Todd Greenberg and Craig Bellamy went to the Boomers-USA basketball together.Todd Greenberg and Craig Bellamy went to the Boomers-USA basketball together.NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg invited Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy as his plus one guest to the Australian Boomers match against the USA at Marvel Stadium on Thursday night.
A week after Greenberg came under fire for gifting a diamond ring to the wife of Storm captain Cameron Smith to commemorate his 400th NRL game, the NRL CEO was seen at the basketball with premiership-winning Melbourne coach Bellamy. The NRL boss was criticised earlier this week for his cosy relationship with some of the biggest names in rugby league including Storm captain Smith, who was this week issued with a concerning act notice for an incident with Raiders young gun Bailey Simonsson in round 22.
The Melbourne Storm have also been under scrutiny for the past fortnight after South Sydney boss Shane Richardson said some elements of their defence “are not in the spirit of the game”.Earlier on Thursday in Melbourne Greenberg attended a lunch with AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, FFA boss David Gallop and NBA deputy commissioner.
How these NRL coaches are playing us all. Richardson called on the NRL’s match review committee to crack down on the Melbourne Storm’s jiu-jitsu tactics.In a fiery aftermath to the Storm’s victory on the Central Coast in Round 21, the match review committee came under fire for failing to issue a charge against Storm front row forward Nelson Asofa-Solomona for an apparent crusher tackle on Rabbitohs player Dean Britt.“
The Melbourne Storm are the masters, we’re not happy about everything from the weekend,” Richardson told Fox Sports back then.“Last year Sam Burgess missed two weeks for raising his elbows, on Sunday Cody Walker was penalised for being elbowed in the throat.“Then James Roberts tried to take a quick tap but the referee called it back because Cameron Smith wanted to have a chat.
The Storm are simply the best at slowing down, lying on and wrestling in tackles.“We’re not the only club who thinks it’s gone too far. Something needs to be done.“Who invented the crusher tackle, who invented the chicken wing, who invented the rolling pin?“We were furious afterwards. It’s not in the spirit of the game.”The Asofa-Solomona tackle wasn’t the incident in the game that drew the ire of fans and experts, with former player Jimmy Smith highlighting a number of raised forearms on Rabbitohs players throughout the game including the one by Tui Kamikamica on Walker.
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I think this is a Storm in a teacup . Bellamy and Greenberg are quite obviously professionals and their integrity is rock solid . The NRL will investigate I’m sure and we can sleep easy tonight knowing their investigation will turn up nothing .