Paul Gallen asking Matt Cecchin to 'ref it even' not a good look for NRL

If a coach said at a post-match media conference he wanted a match official to "ref it even", he would be fined for implying bias. When Cronulla captain Paul Gallen said that to Matt Cecchin at Remondis Stadium on Saturday night, it was not unusual in terms of players speaking to referees during games over the years. But the aim of draconian new rules regarding referee criticism by coaches is to keep that criticism out of the public arena. There are few things more public than a high-profile footballer talking to a miked-up ref during a game in front of a national TV audience. Cecchin walked away from Gallen, thought little of the exchange and did not include it in his report. Gallen said afterwards: "I didn't mean nothing by it."

Speaking up: Paul Gallen says he didn't mean anything by his comment to referee Matt Cecchin. Photo: Matt Blyth

More racism in the AFL

Show of unity: Geelong and Sydney run through the same banner at Simmonds Stadium. Photo: Justin McManus

Steve "The Pearl" Renouf says he can feel racism at AFL games more than he perceives it in rugby league. "To be honest, I've seen enough and been to AFL games and there is a lot of racism," the former Australia centre told the new Big League podcast. "I'll be honest with you. The AFL do do a lot. I used to believe and they led us to believe that AFL did so much in the Indigenous area. I'll tell you what, the rugby league far outweighs [it], what we do in the Indigenous arena compared to what the AFL do. They're kidding themselves a bit. They tell everyone how good they [are] in that space but if you actually look deep down it probably hasn't been as good as they said. I think the NRL do a lot better."

Bad Boy Gubby

Grubby act: Warriors forward Charlie Gubb. Photo: Anthony Au-Yeung

Warrior Charlie Gubb had some fans adding an "r" to his surname when he threw the ball at Gareth Widdop just short of half-time at Wellington on Saturday. Karma caught up with him after the 36-0 defeat when he was chosen as the man to offer a public apology for his team's performance. "Sorry for what happened out there – it was embarrassing," Gubb told the Warriors website. "I can't imagine what it was like for yous but we're sorry. We've got a lot of leaving players at the end of the year and I guess we're still a mathematical chance. We're going to do our best to finish off with a bang." Gubb also said Andrew McFadden's team "dropped our standards", "got what we deserved" and "dropped our bundle", summing up the defeat as "brutal".

Don't call it a comeback

Slow starters: Antonio Winterstein scores a try during the round 22 NRL match between the Cronulla Sharks and the North Queensland Cowboys at Remondis Stadium. Photo: Matt Blyth

You know the finals are around the corner when coaches get tetchy about seemingly innocuous issues. For North Queensland's Paul Green, it's the Cowboys' poor starts and seeming reliance on miracle comebacks. When it was put to Green following the loss to Cronulla on Saturday night that his team wasn't playing for 80 minutes, he responded: "How many minutes are we playing for?" Interestingly it was Green – not a reporter – who raised the issue, as part of his first answer. 'You can talk about our starts but they played well, particularly in the first part of that game," he had said. He later added: "Early, they controlled the game really well. They were camped down our end. Their kicking game was very good … we've been behind on the scoreboard at the start of the game so you can look at our starts … but I think you need to give Cronulla more credit."

Goodbye teams Tuesday

Diehard: A Newcastle Knights fan shows their support during the round 22 NRL match between the Newcastle Knights and the Sydney Roosters at Hunter Stadium during Indigenous Round. Photo: Ashley Feder

Back in the day, your correspondent loved Teams Tuesday – so much so that his superiors lamented how much other rugby league news was going unreported as a result. Of course, the geeks shall inherit the earth and now Teams Tuesday is invaluable to the clubs and the game with the hours of social media traffic it generates. Or, was … Next year Telstra wants to put all the teams up on NRL.com at the same time on a Thursday. Can you believe that? This will also effectively kill off Big League as a weekly. You may even be denied a program at premiership matches for the first time in a century. Aside from a quick spike in clicks on NRL.com once a week, what are the benefits of all this?

Not thinking about next year

Late withdrawal: Shaun Kenny-Dowall. Photo: Getty Images

While everyone else debates who will replace Roger Tuivasa-Sheck as Sydney Roosters fullback next year, coach Trent Robinson insists he isn't giving it a second thought. "No – I'm making the most of having Roger for 2015," the coach said. "Not too many games yet left with a future superstar – or a current one, like he is. We haven't focused on that. That will be an off-season thing. I'm enjoying watching our current guy play." Shaun Kenny-Dowall was named for Sunday's game against Newcastle but did not play after pleading not guilty to domestic assault charges. "Obviously a big week for him," said Robinson. "We thought he'd be ready but needs a bit more time. He was back on Friday."