Speaker 1: The phone call I had with him after the Harbor
Speaker 1: cruise was the rudest I've been spoken to, probably by
Speaker 1: anyone in the history of me covering this game. I'll
Speaker 1: never ring Michael McGuire again because I don't care.
Speaker 2: Part went inside body. I said, did it well? They're celebrating.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm doing a column on the Brisbane Broncos and
Speaker 3: that spectacular victory down there in Canberra on Sunday. I'm
Speaker 3: joined by Buzz Rothfield, my old colleague. But Buzz, I
Speaker 3: think it's time, in all honesty, that you came out
Speaker 3: and said something publicly about your ongoing criticism of Michael
Speaker 3: McGuire and the Broncos.
Speaker 2: It's been condemnation from round one to hear.
Speaker 1: Well, are you prepared to apologize or to what you
Speaker 1: said about Jason Rowles in August twenty You know they've
Speaker 1: finished eleventh since your column. They beat the russ thirty
Speaker 1: ten Warriors twenty six, twenty two, nine sixty six ten
Speaker 1: forty points to fourteen their average. You know, can I
Speaker 1: write a column about you stuffing it up?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: Because it's a bit different because the Broncos are in
Speaker 3: the Premium Final and PARAMOUNTA around thirteenth, the Michael McGuire.
Speaker 1: Eleven getting backs right, they ran.
Speaker 3: Eleventh, eleventh, Okay, eleventh, it's still not playing finals footy.
Speaker 3: But anyway, you said for the outset buzz, there were
Speaker 3: problems at red Hill and it all started around this
Speaker 3: alleged player unrest.
Speaker 2: Why did you write that. Are you prepared now to
Speaker 2: say that I got it wrong?
Speaker 1: No, I'm definitely, definitely, definitely not prepared to say I
Speaker 1: got it wrong to I wrote the column because Madge
Speaker 1: had a lot of history at the West Tigers and
Speaker 1: at the South Sidney Rabbits, which you would admit that
Speaker 1: he lost the sheds and was sacked from both jobs. Okay,
Speaker 1: I was getting mal early in the season after their
Speaker 1: army camps and the vomit buckets and players were spewing
Speaker 1: into training, all that sort of stuff that the players
Speaker 1: are off Madge. So I wrote it, and I checked it,
Speaker 1: and I think my information at the time was probably
Speaker 1: correct that they were offing, and I think Madge might
Speaker 1: have even recognized that and just pulled back that little bit,
Speaker 1: that slight little bit. I don't know, but I'm telling
Speaker 1: you what I think. So I've got absolutely no apologies
Speaker 1: to make I'll go into the Harbor cruse. You want
Speaker 1: me to talk about the Harbor Grouse.
Speaker 3: Column harbruse, Yeah, I do, actually, because the Harbor Cruise
Speaker 3: are something that a lot of clubs do, a lot
Speaker 3: of teams do you seem to pick out the Broncos
Speaker 3: and target them specifically, when to me it appeared from
Speaker 3: the outside looking in to be quite unfair.
Speaker 1: So they come to Sydney a couple of days early.
Speaker 1: They jump on Anthony Bell's ten million dollar luxury lot
Speaker 1: that not luxury yacht that normally carries celebrities. You know,
Speaker 1: Michael Clark or anyone you seeing Sydney Confidential for a
Speaker 1: culture experience on Fort Dennison. Well, you know what, that's bullshit,
Speaker 1: dog a cultural experience on Fort Dennison. You know, I
Speaker 1: wrote that column because we've got a responsibility to tell
Speaker 1: our roaders what happens behind the scenes. And you know
Speaker 1: what happened. Two days after that Harbor Cruise they played
Speaker 1: the South Sydney Rabbit as the easy beats of the
Speaker 1: competition and they were beaten twenty two to fourteen, and
Speaker 1: they are in a bit of trouble. Then the Broncos.
Speaker 4: Time I get that but this is about the long haul,
Speaker 4: not about one result.
Speaker 2: This is about building camaraderie. That's what it was all about.
Speaker 2: You can label it what you like, whether it's cultural
Speaker 2: or camaraderie or just mates getting together for a bit,
Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 1: If you ask me, at that stage of the season,
Speaker 1: they were in a mini crisis. They were, you know
Speaker 1: they were, And there were rumblings out of Red Hill.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry there were. You might have heard them, but
Speaker 1: I did. I'm prepared to give him a rap now
Speaker 1: and say that he's done a fantastic job with the
Speaker 1: side under the circumstances, and that victory was as good
Speaker 1: a game of football as I can probably ever recall yesterday,
Speaker 1: what about you. You wrote a column two years ago
Speaker 1: about Benji Marshall. You said Benji marsh was no good.
Speaker 1: Then you wrote a groveling apology to him. Come on,
Speaker 1: some of the stuff I say, I actually stand by it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just me that was concerned about vomit buckets
Speaker 1: and army cans. If you want to check with Clint
Speaker 1: Newton at the RLPA, if you want to check with
Speaker 1: people at the at the NRL, I think you'll find
Speaker 1: They had concerns too about certain training measurements a team make.
Speaker 1: The game has changed. You know that great young footballer
Speaker 1: died from heat Exhauce Gin at many Seagulls. It's a
Speaker 1: debate to have dog the demand on players in the
Speaker 1: summer heat and the off season preparation, it's a debate
Speaker 1: to have.
Speaker 3: In June, you said on radio that Brisbane have no heart,
Speaker 3: no desire, no passion and no idea in hindsight. Given
Speaker 3: they are eighty minutes from a Grand Final, are you
Speaker 3: prepared to say I went to heavy.
Speaker 1: Where were they on the competition ladder?
Speaker 2: Then I haven't got that in front of me.
Speaker 1: Well, that's convenia.
Speaker 2: At one point you wrote that that you are demanding
Speaker 2: that they change their playing style, which seems to be
Speaker 2: working right now.
Speaker 1: I demanded, well, how do you know they haven't changed
Speaker 1: this style? Maybe Madg's read it and that was part
Speaker 1: of it. You don't know that the phone call I
Speaker 1: had with him after the Harbor cruise was the rudest
Speaker 1: I've been spoken to, probably by anyone in the history
Speaker 1: of me covering this game. And I'm not going to
Speaker 1: sit back here have an opinion and allow someone like
Speaker 1: him to just rip and tear. I stand by every
Speaker 1: store where. I stand by the fact he was offloaded
Speaker 1: by the West Tigers and the South in the Rabbits,
Speaker 1: And I wrote it as I saw it, And you
Speaker 1: know what, I've been proven wrong. But I'm not going
Speaker 1: to apologize because they have had a great season. But
Speaker 1: you can't tell me they're doing it absolutely everything now
Speaker 1: right now, like Sunday afternoon, like they're doing early in
Speaker 1: the season. The place has evolved, the place has changed.
Speaker 1: They're obviously a happy, foody camp there now.
Speaker 3: Said they've got a communication problem because this has been
Speaker 3: an ongoing an attack from you all year on maguire,
Speaker 3: they had a communication problem and that the players couldn't
Speaker 3: relate to Michael McGuire.
Speaker 2: Well, it looked like they were later on the weekend.
Speaker 1: How do you know that wasn't right when I wrote it.
Speaker 1: Do you think I just sit here and write stuff
Speaker 1: or do you think I hear from players? And well,
Speaker 1: while I'm telling you, I heard from player managers. And
Speaker 1: I asked Badell, asked Ben Dobbin and Brisbane if I
Speaker 1: I've got a source within the club who's been leaking
Speaker 1: to me all year, and that same source said to
Speaker 1: me and mate, I cannot reveal them. I so wish
Speaker 1: I could. That Madge was having communication problems getting through
Speaker 1: to the team. Now, what coaches do, what very good
Speaker 1: coaches do, when they are having communications problems, They decide
Speaker 1: is it the players or is it me? And Madge,
Speaker 1: for all I know, decided it was him. I don't
Speaker 1: know that, but things change in rugby league on a
Speaker 1: daily basis. And I'm sorry, bulldog if i'm you know,
Speaker 1: it's They're just my thoughts. And the day I worry
Speaker 1: about upsetting people is the day we stop doing our job.
Speaker 3: No, I get that. I just think you've been very
Speaker 3: hard to imagine. I think you should be applauded for
Speaker 3: what he's done.
Speaker 1: I've said that. I've said that, but I'm not going
Speaker 1: to apologize. Anyone owns an apologics me for the manner
Speaker 1: in which he spoke to me over the phone.
Speaker 2: Well, just finally you wrote something that was negative toward him.
Speaker 2: I think he was to have a crack at year,
Speaker 2: wasn't he?
Speaker 1: There were people in this game not quite as intense
Speaker 1: as mad And this happens to me every week, and
Speaker 1: we pick up the phone and we discuss it like adults, right.
Speaker 1: That's the way I do business. And I'll never ring
Speaker 1: Michael Maguire again because I don't care. I don't care
Speaker 1: what he thinks. I'm paid to have a view. I've
Speaker 1: been around a lot longer than him. Yes, I haven't
Speaker 1: achieved what he has. He's won a great title at
Speaker 1: South Sydney. They're wonderful side to watch Reese Wolf Wow.
Speaker 1: And they've managed to unlock him the last month. You
Speaker 1: know how they've unlocked him because they changed the way
Speaker 1: they've played dog Buzz.
Speaker 2: We disagree. We'll leave it at that. Things buzz see
Speaker 2: a dog