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| Eddie and Stevo in the early days. |
It was with some amazement and a certain amount of joy that
I saw that Sky had decided to open up communication between it’s viewers and
the venerable and much maligned Eddie and Stevo and their little protégé Phil
Clarke. The rest of the team including Brian Carney, Barrie McDermott and Jon
Wells were also included but you just knew that the cream of the crop questions
would all be aimed at Eddie and Stevo in particular with Clarkey getting a
mouthful as well.
What amazed me even more was this wasn’t just a one off –
they’ve done it for the last couple of weeks as well – obviously some of the fans
have actually been asking serious questions rather than extracting the Michael
but some of the questions / comments that I have seen have been hilarious and
have left me in tears.
Below is a selection of my favourites – not all of them are
politically correct and NONE of them are from me.
‘’Did Sam Tomkins lose his virginity to Eddie and Stevo?’’
‘’Has Phil Clarke ever shown you his Sam Tomkins tattoo?’’
‘’8x6=??’’
‘’Is it true you are tighter than cramp?’’
‘’Who is prettier? Phil Clarke or Jon Wilkin?’’
‘’You guys don’t half talk crap.’’
‘’My daughter is 3years old and talks more sense about the
game.’’
‘’Who would win a fight? Barrie or Terry?’’
‘’Do you actually understand the rules or do you like to
disagree with everyone for fun?’’
‘’Why don’t you stop waffling on about complete and utter
bollocks during the game?’’
‘’When will Rod Studd & Jon Wells take over as
commentators? They are knowledgeable, entertaining and don’t talk shit.’’
And these are some of the one’s that I dared to print.
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| James Webster |
Webster is well respected in the city through his time as a
player at Hull Kingston Rovers, where he was instrumental in getting the Robins
into Super League, and as assistant coach at Hull FC under Richard Agar.
Although Webster’s time as Head Coach of Wakefield Trinity
Wildcats ended prematurely after a horrendous run of injury’s led to 11 successive
Super League defeats and a Challenge Cup defeat to Leigh Centurions, I really
believe that he has proved that he is an outstanding coach and the experience
he has gained as a player in Australia and the UK can only benefit the young
players that he will be charged with looking after in the City of Hull Academy.
Webster actually started his coaching career at Hull KR
when he was the interim player-coach between the sacking of Harvey Howard and
the appointment of Justin Morgan way back in 2005 – he led the team to 9
straight wins including a National Rail Cup Final win over Castleford Tigers
and galvanised the club in a way that has not been forgotten.
His performances on the field of play are also well
remembered in East Hull and he is still held in very high regard for the
service he gave to Hull KR (despite signing for and coaching Hull FC!!) in both
the Championship (or National League as it was then) and Super League even
though a shoulder injury early in the 2008 season forced his early release from
the club.
Apparently 2 Super League players on the verge of
retirement and 2 coaches with Super League experience were also interviewed
but, personally, I don’t think the new Academy could be in much better hands.
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| Moz and THAT red card. |
What a great career he has had.
It was a gangly youth that he made his debut alongside his
boyhood hero Ellery Hanley for Leeds back in pre-Super League 1995. He went on
to play in the inaugural Grand Final in 1998, which the Rhinos lost 10-4 to
Wigan Warriors, before winning the Challenge Cup the following year as the
Rhinos defeated London Broncos 52-16.
Morley became a hulking behemoth that terrorised
Australians and New Zealanders in a record breaking international career that
included a total of 51 caps (30 for GB and 21 for England).
He left Leeds Rhinos in 2000 and enjoyed a very successful six
year stint in the NRL with Sydney Roosters, where he played in three consecutive
Grand Finals, defeating New Zealand Warriors in 2002.
The Roosters went on to win the World Club Championship in
2003 with a 38-0 rout of Super League champions St. Helens, Moz scoring one of
the five Roosters tries. The Roosters enjoyed great success over the next
couple of years making the Grand Final in each year before losing to Penrith
Panthers in 2003 and Canterbury Bulldogs in 2004.
Moz returned to the UK a more mature player in 2007 and
helped inspire Warrington Wolves to three Challenge Cup wins in 2009, 2010 and
2012 and two losing Grand Final appearances in 2012 and 2013.
During his time at the Roosters, Morley even manged to sneak
in a cameo 6 game stint with Bradford Bulls in 2005 that included a Grand Final
winning appearance against his old team Leeds Rhinos. In doing so he became the
first Englishman to win the British and Australian Grand Finals alongside the
Challenge cup.
Morley chose to end his career at his hometown club Salford
Red Devils and was part of Marwan Koukash’s ‘Devilution’ that has so far failed
to reap the rewards that were intended.
He will be remembered as something of a hot head in his
early years but he developed into a hard running, hard tackling no-nonsense
prop forward who was admired and liked greatly by both his team mates and
opponents.
Obviously, his most infamous moment was being sent off
after just 12 seconds of the First Test of the 2003 Ashes series for a high
shot on Robbie Kearns directly from the kick off. No player has ever been sent
off quicker in a rugby league international.
Moz has always been a modest and honest man and has called
time on his career at the right time I think. There is nothing worse than a
star player going on too long.
He will, quite rightly, be recalled as a genuine great of
the modern day game and his continued involvement at some level needs to be
guaranteed – rugby league does not make enough use of our ex players.Here are some highlights of the big man's career: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOdKzxAxhU0
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| Gale for England? |
Winning the Rugby League Express Albert Goldthorpe medal
shows that Gale has regularly put in performances that have greatly influenced
his teams performances and won them games.
He has been an outstanding signing made by an outstanding
coach in Daryl Powell.
Gale had a slow start to the season, as did Cas, as he
struggled to settle in after his move from the relegated Bradford Bulls but
since getting used to his team mates and feeling comfortable in his role as the
team leader he has led the Tigers around the park with huge confidence and no
little skill.
Gale is a strong organiser but is also dangerous when
running at the line and either breaking defensive lines or slipping out a pass
for a team mate to charge onto.
A record of 11 tries (bettered only by Albert Kelly and
Danny McGuire in the scrum half stakes) and 27 try assists (second to Danny
Brough) is an excellent return and his man of the match performance against
Leeds Rhinos last Thursday night showed exactly why he has a very strong claim
for the scrum half spot for England in the upcoming series against New Zealand.
His only competition comes from Wigan Warriors scrum half
and the current incumbent Matty Smith.
Smith is a good player – but that is all he is and I do not
think he offers enough with the ball in hand to give us enough opportunities to
defeat the no. 1 ranked Kiwis.
Gale does, and the opposition may not know too much about
him.
He would be definitely be in my starting XIII but it will
be interesting to see what England Head Coach Steve McNamara thinks and to see
if he will be influenced by his assistant James Lowes who coached Gale at
Bradford Bulls last year.
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| Wolves Head Coach Tony Smith. |
Wolves
in disarray??
At the start of the season I tipped Warrington to win the
competition.
I felt that the addition of 2014 Man of Steel winner Daryl
Clark would give an additional attacking dimension to a team full of speed merchants
and try scorers like Joel Monaghan, Ryan Atkins and Stefan Ratchford and that
Ashton Sims would further enhance a powerful forward pack including England
internationals Chris Hill, Mickey Higham and Ben Westwood. Add in the expected improvement of Gareth O’Brien’s partnership with Richie Myler and the youth of Ben Harrison and James Laithwaite (I didn’t even mention Ben Currie) and I felt that they at last had the right ingredients to take the Super League crown after being runners up in 2012 and 2013.
How wrong could I have been. The Wolves have never really
got going this season.
The same can be said for Clark. He has failed to reach
anywhere near the level of performance that he achieved for Castleford last
season and I believe he will struggle to keep hold of his international place
as a consequence.
But the buck doesn’t just lie with Clark. The Wolves have
not settled on a half back partnership all season with either injuries, loss of
form or the tinkering of Head Coach Tony Smith meaning that the Wolves have got
through numerous pairings that were never able to get an understanding of each
other and in turn failed to control the team.
The mid-season loss of hooker Mickey Higham to Leigh
Centurions irked Smith and the Wolves and seemed to affect them more than it
should have done, although it did bring about the return of young Brad Dwyer
from a season long loan spell at London Broncos and he has been a stand out
performer in the second half of the season.
Richie Myler never seems to fulfil the potential everyone
thinks he has and finally Smith appears to have got tired of waiting to see the
best of him on a regular basis and has not offered him a new contract. In
addition Smith has this week released another young half back, Gareth O’Brien, along
with club captain Joel Monaghan, who still has one year left on his contract,
and veteran forward Roy Asotasi.
Monaghan has not had his best season in Wolves colours with
ONLY 16 tries (after a hat trick against Catalans this weekend) but at a try
per game in over 140 appearances in a very successful 5 year career at the
Wolves I think they would fare better next season by pairing Monaghan with new
signing Tom Lineham on the wings rather than Gene Ormesby or Kevin Penny –
neither of whom have convinced me that they are at Monaghan’s level.
Strangely, Smith has not ruled out a return to Warrington
for O’Brien sometime in the future. He seems to want O’Brien to prove himself
at another club, looking likely to be Salford Red Devils, before maybe
returning as the finished article at a later date. If Smith feels he has the potential
to be a top Super League half back, why release him instead of moulding him
into the player he wants him to be??
Chris Bridge will also be a big loss, he is a player I rate
highly and Widnes have made an excellent signing. He has a lot of experience,
is a top quality centre and can also do a very good job at half back.
Australian enigma Chris Sandow signed towards the end of
the season after a turbulent end to his career at Parramatta Eels and although
his first 4 games have not gone that well I believe that he will be one of the
stand out players in Super League in 2016. His half back partnership with
veteran Aussie international Kurt Gidley, signed from Newcastle Knights, will
be interesting as they will have to gel quickly to make sure the Wolves get off
to good start next year.
Ben Currie has had an outstanding 2015 and should earn a
call up to the England squad and the signing of Jack Hughes from Wigan, after a
successful loan spell at Huddersfield Giants in 2015, gives the Wolves good
strength in the back row with James Laithwaite due back from a season ending
broken leg suffered in the Challenge Cup quarter final win over Leigh
Centurions.
To me the squad looks good but do the Wolves have to look
off the field a bit more to see why they have under-performed in the last two
regular seasons??
Has Head Coach Tony Smith outstayed his welcome? Has he got
his feet too firmly under the table?
Is Richard Agar the right man to be his assistant coach?
Smith generally knows when to move on and obviously feels
that he can turn around the Wolves fortunes and get them back to major finals
in 2016 and beyond.
I think that another struggling year in 2016 may see the
club force a change in the coaching set up.
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| Disillusioned - Richie Mathers |
The 6 month ban Mathers recently received from the RFL for
a perceived breach of the games betting rules has led to him to announce his
retirement from the game with immediate effect.
I can’t say that I have ever been a big Mathers fan as he
always seemed prone to make too many errors but you cannot argue with the
career that he has had.
He has won a Grand Final and World Club Championship with
Leeds Rhinos and two Challenge Cup’s with Warrington Wolves.
In addition to that he had a stint in the NRL with Gold
Coast Titans and with Super League clubs Wigan Warriors, Castleford Tigers and
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.
Just as importantly, Mathers seems to be well respected and
liked by fellow players as you can see from his Twitter timeline which features
tributes from many former team mates.
Mathers has always seemed like a stand up and intelligent
guy with thoughts on how to improve the game and his current predicament seems
way out of character to me.
The official RFL statement at the time his punishment was
decided stated:
London
Broncos player Richard Mathers has been suspended from all Rugby League
activity for six months after being found guilty of breaching the sport’s rules
relating to betting.
An
independent tribunal found Mr Mathers guilty of providing inside information on
his club’s playing strengths and pre-match preparations, and of encouraging
other people to bet on the outcome of a match using the social media messaging
application, Whatsapp.
In
response, on his own website, Mathers states ‘’I strenuously maintain my innocence of all the issues, no
evidence was found against me and I was convicted on the grounds of
‘comfortable satisfaction.’
Now, I am no legal expert and had to look up what ‘comfortable satisfaction’ actually means and the internet gave me this:
‘’The common law has developed many principles in
relation to evidence, including two standards of proof, one for criminal cases
and one for civil matters. Many sporting disputes are now settled by the Court
of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and it utilises a third standard of proof,
namely 'comfortable satisfaction', which is defined as lying in between the
criminal 'beyond reasonable doubt' and the civil 'balance of probabilities'. Despite
stating that it is not bound by the rules of evidence, an examination of CAS
drug cases indicates that it operates in a similar way to common law courts in
regards to how it uses the evidence presented to it.’’
I’m not much clearer on what it means either!!
Also on his website Mathers seems to indicate that identity theft may have played a part in his downfall and he also says that he has been warned against an appeal as the consequences may have been even more dire.
There is no doubt that this is not the way to an end a
successful career in any sport and that Mathers and his family will have been
under considerable stress in the 6 months between the alleged offence and the
final outcome of the investigation.
The fact that the supposed inside information was for a
London Broncos match away against the, at the time, rampant Leigh Centurions
makes it seem even more unlikely that anyone would need to consider supposed
insider information to help them decide on which way to bet on this match –
Leigh ended up winning 64-12!!!
My main query on this subject is if Mathers is insisting he
is innocent, why does he not release the Whatsapp messages for everyone to see
– if he is as innocent as he says surely that would be the route to go down.
I hope this stain on his career and reputation can be
washed away eventually and that the rest of Mathers’ life is a success for him
and his family – I’m not sure that he has deserved to have his career end like
this.
A bit
of extra time thinking…..
It seems that Jarryd Haynes success over in America in the
NFL has inspired Brisbane Broncos wingman Daniel Vidot to head over and see if
he can make his fortune. Does Vidot have a NFL trial lined up?? No, he’s not
interested in playing American Football – Vidot is going to have a shot at
wresting in the WWE!! The Samoa international has struggled to get a First
Grade game under Wayne Bennett at the Broncos in 2015 and has seen moves to
other NRL and Super League clubs not materialise, therefore he is flying out to
the WWE HQ in Orlando, Florida for a 3 day trial later this month. Are there
any Super League stars who could make it in the WWE?
Salford Red Devils have been a Soap Opera all season and at
least they have managed to close off one storyline by eventually agreeing a
settlement with former Head Coach Iestyn Harris. He can now get off his sick
bed and back to work.
The current storyline involves star signing Rangi Chase.
Club owner Marwan Koukash has this weekend tweeted that Chase was told he could
leave the club, on a free transfer, as far back as June. Chase hasn’t been
involved for the Red Devils for the last few weeks and it appears that he will
be on the move permanently in the near future, although his recent comments on
Instagram were worrying and seemed to indicate some kind of depression issue
that, hopefully, his club are taking seriously.
I’ve just about recovered from the Wembley Challenge Cup
Final debacle and, fortunately, so have Hull KR and Kieran Dixon. 3 from 3 in
the middle 8’s since the Wembley disaster has seen us guarantee our spot in
Super League in 2016 and it was great to see Dixon bounce back with two tries
in the defeat of Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and another four tries the
following week in a convincing win over Bradford Bulls – all of those tries
came from the wing rather than full back. I’ll be honest, right at the start of
the season I was slightly dismayed that Dixon was given the no. 1 shirt over
Ben Cockayne. Dixon has improved immensely in that position this year but has
always been prone to errors – it was a good move by coach Chris Chester to keep
him in the side but take him out of the firing line after his Final shocker. He
is an immensely talented player.
On the negative side at Hull KR I am really disappointed
that both Tyrone McCarthy and Kris Welham will be leaving the club. McCarthy
has only been at the club for one season but has made a great impact through
his attitude and professionalism and was made Captain when Terry Campese
suffered a long term injury. A clause in his contract was triggered by the
approach of St. George Illawarra Dragons and no-one blames Tyrone for having a
shot at the NRL. On the other hand Kris Welham is Rovers longest serving player
and scored his 100th try in the recent win over the Bulls. The
rumours started in pre-season that he would be leaving the club and, after a
couple of poor seasons, not many people would have been upset.
However, 2015 has seen Welham return to top form and it is
only recently that the rumours have started again. Rovers offered him a new
contract but it seems that the terms offered are below what he is currently
earning and he has received a better offer elsewhere – from Bradford Bulls
apparently. It is such a shame as we need to keep hold of our local boys plus
my 6 year old is gutted – he and Kris share two things in common – they are
both rugby players and both have the same colour hair. Good luck Kris!!!
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| Kris Welham scores his 100th try |
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| Welham lookalike - my son Kingsley. |
Finally, obviously scoring all of those tries at Wembley has taken SOMETHING out of the Leeds Rhinos – three straight defeats since the Final has seen them put the potential treble of Challenge Cup, League Leaders Shield and Grand Final winners at risk. And apparently, Brian McDermott is not concerned!!!
You can follow me on Twitter @sharpster69
