- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It seems Manly and Souths can’t control their captains Daly Cherry-Evans and Sam Burgess, so it’s time for NRL boss Todd Greenberg to haul them both into his office to read them the riot act.
Both are along the highest paid in the code, but they are hardly pillars of wisdom, nor are they setting a good image for the code.
They have become a law onto themselves that doesn’t cut the mustard at HQ, nor anywhere else.
At the height of the hard to handle Jackson Hastings sacking because coach Trent Barrett reckoned nobody wanted to play with him, Cherry-Evans has been fined $10,000 for breaking curfew after the Titans loss that included an alleged punch up between the skipper and Hastings.
Manly legend Geoff Toovey then accused the club of a hidden agenda to get rid of Hastings to ease salary cap problems, stating there hasn’t been a revolt among the first graders to punt Hastings.
Toovey has virtually called Barrett a liar.
Today it emerges six more Manly players will be fined up to $10,000 for the curfew break set by Barrett.
The fines have been imposed because the coach can’t suspend the offenders with the club’s injury list growing, and suffering from three successive defeats.
The two burning questions yet to be answered, will Cherry-Evans retain the captaincy after he openly defied his coach, and will Jackson Hastings be invited back to the inner sanctum?
Sam Burgess is a vastly different case.
He has been charged with a dangerous head high tackle for the seventh time in three seasons.
When he’s being paid close to $40,000 a game, every time he sits in the stand under suspension makes the skipper a very hefty financial liability.
This season is young, but already Burgess has served a two-week suspension for his elbow connecting with Bulldogs winger Josh Morris’ throat that had him writhing on the ground struggling to breathe.
Burgess didn’t win any friends by accusing Morris of being a good actor, which Morris angrily denied.
In his first game back, Burgess went again with a head high on Raiders halfback Aidan Sezer, which could cost him three weeks this time.
If that’s the case five weeks in the stand this season has cost Souths $200,000 in lost wages.
And seven head highs in three seasons almost puts Burgess in the serial offenders category.
It’s all very well to be rightfully regarded as the team’s enforcer, but head highs are not on the hit list.
Both Daly Cherry-Evans, and Sam Burgess, are not only vital to their club’s chances in 2018, but they are vital to the image and well-being of rugby league as senior players.
Time to shape up, or ship out.