Sharks signing Todd Carney is a perfect marriage
Phil Rothfield
SIX months ago I wanted Todd Carney sent to jail.
Today I'm celebrating his
arrival at the Cronulla Sharks.
Hypocrite? No way.
This is the perfect marriage with one desperate climbing into bed with another.
A club on the brink of financial ruin and a footy player who has brought new meaning to the words "last chance".
Carney needs the footy club to give his life direction as much as the footy club needs Carney to provide two points each week.
In February this year Carney was caught drink driving.
He blew .05 on his P plates, and correct,
I wrote he should go behind bars, having found the paperwork from a court case in June 2007 when Canberra magistrate Maria Doogan warned the then Raiders star he would go to jail with one more traffic offence.
(The last time I checked, DUI was, in fact, a traffic offence).
Yesterday I was predictably bombarded on emails, Twitter and our website for changing tack and now applauding his move to Cronulla where I'm a season ticket holder.
With apologies to no one, here's how I see it.
I thought a short prison term - even a week or two - would do him the world of good and at least show him the flip side of his privileged lifestyle. Let him find out what it's like to be cramped into a small cell instead of earning $400,000 plus-a-year to be an NRL footy star, a lifestyle the average person can only dream about.
He eventually lost his licence but escaped a prison sentence despite the previous warning from a magistrate.
The NRL and the Roosters took no action despite a long list of prior offences. He got back on the grog and his season eventually went off the rails. Nothing illegal but certainly unprofessional behaviour.
And so he's now off to the Sharks - signed, sealed and to be delivered next week when training starts on November 3.
It's a huge risk but probably the club's most significant signing since Great Britain internationals Tommy Bishop and Cliff Watson came to the Shire in the seventies - the closest the club has ever got to premiership glory.
Will he recapture the form that saw him win the Dally M Medal and steer the Roosters to the grand final in 2010 or spend another 12 months partying?
Three weeks ago I spoke to Carney about his boozy lifestyle since being sprung with Nate Myles at Frank Paul Nu'uausala at 2am at the Courthouse Hotel while the Roosters were supposed to be on a alcohol ban.
"I'm not breaking the law by having a drink," he said. "If I sign with a club and they ask me to stop, I will."
Still, why would the Sharks take a gamble which no other club was prepared to take given the number of "last chances" he has blown?
Consider this: Reports of his likely signing has helped drive up membership sales up by 25 per cent from the same stage last year. In the betting markets the Sharks have firmed from $50 to $30 to win that elusive first premiership.
So far, so good.
The club that has been on life support for 18 months has finally secured a player who, alongside Origin skipper Paul Gallen, could deliver the first trophy to the Shire since the Amco Cup back in 1979.
A champion five-eighth who can turn ordinary players into great outside backs (ask Shaun Kenny Dowell or any of the other Roosters who benefited from his brilliance in 2010.)
The plain fact of the matter is Cronulla couldn't buy a player of Carney's ability if he didn't come with some baggage.
Will it end in tears? Will it end in a premiership fairytale?
Like Carney and his behaviour, it's impossible to predict.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...perfect-marriage/story-e6frexnr-1226176767027
