Jun 11th, 2018

Jun 11th, 2018

Sea Eagles on the nose with star

Marty Taupau is an angry man at the best of times - but I can reveal he is fuming at his own club Manly right now.

With the Sea Eagles in disarray after being caught cheating the salary cap, the club has told its squad that it will consider requests for a release from players to lower its wage bill.

That resulted in a flurry of activity from rival clubs, scrambling for Manly’s top talent.

Taupau has had offers from at least three clubs and wants out - but his path to the exit door has been blocked by Manly chief executive Lyall Gorman.

The boss told the rampaging forward he is one of the few players not for sale, and Taupau is fuming, according to team-mates.

The Sea Eagles are a club in crisis, losing their last three games and sitting in 13th spot on the ladder, their finals hopes all but destroyed.

Blues and Maroons question officiating

The drama in the refereeing ranks continues, with both New South Wales and Queensland fuming with refs boss Bernard Sutton.

Queensland coach Kevin Walters and Blues assistant Greg Alexander both met with Sutton in the lead-up to Origin One to establish the ground rules for the game.

They were told the game would be the same as most NRL games this season, with referees going hard on even the smallest infringements and basically blowing the pea out of the whistle.

Clearly, he either lied or bowed to public pressure.

The game had just five penalties - including none in the second half, leaving both the Blues and Maroons scratching their heads and wondering why they even wasted their time to talk to Sutton.

(AAP)

Gold Coast forward on the move

England star Joe Greenwood has played his last game for the Titans and is poised to join English club Wigan very soon.

The back-rower was impressive in his maiden NRL season last year, playing 22 games for the club.

But clearly, new coach Garth Brennan is not a fan.

Greenwood hasn’t been sighted in the top grade this season and has spent much of it sitting on the bench for the Burleigh Bears.

My spies at the Titans have told me that Greenwood has realised there is no point staying - and he’s close to accepting a deal to return to England with glamour club Wigan.

(AAP)

Storm star makes comeback

Sandor Earl completed one of rugby league’s most remarkable comebacks in recent memory when he played half a game for Sunshine Coast against Souths Logan Magpies in the Queensland Cup last weekend.

Flying winger Earl had been out of the game for over 1700 days - four years as part of an ASADA ban and a further seven months after tearing his ACL in a freak training accident late last year.

I’m happy to report that Earl, who is signed to the Storm, came through the comeback well in his team’s 14-8 win and may be considered for an NRL spot during the Origin period by Storm coach Craig Bellamy.

Many consider Earl to be hard done by - he was the one player who ‘came clean’ to authorities when the peptides scandal hit the game in 2013 and was hit with the maximum four-year ban.

Others who refused to co-operate barely received a slap on the wrist for their part in the scandal.