The common question in the modern day game is – what’s an NRL contract worth when players can chuck the toys out of the cot and demand a release?
Payne Haas hasn’t done himself any favours over the last few days and I certainly don’t have any sympathy for him, and neither do the paying members of the Broncos.
The 22-year-old was in a Brisbane jersey on Friday night at Suncorp Stadium and must have thought he was playing for New South Wales in the Origin arena, given every time he touched the football, there was a chorus of boos.
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I think the supporters have every right to voice their disapproval at Haas given he’s earning $750,000 a season and still has two years to run on his current contract.
The Origin front-rower is lucky to still be playing the game after a string of off-field incidents which included the intimidation of a female police officer.
Name me an employer who’s comfortable employing someone who obviously has no respect for the thin blue line.
Haas admitted to being “rattled” by the boos on Friday night and the whole thing strikes me as a pathetic attempt from his new management team to get their percentage from a potential new deal where he’d be earning more money.
You can blame his management, but they’re acting on behalf of Payne Haas who’s come out of this looking like a greedy footballer.
WHY CAN’T NRL COACHES SPEAK THEIR MIND?
Where are we heading as a game when coaches and players can’t speak their mind at press conferences and diehard rugby league supporters are criticised for booing a bloke who wants out of their football club?
The Manly Sea Eagles have been fined $25,000 after Des Hasler claimed the Parramatta Eels were “legged up” by the match officials a fortnight ago at Commbank Stadium and Josh Aloiai echoed the sentiments a few days later that referee Ben Cummins “did a bad job”.
Do those comments question the integrity of the match officials?
If they do overstep the mark, why did it take the NRL an entire week to issue a breach notice? What were they forensically analysing or were they waiting for the Sea Eagles to dig the hole deeper?
For the record, I thought the ongoing verbal attacks from Hasler went too far, but what do you expect from an angry coach who feels his team has just been dudded in a big game and he’s forced to answer questions from the media 30 minutes after the full-time siren?
If Hasler refuses to speak to the media because he’s too hot under the collar, he’s fined by the NRL and if the coach lets off some steam in the press conference under constant questioning from the journalists looking for a headline, he’s also fined – is that fair?
Keep in mind too, Des had just been told by the medical staff that he’d lost his best player, Tom Trbojevic, for the rest of the season. The poor bloke was an emotional wreck.
There’s no explanation from the referees themselves immediately after a game and the best we get from NRL headquarters is a weekly review on Monday at 2:30pm from the head of football Graham Annesley, who’s been given ample time to study multiple replays and sit down with the referees coaches to form a response for the media.
ARLC chairman Peter V’Landys didn’t hold back on Friday in an interview with Ben Fordham on 2GB, saying “Des Hasler is a great bloke and a fantastic human being, but he was out of order in criticising the referee’s integrity”.
“He should not do that. That referee (Cummins) has a family. He’s got self-esteem, he’s got his mental wellbeing, you don’t just go and attack someone’s integrity like that.
“I know it’s a passionate game and it’s a tribal game and we all have banter about the referees, but this is what causes referees at junior games to be abused by parents. Because they see someone of the standing of Des Hasler having a crack at a referee, when you shouldn’t be – you just cop it.”
Yes, Mr V’Landys makes some valid points, however the ARL Commission needs to take some responsibility for the frustration the rules because the commissioners themselves have made too many changes to the rule book and the interpretations.
The obstruction rule is a fair dinkum joke which changes from week to week, the crackdown on high contact has resulted in some tackles being penalised, accidental contact means nothing anymore and we’ve got other incidents going unpunished.
The ARLC chairman and NRL boss Andrew Abdo have an important role to protect the match officials from these attacks, but the coaches are under the same amount of pressure and there’s no one defending them when their heads are on the chopping block.
I thought a monetary penalty was sufficient for Des Hasler and let’s face it, he’s not the first coach and he certainly won’t be the last to verbal the match officials after a controversial game of football.
‘SIR JOHNSTON’ BECOMES KING OF REDFERN
South Sydney legends Clive Churchill, Bob McCarthy and John Sattler are considered rugby league royalty and Alex Johnston’s coronation came on Saturday night at Accor Stadium when the local junior passed Nathan Merritt to become the club’s top try scorer.
Johnston has 147 tries in 178 appearances for the NRL’s oldest and most successful club and the statisticians will tell you the flyer also has the best strike rate of any player since former St George winger Nathan Blacklock, who scored 121 tries in 142 games between 1995 and 2004.
Veteran broadcaster David Morrow called the moment on 2GB’s Continuous Call Team when Johnston broke the record with his third try in the win over the Wests Tigers, ‘Thirsty’ announcing the arrival of “Sir Alex Johnston”.
It’s unfathomable to think the Rabbitohs nearly let the 27-year-old walk away from Redfern a couple of seasons ago and if it wasn’t for the pressure applied by the supporters, like Adam Reynolds, Johnston could have finished his career at another club.
The South Sydney winger still has plenty of footy ahead of him and even more tries, which raises the question – could he pass Ken Irvine as the game’s greatest ever try scorer?
Irvine played 236 games for North Sydney and Manly, racking up an extraordinary 212 tries. Billy Slater sits second on the list of try scorers with 190, then there’s Steve Menzies (180), Brett Morris (176), Andrew Ettingshausen (165) and Terry Lamb (164).
Johnston is contracted at South Sydney until the end of 2025 and given the flyer crosses the white line every 1.21 matches, by my count he’d need another 78 games to become the greatest try-scorer in premiership history.
Sir Alex Johnston, we salute you.
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