Great father-son stories from the NRL grand final last Sunday? You know two of them already – Ivan and Nathan Cleary; Brad and Jake Arthur. But, with thanks to Channel Seven’s Brenden Wood who told me the story, here’s the third. To appreciate it, you have to go back to one of the most famous tackles in league.
It was in the second half of the 2003 grand final between the Roosters and the Panthers. The Roosters’ Brad Fittler gathers in a loose ball, and fires it out to his winger Todd Byrne, who takes off like a scalded cat and sets sail for the line. Only one man can stop him.
It is Penrith’s Scott Sattler, son of the iconic Souths captain from the ’70s, John Sattler. Byrne is fast, but Sattler has a slight angle on him, aiming of course not for where Byrne is but where he’ll be on yonder touchline in a few seconds. Can he reel him in?
It’s gonna be close! Byrne has the grand final-winning try in his hands, and looks to have got past him when Sattler launches, wraps his arms round his legs and carries him into touch in a tackle for the ages. Penrith go on to win, and it was the tackle that defined the younger Sattler’s career. NRL touch judge Glynn Henderson was Johnny-on-the-spot, with a league “war story” among touchies to beat them all.
When I called him on Friday morning, Henderson confirmed it as the moment of his career.
“No doubt!”
Last Sunday night, of course, Parramatta’s Bailey Simonsson also got away. Penrith’s star fullback, Dylan Edwards, took off after him, and had a similar angle, bringing off a textbook tackle that took the Eels centre over the line and snuffed out the try. And who was the NRL touch judge on the spot, with the touchie story to beat them all, bar one?
That would be Phil Henderson, Glynn’s son!
Ain’t sport grand?
What were they thinking #1
And for those 82,415 fans who were at the grand final? They raved. Before the match, during the match, after the match. Whoever was interviewed, or speaking in commentary, exulted about the fantastic atmosphere, the feel of the whole stadium.
Do you see where I am heading with this?
A sell-out crowd generated a wonderful atmosphere at the NRL grand final.Credit:Oscar Colman
This was the same 20-year-old Olympic stadium that the Berejiklian government wanted to knock down, at the cost of a lazy billion dollars between friends. Yes, it has been tarted up a little since then, but the basic structure is the same, and surely Sunday evening’s affair was proof positive that there is nothing majorly wrong with it, particularly when it’s chockers.
Seriously, doesn’t that match alone, that atmosphere, that lack of complaint, conclusively demonstrate just how hollow all the claims were about how the Olympic stadium had to be knocked down?
Good sports
How lucky they are it is not this weekend, or they may well float away. But The Chappell Foundation is having its Annual Sports Stars Sleepout (SSSO) at the SCG on Sunday, October 16, from 6pm. The group will include Louise Sauvage, Kim Hughes, Bronte Campbell and many more. To help them reduce youth homelessness, you can donate at www.sportsstarssleepout.com in the knowledge that not a cent is lost to costs of running the charity as it is entirely done by volunteers.
Spotlight shines on Cheika
If Australian Story is not the best show on TV, it must run it close. Don’t miss this week’s edition, on ABC at 8pm, which profiles none other than Michael Cheika. It is, I am told by an insider, Cheika unvarnished, and comes complete with fascinating insights.
To quote my insider: “Who knew that his dad routinely welcomed luminaries like Paul Keating into the family home? Who knew that Michael’s ability to speak four languages made him ideal to greet buyers at Collette Dinnigan’s Paris fashion shows when he was her export manager? Who knew that he went on to make a small fortune distributing designer jeans?”
Michael Cheika is a man of many talents.Credit:Getty
(Not me, to any of the above.)
As to the high highs and the low lows of his Waratahs and Wallabies tenures, there are plenty, as you’d expect. Eddie Jones makes an appearance and says he felt sorry for Cheika after his England side smashed the Wallabies in the 2019 World Cup quarter-final. Right now, Cheika is juggling no fewer than three jobs – coaching NEC in Japan, the Pumas and, most improbably, the Lebanon rugby league team for the upcoming World Cup!
What were they thinking #2
Christ, here we go again. The week’s primary sporting issue has been the newly installed CEO of Essendon, Andrew Thorburn, resigning a day after starting due to backlash against the fact that he is chair of a church associated with – there’s no other way to describe them – extremely bigoted religious beliefs.
It beggars belief that Essendon didn’t do due diligence before appointing Thorburn. But I guess if they were prepared to ignore that he resigned his previous role as CEO of NAB, after the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry outlined how the bank had shamelessly ripped off customers on his watch, they could ignore anything.
In any case, as he left, Thorburn set the culture wars alight, implying that he was sacked because of his faith alone.
In response, the inestimable Barrie Cassidy said it best on Twitter: “People are not being ‘banned from going to church.’ A football club has determined that somebody who believes gays should go to hell and that abortion is akin to the holocaust is not the best person to guide the club’s culture.”
Seriously, can anyone disagree, apart from the trolls?
And @marquelawyers was nearly as good:
“Religious Freedom 101: You have the right to believe whatever you like. You have the right to shout it from the rooftops. We have the right to not pay you money to do a job that includes promoting values that are antithetical to what you’ve been shouting.”
Fire at will.
What They Said
An oldie but a goldie, doing the rounds: “When I die I want the Parramatta Eels to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time.”
Panther James Fisher-Harris trolling the Eels after the grand final, and riffing on the old line that Penrith are Parramatta’s “little brothers”: “I just want to say – Parra are our sons.”
Opals star Sami Whitcomb after her team won bronze at the World Cup with Lauren Jackson back: “You can’t script it any better. It’s a long tournament, it’s hard for all of us, but we just wanted to help get her through to this moment as best we could because we knew potentially there would be a moment like this where we would lean on her. She did it and to do it like this, genuinely you can’t script it any better.” Well, maybe a little better, winning gold, but still.
Rugby Football League CEO Ralph Rimmer opened his mouth to insert his foot as Fiji arrived in England for the World Cup: “We don’t think anybody has been arrested yet, do we? No, we’re all right, so we’re going pretty well then.” He has since apologised profusely.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez reaffirms his club’s commitment to a European Super League (ESL): “To solve a problem, you need to start by recognising you have a problem. And our beloved sport is sick, especially in Europe, and, of course, in Spain. Football is losing its position as the world’s leading global sport. The most worrying fact is that young people are becoming less and less interested in football.” I think he must be referring to the rise of rugby, yes? Or maybe the Rugby League World Cup? But seriously, folks . . .
Craig Foster on the Sydney United 58 FC fans in the Australia Cup Final performing Nazi salutes during the Welcome to Country: “My apologies to Indigenous Australia. I condemn the horrific display of racist hate and stand with our Jewish and other affected communities. All involved need to be held accountable including the club.”
Greg Norman talking about the interest of LIV in Australia: “The excitement level of state governments [in Australia] all the way down to club presidents is extremely high. People are very desirable of wanting to get LIV Golf there because they see it on [broadcasts] and the atmosphere.” Yeah . . . nah.
World chess champion Magnus Carlsen: ”I believe that [Hans] Niemann has cheated more, and more recently, than he has publicly admitted.” No word yet, on whether he thinks it was done by radio connected anal beads as posited by Elon Musk. But on Twitter @onearmbanditoh insists that “the beads didn’t help anyway. The person controlling them wasn’t good. Gave him a bum steer.”
Former NRL player Mark McLinden who ran onto the field during the grand final and wanted to chain himself to a goalpost: “As it happened, my plan was thwarted. I needed around 10 things to go right, and failed at the last hurdle. I was tackled far easier than I had been the last time I ran out on Accor Stadium as a player. My opportunity to make real climate action was lost, like so many other opportunities in the last 30 years of climate inaction.”
Former Canberra Raiders star Mark McLinden disrupted the NRL grand final as an environmental protest.Credit:Getty and NRL Photos
The English hooker from the victorious 2003 Rugby World Cup, Steve Thompson, 44, has packed away all his medals, trophies and memorabilia from the event he simply can’t remember, due to brain damage from too many concussions: “I feel like a phoney. It feels like I haven’t done it. If I hadn’t done it, I might not be such a burden on the family.”
Christian Walker, son of one-time NFL superstar Herschel Walker – now running to be the Republican Senator, from Georgia – points out some inconsistencies in his father’s platform: “Family values, people? He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them. He was out having sex with other women.”
Team of the Week
Penrith Panthers. Have now won back-to-back premierships.
Teague Wyllie. Playing for WA, the 18-year-old became the youngest player since Ricky Ponting in 1993 to post a Sheffield Shield century.
Bernard Tomic. Has won two straight ATP Futures tournaments, taking his ranking from 825 to 575 in the space of about five weeks.
Newcastle. Won the NRLW premiership after finishing winless sixth in the previous competition.
Essendon. Were less than meticulous with the search for a CEO and hired someone who belongs to a church with hell-fire views.
Erling Haaland. In March last year, TFF wrote “If you don’t know who the Norwegian wunderkind is – I know I don’t – you will when he becomes a household name, as I am reliably told he will.” With 14 EPL goals from eight matches including three hat-tricks, this is one of TFF’s better calls, and I think I might have come good!
Twitter: @Peter_Fitz
News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
