Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
Trouble began mostly because Cody Walker was captured on film at game’s end blowing up at what was an odd sight, the Penrith trainer Pete Green.
Walker was clearly incensed, the sleuths later determining as the world wondered that he was coming to the protection of teammate Jed Cartwright who he, and other Souths players, claimed was sledged by Green throughout the match.
If ever there was a more honest glimpse into the private yet sometimes bizarre, inflated world of rugby league, then it is yet to cross these pages.
For all the coverage the game gets, so much more grumbling is done in private where so much more happens that it is a pity, and it also usually stays there because there is no more interesting place for it to go.
When Walker’s moment got caught on camera, though, everybody was invited in for a look.
It quickly emerged that Cartwright was upset by comments Green purportedly made on field about an old injury, a broken back he suffered while at Penrith which Green treated, and that the Souths players had reacted.
Walker was coming in as a protector.
Green and the Panthers originally claimed nothing was said, that he was simply telling a player to “get back” in the defensive line and that Souths misheard.
Then Cartwright’s father, former Penrith premiership winner John Cartwright, cast the first doubts on Penrith’s version.
“The excuse they gave that the trainer was saying: ‘Get back in the line’… Jed was playing the ball. It had nothing to do with him getting back in the line,” said Cartwright. “It affected Jed enough to front him (Green) after the game.”
There is no reason to doubt Cartwright’s version.
While Penrith clearly tried to explain it away like that, the flaw in their defence was that Green was not on the field when Penrith was defending to order them back into the line, as trainers can be on the field only when attacking.
Maybe that explains why, Tuesday, the Panthers’ explanation had conveniently changed.
“You’ve got to give him that one, Dyl,’’ Green was now supposedly saying, which apparently was a bit of good old-fashioned ribbing from trainer on player, and a compliment of sorts to Cartwright, after he hit Edwards with a solid tackle. Nothing but fun and games to be seen here, it seemed.
The Panthers claimed this new version with some authority, saying they had listened to audio that was capturing communication between the physio and the club doctor and it came up on there. As we know, though, governments have fallen on edited recordings, and what they reveal. So if the Panthers are so bullish that this is all Green supposedly said, why not upload the entire, unedited recording of the game on their website for everybody to make up their own mind.
