In the latest Northern Beaches Review, Adam Lucius writes in his Inside Back column the following titled "Beaver's Pardon":
It may have come 18 years too late but retiring NRL referee Matt Cecchin has finally apologised for sin-binning Manly cleanskin Steve Menzies back in 2003. It was only the second time in Menzies' storied 520-game career he was sent from the field.
"It was a game between Souths and Manly at Brookie and it was bucketing down with rain and I ended up sin-binning Menzies and 'Fletch' (Souths' Bryan Fletcher)" Cecchin told SEN Radio's Matt White. "I looked back at that game recently and cringed at how I was. I have to apologise for the way I was in the first chunk of my career - it was all about me. There are a lot of apologies that I owe to people (from) the past."
Menzies was happy to accept Cecchin's belated apology. A tongue-in-cheek Beaver told Inside Back: "It's nice to hear I didn't deserve to be sent off because it wasn't that bad. All I said was 'you're having a good game, sir' and he sent me to the bin. What's wrong with that? It was a compliment."
Despite the sin binning, Manly won 28-20 on the back of tries to Tony Jensen, Anthony Watmough and Kevin McGuinness and eight goals from Ben Walker.
It seems Cecchin had a bit of a guilty conscience when retiring. Me thinks better late than never, at least he's apologised to Beaver. Well done to him.
It may have come 18 years too late but retiring NRL referee Matt Cecchin has finally apologised for sin-binning Manly cleanskin Steve Menzies back in 2003. It was only the second time in Menzies' storied 520-game career he was sent from the field.
"It was a game between Souths and Manly at Brookie and it was bucketing down with rain and I ended up sin-binning Menzies and 'Fletch' (Souths' Bryan Fletcher)" Cecchin told SEN Radio's Matt White. "I looked back at that game recently and cringed at how I was. I have to apologise for the way I was in the first chunk of my career - it was all about me. There are a lot of apologies that I owe to people (from) the past."
Menzies was happy to accept Cecchin's belated apology. A tongue-in-cheek Beaver told Inside Back: "It's nice to hear I didn't deserve to be sent off because it wasn't that bad. All I said was 'you're having a good game, sir' and he sent me to the bin. What's wrong with that? It was a compliment."
Despite the sin binning, Manly won 28-20 on the back of tries to Tony Jensen, Anthony Watmough and Kevin McGuinness and eight goals from Ben Walker.
It seems Cecchin had a bit of a guilty conscience when retiring. Me thinks better late than never, at least he's apologised to Beaver. Well done to him.
