WENDELL SAILOR'S return to league for the Shellharbour Marlins tomorrow night could outdraw the Dragons-Storm match at ANZ Stadium, with predictions of a crowd up to 8000 packing Ron Costello Oval. Marlins president Peter Blaine yesterday told Sin Bin the club regularly attracts between 1500 and 2000 fans for Jim Beam Cup matches but was expecting "quite a few more" to see Sailor's comeback. Exactly how many more he wasn't sure but Erina coach Mark Horo, whose club must be ruing its decision to agree to swap home games with the Marlins several months ago, said he had heard estimations of between 5000 and 8000 for the match. "If they get 8000 I wouldn't mind having $50 on it being a bigger crowd than the Dragons will get at Homebush," Horo said.
Plumber gets his crack
AFTER training all week with St George Illawarra, Sailor will tonight meet his new teammates for the first time when he and fellow Dragons players Frank Samia, Ben Ellis, Jon Green and Joe Falemaka join the Marlins for their final workout ahead of the big game followed by dinner at a Shellharbour restaurant. Sailor has been named on the bench in jersey No.20 but Horo expects him to see plenty of game time and has switched his wingers around so he will be marked by Tim Smith, a plumber from the Central Coast. "I actually played against Wendell with both Wests and Parramatta and he was hard to handle then but we're not going to make it easy for him," the former Kiwi international said. "One thing about Wendell, he's always been a good talker and I'm sure he'll get their forwards going."
Comrades have a lend
DESPITE being back in full-time training with the Dragons, Sailor still found time yesterday to join Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos as a guest speaker at a mortgage lenders convention emceed by Triple M's Jimmy Smith at Darling Harbour. Sailor has also been the subject of practical jokes from teammates, with winger Michael Lett putting a "please do not park here" note on his black Lexus during training. But Sailor's humility and the way he has come to terms with the two-year ban he served for cocaine use has impressed most people in the game. "He made a mistake but since coming back he's done everything right and said all the right things so he deserves another chance," Horo said.
Nagging Maroon omen
COULD it be an Origin omen that a horse part-owned by former Maroons greats Billy Moore and Ben Ikin and named Iluva Queenslander saluted the judges at Thursday's meeting on the Sunshine Coast.
Spare rep weekend
ARL chairman Colin Love will pitch the idea of playing next year's Anzac Test on a weekend free of NRL matches, and in a move which will further strengthen the appeal of the fixture the Rugby League International Federation is believed to be considering a similar stand-alone weekend in the UK to allow English Super League stars to play. "It's something we have to look at. It would lift that game to another level, and give it the status it deserves. It would be just a ball-tearer," Love said. The City-Country match could be played on the same weekend, possibly on the Friday night with the Test on Sunday afternoon.
Big Jack at rest
HUNDREDS of Jack Gibson stories have been told in the past week but here's a couple more. Arthur Beetson, who had to leave Gibson's funeral in Cronulla early on Wednesday because of a stuff-up with flights back to Queensland, remembers travelling to bush carnivals with Big Jack in the passenger seat. "He had this amazing ability to fall asleep within 30 seconds," Big Artie recalled. "He'd say, 'Beetson, I'm goin' to sleep now'. And he'd be gone." Gibson's take on Super League, recalls Beetson: "It's like one of those western movies. But none of the baddies gets killed - everyone gets killed." Then there's former Newton fullback Phil Sigsworth, who remembers Gibson trying to lure him to Parramatta in 1982. "I told him John Singleton told me it wouldn't be worth my while," Sigsworth recalled. "Jack said, 'Wise choice'."
Expansion on agenda
FOLLOWING the successful return of the Gold Coast, could the NRL be considering re-admitting the South Queensland Crushers, Western Reds and Adelaide Rams? Speaking yesterday at a Tattersalls Club lunch with Australian sport's other leaders, NRL chief executive David Gallop refused to rule out the possibility of a second Brisbane side. "There is certainly a big growth corridor out to the west of Brisbane," Gallop said. "We've just gone into south-east Queensland with a new team on the Gold Coast, and they have exceeded expectations. And we all know about the population growth in south-east Queensland. So Queensland teams have set the benchmark for us in our competition at the moment with three teams. And it is certainly not beyond the realms that we go up there and have a fourth team."
Rigging rort denied
ENGLAND's Rugby Football League and the BBC have been forced to deny that the televised draw for the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup was rigged after the outcome was posted on a website six hours earlier by a chatroom guest who claimed to have received "a text message saying the draw has already been done". The controversy occurred two months after a similar accusation was made about the UEFA Champions League quarter-final and semi-final draws after they were also accurately predicted in an internet chatroom before the live telecast, prompting an RFL spokesman to admit: "It is spooky". "But the draw was done live," he assured The Guardian. "It just so happens that someone has guessed it."
