Tigers legend Steve 'Blocker' Roach lays down the law to the forwards during a Wests Tigers training session at Concord Oval. Picture: Craig Wilson Source: The Sunday Telegraph
STEVE Blocker Roach feels for the young football players in today's game.
In the days he was a Kangaroo enforcer and Australia's No. 1 front-rower, he insists he was never offered a performance-enhancing substance.
"There were a few rumours about anabolic steroids but no one ever offered anything to me," Roach said.
"I really feel for the kids coming into the game now. If someone on the medical staff in a highly trusted position says, 'take these, it will help make you a first-grader', what's a naive 18-year-old going to do?
"It's the people administering this stuff that should get life.
"If you can't trust professional medical staff to look after you, who can you trust?
"I'm not saying the players should get off, I'm just saying a rookie should be able to trust his team doctor and entire coaching staff.
"These young players have big dreams and they will do anything they are told to become great players.
"I hate drugs and I hate cheating. I just hope this whole thing has been blown out of proportion."
Meanwhile, big Blocker is back at his beloved Wests Tigers, almost a decade after coach Tim Sheens showed him the door.
New coach Mick Potter has welcomed back the Tigers legend as a coaching consultant to work with the forwards.
He is also helping out in sales and marketing.
"I've always loved this place," Blocker said, "and it's great to be back helping out.
"It will be a good year.
"Guys like Robbie Farah and Benji Marshall have always had only one coach.
"This year they've got a different coach, different roster, different game plan, different training.
"I'm confident we will do really well."
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FORMER NRL referees boss Bill Harrigan is back under the spotlight this weekend.
"Hollywood" is tournament director for the Junior State Cup Oz Tag at Fairy Meadow, near Wollongong, where your columnist is coaching the Sutherland under-10s boys.
I'll let you know how we go in tomorrow's paper.
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FOX Sports has more innovations planned for the up-coming Charity Shield game.
The chopper-cam that brought us some fantastic footage in the Big Bash will be hovering over the Souths and Dragons players.
Imagine the drama if it gets in the way of a Jamie Soward or Adam Reynolds bomb.
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Jessica Mauboy will play a starring role in the NRL's new marketing campaign. Source: Supplied
TINA Turner started the ball rolling in the 1980s, now rugby league has a new female voice - the brilliant Jessica Mauboy.
The 22-year-old has recorded rugby league's anthem for 2013, and we can't wait to hear it.
"NRL is my game. I love it," said Mauboy, who is a devoted Cowboys and Queensland Maroons fan. We can forgive her for that.
She added: "Performing two years ago at the NRL grand final was a career highlight, so to be chosen to be part of the advertising campaign for the season is incredibly special.
"I find the spirit of the players and the NRL to be inspiring and I am really proud to be part of Sony's association with the game."
NRL marketing chief Paul Kind said Mauboy's passion and love of the game made her a perfect fit. We have to agree.
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WHEN Ryan Tandy was snared in the infamous Bulldogs betting sting, loopholes in the law made it hard for authorities to crack down.
In NSW, Sports Minister Graham Annesley was quick to pass new legislation making manipulation of sports events a criminal offence.
The fallout from the Australian Crime Commission's allegations this week show how Annesley was ahead of the game. But we're hearing that the powers that be in Canberra are sick of the Queenslanders dragging their heels on similar legislation.
The loopholes still exist in the Deep North - and that's slack.
It's time for Queensland to get its house in order to give sport a chance against the drug-peddlers and organised betting rings.
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MELBOURNE Storm coach Craig Bellamy, latest Immortal Andrew Johns, Sydney Swans premiership-winning mentor Paul Roos and former Wallaby superstar Matthew Burke have teamed up to raise money for the Ricky Stuart Foundation's latest autism awareness campaign.
Ten people getting the chance to have lunch with this sporting royalty at top Darlinghurst restaurant Verde, with three-time best winemaker in the world Neil McGuigan, is certain to attract major auction interest at Ricky's Celebrity Pro-Am event at Royal Canberra Golf Club on February 25.
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A SYDNEY lawyer may soon be the most influential Australian in world sport. Her name is Moya Dodd, an FFA director and now a candidate for the FIFA Executive Committee. A seat has been created to give women’s football a voice and Dodd, a former Matildas international, is a vocal advocate. Sepp Blatter might need to stay on his toes. The vote by the 200-plus member nations of FIFA takes place in May at the FIFA Congress.
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FOX Sports is set to score major bragging rights by becoming the first TV network to show Sonny Bill Williams’ first match in a Roosters jumper. Sneaking under the guard of rival broadcaster Channel Nine, Fox Sports will take the unprecedented step of telecasting the Roosters’ trial match—the Foundation Cup—against the Wests Tigers on
February 23 at Allianz Stadium.
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FIRST it was Manchester United, then Liverpool...now Italian giants Inter Milan are keen to play in Australia, with the feasibility of a match-up against superstar Alessandro Del Piero and Sydney FC now under discussion. Inter Milan owner Massimo Moratti is keen for his club to tour Asia and Australia, with a late-May, early-June window the best opportunity for a game in Sydney. Promoters believe a clash between former Juventus king Del Piero and arch-rivals Inter Milan would attract a huge football following. As part of a tour feasibility paper, Sydney FC have been shown two fees—one for playing with the mighty Del Piero and one without. The Inter Milan game, in either Sydney or Melbourne, would be an international entree for soccer before the sport’s blockbuster match between Manchester United and the A-League All-Stars at ANZ Stadium on July 20. Meanwhile, discussions with Liverpool are ongoing, with a game in Sydney or Melbourne—possibly even both—still very much alive. A match-up between the Reds and Melbourne Victory at the MCG on July 28 appears the most likely scenario.
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THIS columnist originally thought Penrith were favourites to get Johnathan Thurston if he quit the Cowboys. The talk out of Brisbane last week, where he’s been in camp for the All-Stars game, suggests otherwise. I think he’s now odds-on to stay at the Cowboys and all the shopping around has been done just to bump up his price tag.
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Canberra's Josh Dugan models his tattoo of Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis on his thigh Source: The Sunday Telegraph
NOT all readers liked our piece last weekend on Josh Dugan’s tattoo of Baltimore Ravens legend Ray Lewis. ‘‘For decades rugby league forwards have borne the brunt of low IQ jokes,’’ one emailer wrote. ‘‘But thanks to Josh Dugan’s leg tattoo, it will now be fullbacks. What an idiot! He must be so sick of explaining it already and he only has a lifetime to go.’’
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LEAGUE Immortal Joey Johns is furious that his old racial row with Timana Tahu has blown up and made headlines again. He won’t comment publicly on the All Stars weekend but believes it doesn’t do the game any good to keep raising it. Johns deeply regretted the incident at the time but has done a lot since to help indigenous footballers.
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SAINT - RUGBY league trials. The cricket season ended for me the day South Africa went home way back in December.
SINNER - ANY criminals feeding our football stars performance-enhancing drugs. They should be locked up.
SPOTTED - MASERATI-DRIVING NRL chairman John Grant travelling economy on a Brisbane-to-Sydney Qantas flight on Thursday afternoon.
SHOOSH - WHICH NRL club official has been seen in the company of an attractive female athlete in recent weeks?
BOURBON AND JOKE - NOT all Aussies behaved as well as your correspondent at the Super Bowl. One clown was arrested and spent the night behind bars as a guest of the New Orleans sheriff's department for misbehaving on Bourbon Street.
MAJOR SIGNING - IN the midst of a stellar season for the A-League, David Gallop and his team are already planning for next season. I understand the FFA has poached a top executive from the US's Major League Soccer HQ in New York to join the A-League management.
ALL-STAR DILEMMA - THE future of the NRL All Stars is up in the air. The four-year deal with the Queensland government ceased last night. The NRL must now decide if the All Stars remains in Queensland, goes bush or is scrapped altogether with the threat of a Nines tournament in Auckland next year imminent.
ON CLOUD NINES - STILL on the Nines, take it as read Fox Sports is keen for a pre-season tournament to get under way. Channel Nine is also a fan of the concept. All 16 NRL chief executives will meet on February 20 to make a call on the Nines proposal.
BIRD BRAIN - WHEN will Blake Ferguson ever learn? This picture shows Ferguson using his middle finger to give the crowd the bird at the Daniel Geale and Anthony Mundine world title fight in Sydney last week. Hardly the way a professional rugby league player should act. This follows his appearance at the Canberra music festival. I feel sorry for Raiders coach Dave Furner trying to keep this wild child in line.
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