Last year it was Will Smith dishing out a slap at the Academy Awards which shocked the world.
Chris Rock was presumably not in attendance on Friday night at McDonald Jones Stadium when an open-handed slap was dished out to Wests Tigers five-eighth Will Smith by Jack Hetherington which led to the Newcastle forward being sent to the sin bin.
Smith was clearly playing the part of agitator in the incident to get under Hetherington’s skin. His acting skills will never win an Oscar but it was enough to cause the Knights prop to go off script.
The Tigers veteran clipped him with a high shot and after niggling him into reacting, Smith sarcastically clapped his stooge for falling for his routine.
“Completely unnecessary. There is absolutely no way Jack Hetheringon should react in that way,” said a bemused Cooper Cronk on Fox League commentary.
Kalyn Ponga scores. (Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
It wasn’t that significant in the course of the match and Hetherington getting in trouble with the referee is hardly breaking news (the ill-tempered buffoon was binned for the same dopey action three weeks ago against Penrith) but it was one of the few noteworthy moments from a match which had little box office appeal.
The Knights led 18-0 early, the last-placed Tigers cut the gap to six before Newcastle scored while Hetherington was banished to his dressing room for an impromptu intermission on their way to their 34-18 victory with hometown star Kalyn Ponga playing a leading role.
Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien said his team “got dragged into some scrappy type footy in the second half”.
He said he was disappointed they didn’t defend their moments of ill discipline and looked rusty coming off the bye.
“I don’t think we were ever in any danger of losing the game,” he said. “We’ve had a number of close games, four or five we haven’t won by two points and that’s really hurt in terms of the ladder so it was vital we got that one tonight.”
They are momentarily just a point outside the top eight after their seventh win from 17 starts but still outsiders in the race for the playoffs heading into next Saturday’s home clash with Melbourne.
O’Brien defended Hetherington, somewhat, over the forward yet again losing his cool and leaving his team in the lurch, which he has also done at previous stints at Penrith and Canterbury.
“Jack’s smart enough to understand they baited him and he fell for it. There was the same incident close together from the Penrith game (three weeks ago). He knows he’s not a silly boy but we’ve got to be better than that. I’ll leave him alone this weekend and I’ll talk to him on Monday.”
Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens sung from a familiar songsheet after his team’s record slipped to 3-14.
He was angry over a disallowed try in the opening stages when rookie fullback Jahream Bula batted a high ball back but the bunker deemed it went forward even though it looked like it travelled sideways.
“It looked like a try to me and then we were 18-0 (down) in the next 10 or 15 minutes. We fought back but we were chasing our tail all game,” he said.
“If I get another apology from the referees I won’t be happy. We’ll wait and see.”
Sheens said the refereeing wasn’t the reason they lost, admitting they didn’t play well enough or smart enough and strayed away from the game plan.
Bula was outstanding for the Tigers and Sheens thought they would have lost by 40 if he wasn’t in the team.
Newcastle looked like they were holding an opposed session in the early stages with Kalyn Ponga mesmerising and terrorising the Wests Tigers’ right edge in defence.
First of all he laid on a try for his left winger, Greg Marzhew, with a cut-out pass and then duplicated NSW five-eighth Cody Walker’s midweek magic by picking out Bradman Best to score down the same corridor.
When the Knights went to their right in the 14th minute for Dominic Young to touch down, they should have been scoring at better a point a minute but Ponga’s three missed sideline conversions meant they only led 12-0.
That advantage stretched out to 18 in the 26th minute when Daniel Saifiti sauntered through some inept tackling in the middle to complete the trifecta of leaky defensive zones for the visitors.
But the Tigers opened their account 10 minutes from half-time when the fullback palmed off Best despite the Newcastle centre being a much more imposing presence.
Api Koroisau celebrated his early comeback from a broken jaw when the Tigers captain pounced on a second kick from haphazard lead-up play to make it 18-12 at the break.
Ponga jinked over for a 10-point lead while Hetherington was cooling his heels before Bula capitalised on the one-player advantage when he backed up a break from Isaiah Papali’i in the 52nd minute for his second try to cut the gap to four.
Just when it looked like the Tigers could be pulling off a plucky underdog Hollywood script, the Knights re-established momentum at 28-18 by swinging the ball wide for Young’s 18th four-pointer of 2023.
Tigers players were blowing up in the 67th minute when they thought Young knocked on while pouncing on a loose ball.
The footy gods exacted revenge a short time later when Young had a try disallowed for losing the ball over the line due to Bula’s desperation cover tackle.
Young sealed the win when he broke free again down the right to send Tyson Gamble over to put the Tigers away once and for all.
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