroos side for which Smith is a certainty.
Locke has shown throughout his brief NRL career that he is willing to put his body on the line, and said he expected to cop more of the same in Sunday’s grand final against Manly.
“It’s a grand final, both teams will be going in there to bash each other around and do their best – we’re just going to have to go over there and do what we do,” Locke said.
The Warriors returned to Auckland on Sunday for what will be a brief stay away from the grand final spotlight, with the side due to have just the one training run before returning in time for Thursday’s traditional grand final breakfast.
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