Bears’ return welcome, but Perth is wrong spot

Spotlight on Tigers’ culture Told yers. Last week in this space, I opined that Tigers coach Benji Marshall’s tightly scripted remarks about there being no bullying in his team vis a vis Lachie Galvin, was surely on legal advice that the club was totally exposed in the way they had treated the 19-year-old wunderkind: dropping him to reserve grade, not reining in players attacking him on social media, and putting out a press release that unleashed the hounds of hell on him to the point that he needed a security detail, #FFS! Lachlan Galvin playing NSW Cup for Western Suburbs Magpies. Credit: Max Mason-Hubers “The Tigers”, I opined, “could find themselves a long way up metaphorical Legal Shit Creek without a paddle. For while the Tigers might be a football team, they’re also an employer, owing a duty of care to their employees. And in February, the High Court of Australia handed down a groundbreaking decision in a matter of Elisha v Vision where it held that Elisha could recover damages for psychiatric injury arising from a breach of the employment contract by an employer.” And so it proved, for this week, we found out, the Galvin camp has indeed sent a legal letter right up the Tigers’ Khyber Pass, pointing out much of the above, and alleging both bullying and an unsafe workplace. Yes, Galvin is back in the starting side – again, I would not be surprised if that, too, was on legal advice – but the whole debilitating affair has a long way to play out.

And we are not even to the most extraordinary part. That came on Wednesday, when Tigers CEO Shane Richardson was interviewed by the Daily Telegraph. When it came to the club’s culture, he said, the Tigers were “outstanding”. No, really. Who remembers any other club, ever, where three senior members verbally attack another player on social media, and a younger member at that? I’ll wait. If that is “outstanding”, Richo, what does “seriously ordinary” look like?

But tell us, please do, your take on the Tigers putting out the press release that you were told by the Galvin camp would be a disaster – telling the world, what Galvin’s management had said quietly, that the young man wanted to move on at the end of his contract – but you released it anyway. “At the end of the day,” Richardson said, “my job is to make sure that the Wests Tigers are protected. And I believe what we did, I don’t believe it could be done any other way.” Lachie Galvin and coach Benji Marshall make eye contact at Tigers training. Credit: Renee Nowytarger Seriously? You HAD to point out that your brightest young star wanted to move on, and despite the fact that this resulted in a fortnight of shattering headlines and the young man needing a security detail, this was still a good idea? And “protected” the Tigers? Yes, Richo insisted.

“It’s come out this week, we popped the pimple, we’ve moved on from it. I honestly believe that we couldn’t have done any better.” The “pimple”? What does a festering boil look like? “We couldn’t have done it any better”? Just what would things look like now if it had been handled badly?

As to your equal insistence that Galvin “has never once said to us, not one time has he said to us, that Benji’s not a good coach or can’t coach,” to my neophyte legal eyes, that only bolsters the young fellow’s legal case. You say, Richo, he never said that. But we all know he was dropped to reserve grade and became, for that fortnight, the most hated figure in the game, attacked by his own team for “disrespecting the coach” and vilified by a howling mob of social and traditional media, asserting he said EXACTLY that. But you say he never did. What are they going off, then? The only answer can be that very press release you were advised not to put out, but did anyway. Seriously, those quotes are simply gobsmacking. Blokes want to leave clubs all the time. It’s no big deal. It happens. But this has become a huge and embarrassing deal for the Tigers, precisely because of the way MANAGEMENT handled it. You say, very carefully, Galvin is not at fault. Who does that leave then? Why I won’t be watching SBW v Gallen Here is 42-year-old former AFL star Justin Koschitzke telling Channel Seven this week what it was like dealing with concussion throughout his career. He’d been badly concussed many times, and things were starting to go foggy, but he felt obliged to keep going.

“[I kept thinking] it will pass ... and this will get better, because you’re in an environment where you don’t want to lose respect from your teammates, you don’t want to give an inch, you want to be in your armour because someone else is taking your spot [in the team]. What I thought was ‘manning up’ was to come back and play that year, but if I had my time again, there’s no way I would have played that year ... knowing what I know now.” He regrets it, bitterly. “Maybe knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have played ever again. I can honestly say that. Why would I put myself in a situation to keep getting hit and keep getting hit, knowing what I know and what I feel like as a 42-year-old? But back then your bulletproof, right? You think this is going to get better.” But they didn’t. Every concussion is brain damage, and he can now see clearly just how disastrous the whole thing was for him. In a proper system, the game would have stepped in, and given him the tap on the shoulder: that’s enough now. Meanwhile, I see many people are excited by the prospect of 39-year-old Sonny Bill Williams and 43-year-old Paul Gallen – already with many concussions between them – soon getting in the ring and having a “super fight”.

I am not. Read the above, again, and tell me you think it is a sporting contest you can morally support. What they said Billy Moore on the Bears coming back: “With my lovely wife, I’ve had a glass of champagne already today. This is the biggest day since 1922 ... I’m pretty f---ing happy.” Carlos Alcaraz: “I don’t want to be called Rafa’s successor. I want to be called Carlos Alcaraz Garfia.” We will bear that in mind, Carlos Alcaraz Garfia. The words of the late Pope Francis, when the Argentinian met Diego Maradona at the Vatican, were recalled this week: “So, which is the guilty hand?”

Oscar Piastri after winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: “I’m more proud of all of those things [hard work in the off-season] than I am of the fact that I’m leading the championship because, ultimately, I want to be leading it after round 24, not round five.” Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison on the Luka Doncic trade: “I did know that Luka was important to the fan base. I didn’t quite know it to what level.” Dylan Brown. Credit: Getty Images Dylan Brown on leaving social media: “I’ve told a few people, you get off Instagram, you don’t see anything, so I’m doing well.” Leeds manager Daniel Farke after they sealed promotion to the EPL with a 6-0 win, with Dutch forward Joel Piroe scoring four after a goal drought: “In the last few weeks his performances were better but the ball didn’t want to go in the net. It’s a bit like shaking a bottle of ketchup – all of a sudden everything comes out and that was a bit the case today.” Shades of Ogden Nash’s poem, The Catsup Bottle: “First a little, Then a lottle.”

Phil Gould won’t bring Lachlan Galvin to the Bulldogs: “We are not involved in the Lachlan Galvin discussion and we won’t be involved in the Lachlan Galvin discussion.” Maybe. But with that promise and $5, I reckon I could get a cappuccino. Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff on their AFL team. Not sure he’s spoken to a Carlton fan recently: “This has to work. It has to work for Tasmania, it has to work for the AFL, it has to work not just for the next five, 10 years, but I want to make sure that the Tassie team is here in 100 years and Tasmanians are proud of it, just like Blues supporters and Collingwood supporters are proud of their team.” Nathan Cleary. Credit: NRL Photos Nathan Cleary after the Panthers beat the Roosters: “Tonight we wanted to just put in a really good performance and let the rest take care of itself, and just get that feeling back of what it feels like to be a Panther and the way we want to play.” Waratahs coach Dan McKellar after another bad loss when asked if he was disappointed with it: “Are we disappointed? Are we disappointed? What do you think? What would you think? Yes, we are disappointed.”

Knights coach Adam O’Brien when asked at the post-match press conference what he thought about an incident in their loss to the Sharks: “What do you think?” Journalist: “No one really cares what I think.” Skateboarder Chloe Covell on coming back from injury: “I just had to get over it and get back on the skateboard.” Bill Lawry on the death of the Australia’s former Test opener and cricket commentator Keith Stackpole, 84: “We have lost not only a great Victorian but a real good citizen. He was great to have as a friend. He has been wonderful.” Fair enough, and vale “Stacky”. But interesting, yes? North of the Murray, and south of the Tweed, we in the geographical area known as NSW never farewell a great with, “He was a great New South Welshman”. Team of the week North Sydney Bears. With the euphoria around their return, makes you wonder why they were ever kicked out. Still, welcome back!

Gold Coast Suns. No sooner did TFF write “Gold Coast Suns. Last undefeated AFL side this season. Stop the world – I want to get off”, than the undefeated Suns lost to third-last Richmond. The Kiss of Death powers are still strong! Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The 14-year-old marked being the youngest ever IPL player by hitting his first ball for six! Loading Melbourne City. Won a second successive A-League Women premiership. Oscar Piastri. Our Oscar has won three of the past four Formula 1 races and is in top spot, with just 19 races to go! (I know. I was surprised, too. THAT many Formula 1 races in a year? Who knew?

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