Speaking of wankers what about this drivel, Mr Crawley you have excelled your self
NRL Tackle: Ivan Cleary’s hypocrisy on show in explosive fallout to JWH-Spencer Leniu fight
Ivan Cleary thinks Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was ‘looking for trouble’ in the explosive Roosters-Panthers showdown, but he might need to look a little closer to home, writes Paul Crawley.
NRL: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Spencer Leniu have almost come to blows in a huge fiery exchange which resulted in both props heading to the sin bin.
It was a bit rich of Ivan Cleary throwing Jared Waerea-Hargreaves under the bus when accusing the Roosters enforcer of “looking for trouble”
in the explosive aftermath to the Panthers’ thumping 30-6 win over the Roosters.
While it is understandable an NRL coach will want to look after his own players, Cleary might want to remember he doesn’t coach a team of choir boys.
And he has one player in particular in Jarome Luai who goes out every single week with what appears a clear intention of looking for trouble, albeit in a very different way to what Cleary was accusing Waerea-Hargreaves of here.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Spencer Leniu come together in a flashpoint at the end of the match. NRL Imagery
But in the big prop’s defence,
it was outrageous of Cleary to suggest intentional foul play had anything to do with the two ugly incidents involving Liam Martin and Moses Leota.
While Cleary’s comments about Waerea-Hargreaves’ apparent intention to start the trouble were just as ludicrous, with the claim “the balance of probability was that Jared was probably the one initiating it” complete and utter nonsense.
In the incident involving Martin it was the Panthers backrower who came in from the side and hit his head on Waerea-Hargreaves’ hip.
A total accident, which was proven by the fact the NRL did not charge JWH for what happened.
While in respect to Leota, as Trent Robinson said, Waerea-Hargreaves was simply running with his bumpers up like every prop does, and the replays certainly did not indicate to me that he raised his elbow in an act of illegal play. Again, the NRL match review committee agreed.
Penrith coach Ivan Cleary had some choice words to say about Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. Picture: Getty
You see multiple incidents very similar in most games,
just go back to Thursday night when Tino Fa’asuamaleaui broke Api Koroisau’s jaw.
Yet when asked if he had an issue with this one, Cleary didn’t hold back.
“If I’m truthful, I did,” Cleary added. “I think it was very questionable. The way he looked. Where he saw him. The way it (the elbow) was cocked.”
There was a time when rival coaches would steer clear of commenting on incidents likely to go before the NRL match review committee out of respect, especially when the evidence was as unclear as this was.
No doubt, Waerea-Hargreaves over reacted when squirting Spencer Leniu with water before hurling the bottle at him.
Waerea-Hargreaves has a reputation as one of the game’s most fiery forwards. Picture: Getty
But again, Cleary’s inability to see fault in his own players was highlighted by the fact he was confused why Leniu was even sent to the sin bin.
How about the fact Leniu was carrying on like a lunatic and couldn’t be calmed down, not even by his own captain Isaah Yeo.
Even when Lenui was walking from the field he still couldn’t control his anger as he started doing lewd gestures to the crowd and appearing to offer to fight anyone out in the car park.
You want talk about out of control, that was the rugby league definition of it.