A staggered Phil Gould says “there was never any sign” the Warriors would unleash the “disgraceful” behaviour witnessed in the blistering Titans clash.
The former Warriors consultant, who worked with the club in pathways and development until he was poached by the Bulldogs in July, has been left bewildered after three of the New Zealand club’s players were sin-binned during the 44-0 hammering at the hands of the Titans.
Back-rower Jazz Tevaga was the first Warrior sin-binned, after he raced in from afar to floor Phillip Sami amid an all-in scuffle.
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The Warriors then had another two players in the sin bin less than 60 seconds later, after polarising mid-season recruit Matt Lodge was marched off for a late hit on Tyrone Peachey, before firebrand front-rower Kane Evans was sidelined for two attempted punches to Jarrod Wallace‘s head.
The fallout of the wild game, which also saw Lodge flip the bird to Gold Coast fans as he made his way to the sin bin, as well as other incidents unrelated to the sin-binnings, has resulted in Lodge, Evans, Tevaga and teen prodigy Reece Walsh all being cited by the match review committee.
Gould tried to make sense of the chaos when prompted on Nine’s 100% Footy.
“What I saw was a disappointment in coach Nathan Brown‘s face after the game, who said it was disgraceful – and it was,” Gould said.
“And I don’t get it, because in the time I spent at the Warriors there was never any sign of this, there was never any sign that they would be like this.
“But they got to the last game of the season, you get a couple of blokes (where) once their pulse gets above 150 (beats per minute) the brain switches off and then all of a sudden they get into the ‘I don’t care’ mode.
“And then afterwards, when their pulse comes down, (they say), ‘I’m sorry’. But that wasn’t helpful at all.”
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That line of Gould referred to Lodge’s long Instagram post, in which the former Bronco and Tiger apologised for his actions and said he was “embarrassed”.
“To do that in the last game was just indespicable,” Gould added.
“It was not what I knew of (the Warriors).”
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