Watmough rattles Tiger's cage GLENN JACKSON
July 27, 2010
WESTS Tigers chief executive Stephen Humphreys instructed Manly second-rower Anthony Watmough to ''stick to footy'' after the Sea Eagles hardman inflamed tensions between the clubs by claiming Robbie Farah should ''get some brain scans'' after his concussion.
Tigers doctor Donald Kuah yesterday stopped Farah from training until tomorrow after the captain suffered concussion from a hit by Manly centre Steve Matai on Sunday.
Sea Eagles players suggested the Tigers rake had taken a dive.
While Farah, who was disappointed at being called a diver, said last night he was still confident of playing against Cronulla on Saturday night at Leichhardt Oval, Kuah said he remained in doubt after neuropsychiatric tests yesterday.
It didn't stop Manly players continuing to taunt Farah yesterday. Watmough told Sky Sports Radio: ''I didn't think there was too much in it, but I asked him after the game and he said he was pretty rattled from it
geez, he might have to go get some brain scans if he's rattled like that because he might have a few problems there
it looked like it only clipped him.''
That led to a mind-your-own-business reaction from Humphreys, who said: ''Anthony would be advised to stick to footy, which he does very well. Robbie was clearly showing the effects of the knock. He was physically ill as a result - he was vomiting in the sheds. What can look pretty innocuous can prove to be something more.''
Farah was suffering headaches and head spins yesterday before undergoing the tests, which range from memory tests to balancing drills and mathematical equations. He did not train at all yesterday and was advised by Kuah to take part in very limited training today.
''We'll review where he's at come Wednesday,'' Kuah said. ''We have a concussion protocol that we go through. There's a level of doubt, but five days is a long time in football.''
The NRL's match review committee did not punish Matai for the initial hit on Farah or the firm slap on the shoulder which followed his treatment. Match review commissioner Greg McCallum said Matai was judged to have been attempting to knock the ball down when he made contact with Farah.
''We felt he had no case to answer,'' McCallum said.
He said the panel also decided against punishing Matai further for giving Farah a heavy pat on the shoulder while he was being treated because the Manly player had already been sin-binned. He conceded that Matai's actions were ''inappropriate for a professional player''.
''What he did was inflame the situation,'' McCallum said. ''We spoke to the referee about it - he saw his actions as inflammatory but it wasn't viewed by us as being serious enough to charge him.''
That said, Farah's manager Sam Ayoub said Matai overstepped the mark. ''I don't think it's up to players to judge injuries, and it's certainly not up to opposition players to go and touch injured players while they're being treated by the medics,'' Ayoub said.
''You only needed to look at [Tigers trainer] Andrew Leeds's reaction
If it was a back or spinal injury, you wouldn't expect him to touch him. When somebody's concussed, it should be exactly the same.''
