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.
Ruben
Guest
DCE and entitled POS who needs his neck broken. He’ll get glassed next time he’s in Newy
Steve
Guest
Are you George or Tom ?
Steve
Guest
Stats sow Aiden Sezer as 180 cms, is that 5ft 11 ins? Not quite 5ft 8ins...but carry on
Mike from Tari
Guest
If Sezer was 6 foot tall he wouldn't have been hit across the chops, Big Sammy will have to stop crash tackling guys that are under 5 foot 8" as when he wraps his arms around his chest it's where the shorter guys head is.
i miss the force
Guest
good to see someone on David lords level
Cadfael
Roar Guru
So true. There are just so many inconsistencies it makes your head turn.
The Spectator
Guest
Bwahahaha. ?
steveng
Roar Rookie
Yeah Paul, fully agree, the bloke has to have a serious think about using less of his brawn and more of his intelligence. Any further suspensions and it will affect our side considerably and very seriously from now on and after he comes back!
Rod
Guest
Sam, is an intelligent guy making dumb decisions. He seems to get white line fever when he gets fired up . He is lucky to only get two weeks, but maybe an even up for the non offence on Morris , well if it’s in offence than JWH would have been banished from the game. It’s the inconsistency that makes everyone so mad
Steve
Guest
Ha....fair enough.
RoryStorm
Guest
David Lord, I couldn't agree more. Greenburg surely has to get involved with what's going on at Manly. It seems there's a travesty of justice going on over there. You're right David, he can't suspend everybody. From the outside looking in, it seems Cherry is a protected species because of his status there. If Barrett claims none of the players want to play with Hastings, then many of the players saying they do want to play with Hastings, then an investigation needs to take place with the NRL's Integrity Officer looking into it. Who knows, maybe Barrett needs to be charged with bringing, the game into disrepute. If Toovey is right, then perhaps Hastings needs to hire a QC (if he hasn't already).
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Senile Phil Rothfield
The Barry
Roar Guru
Ok I see what you’re saying. My only advice...don’t pay attention to the hysterical outrage of people who are paid to outrage hysterically about the game... The end result is right and the process has worked despite the hysteria
Nick
Roar Guru
Not sure I've ever seen "team leader" and "cheap shot merchant" used in the same sentence talking about the same person...
Steve
Guest
The complaint is TB that every second league commentator has said that it should have been a send off. On Fox last night Rothfield, Hughes and Harrigan all maintained it should have been. In light of similar offences (like the aforementioned Jackson incident) this is clearly a ridiculous statement. Yet seasoned journo's like these become hysterical over it and rave on about the NRL being turned into UFC. Now taking into consideration their clear bias on issues like this it seems to me the only reason why they would say one was a send off and the other wasn't is because of who committed the offence. For the record I think they got the penalty (2 weeks) about right. And clearly Sam has loading which is a problem. My issue is with supposedly seasoned Journo's blowing it out of proportion and whipping themselves into a frenzy over something that is relatively commonplace in the NRL.
Tom
Guest
Jake needs to be captain - he's tough as nails, an excellent player, local junior, and has the respect of the entire playing group. Cherry just isn't a leader.
The Barry
Roar Guru
It's not news because it's Sam Burgess, it's news because he's played five games this season and been charged four times. He only got a grade one charge for his forearm on Morris and normally he would have been able to cop an early plea and not miss a game. Even if he'd plead guilty he would have only missed one game. Instead he fought the charge which cost him a week and he had carry over points from his tackle on Campbell-Gillard (early guilty plea) which also cost him a week. So his actions turned a zero week suspension into two weeks. That's an example of the system working exactly as it should. Burgess isn't getting targeted, he literally has no one to blame but himself. For what it's worth I don't think under current rules his tackle on Sezer should have been a send off. But he wasn't sent off, so what's the complaint? It certainly warrants a charge...
Ray Paks
Roar Rookie
steve, valid point. but sadly since Sam has built up a reputation for performing these sorts of tackles on a regular basis, more times than not, they'll have a microscope run over him. That is the harsh reality about it regretfully. One glance at his rap sheet will confirm some questionable offences whilst others you could label as pure blonde dog acts. He doesn't help himself by 'putting' himself in those circumstances, he should know by now, but he's come out and said there was nothing in it so maybe he hasn't quite 'learned' that he'll be given the doubt of the doubt 100 times before he receives 1 benefit of the doubt
Steve
Guest
My point is that this has been done to death. Rothfield was on last night on Fox screaming about how Sam was turning the NRL into UFC for crying out loud! I mean seriously...talk about hysterical. The reason this tackle has gotten so much attention is not because it was all that bad....but because its Sam Burgess. As I said Josh Jackson did an identical one 2 weeks back.....I don't recall anyone calling for him to be sent off. I mean if Sam's was a send off offence then so was Jacksons wouldn't you say? Then you have players like Matthew Lodge getting off scott free from a very dangerous spear tackle charge....didn't see anyone calling for him to be sent either. Funny that....if it was Sam the media would be out with their pitchforks.
Barry
Guest
If Sam concentrated on his foot ball and NOT the media then perhaps we could start to believe that he was not writing the script for a mini series.