Andrew Webster | May 19, 2008
DING dong, the wicked witch of North Queensland - Graham
Murray - is likely to fall on his sword today. Murray wants to
do the right thing by the club and has told those close to him he
intends to hand in his resignation letter soon. We're told it will
probably happen this morning. And don't rule out that Canberra
coach Neil Henry - who is due to take over the Cowboys next
year - will be sitting in the vacant chair by the end of this week,
with Cowboys assistant Ian Millward joining the Raiders a
year early. Canberra are publicly saying they will make Henry see
out this season but fear he'll walk anyway. Just as Murray is on
the nose with several leading players at his club, so too is Henry
with his men, who remain incensed he told them he was staying for
the long haul before signing a five-year deal with the Cowboys. A
casual maths teaching job awaits Murray.
Doggie in the middle
The real reason Sonny Bill Williams is thinking about
jumping ship at Belmore? A falling-out between his manager,
Khoder Nasser, and new Bulldogs chief executive Todd
Greenberg. The pair had a blazing argument three years ago when
Greenberg was working for ANZ Stadium and Nasser was trying to seal
the deal for the megafight between Danny Green and
Anthony Mundine, whom Nasser also represents, to be staged
at the Olympic stadium. We couldn't raise Nasser yesterday and all
Greenberg would say was this: "Sonny is in the first [year] of a
five-year deal and we expect him to honour it." But conspiracy
theories abound, not least that Williams is now front and centre of
Mundine's warm inner-sanctum, and Mundine was racially vilified
during his league career by new Bulldogs director Barry
Ward. Meanwhile, some at the club aren't happy about Williams
thinking out loud about joining rugby. This is getting ugly.
Welcome to Dellharbour
He may have given up the flashy diamond earrings but Wendell
Sailor proved again before Saturday night's comeback match at
"Dellharbour" that he has lost none of his bravado. Speaking to his
former Broncos and Queensland teammate Kevin Walters on the
Brisbane version of Triple M's Deadset Legends, Sailor predicted he
would score two tries. "Kevvy asked how many tries and, me being
cocky, I said two. He said, 'That's the Wendell we all know',"
Sailor said after finishing with a double, including the
match-winner, in the Shellharbour Marlins' victory over Jim Beam
Cup rivals Erina. "If I don't set goals or I say I just want to go
out and play footy, that's not me. I've tried to tone it down but
the old Dell comes out every now and again." Not that any of his
new teammates would mind. Before the match, they posed with Sailor
for the annual team photo, even though he is likely to play just
one or two more games for the Marlins. As Mark Geyer said
last week, Sailor would already be in the Shellharbour team of the
century.
One for the road
This is the last Jack Gibson yarn we're going to tell this
year. Promise
In 1985, Gibson phoned NSW coach Craig
Bellamy, who was playing for Canberra, about moving to
Cronulla. "I said, 'Yeah, who is it?'," Bellamy recalled. "I didn't
believe it was him. I thought someone was taking the piss. He said,
'No, it's Jack'. I didn't believe him so I hung up. Three minutes
later, he called back and said, 'Craig, this is Jack Gibson
' And when he said that, I knew exactly who it was."
Say what?
"Do you think I'm up for it?" NSW winger Jarryd
Hayne turned the questions on the press yesterday when asked if
he was capable of snuffing out the influence of Maroons opposite
Israel Folau.