Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy has taken a swipe at Manly legend Max Krilich, accusing the former Kangaroos skipper of being ‘jealous’ of Storm hooker Cameron Smith.
Setting up a brilliant confrontation between Melbourne and Manly on Saturday night, Bellamy then took aim at Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler, who he said could be ‘backstage while Krilich is on stage’.
The former Kangaroos captain lit a fire with comments to The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, saying Smith’s influence over referees is a ‘disgrace’ and calling out his ruck tactics as ‘not in the spirit of the game’.
“Melbourne lay all over the ball and the players but it’s ruled play on because it’s Cameron,” Krilich said.
“He will stand there and complain and the referees will say: ‘Oh, c’mon, Cameron’. It’s just not on. They’ve got to be tough.
“What he does isn’t in the spirit of the game — it’s not right — and he is getting away with it.
“The referees are scared to penalise him and it seems everything he does is squeaky clean. We need the referees to toughen up. I have no doubt the referees are very intimidated by him.
“They are scared of him and it’s a disgrace.”
However, Bellamy wonders whether Hasler is behind it all.
“It’s the same old song this time of year but a different singer. I don’t know if Des has been backstage with Max onstage,” he said.
“I didn’t read the article but I just found it a little bit surprising.
“I don’t like to be disrespectful of ex-players so I’m not going to say too much about it but I was very surprised.
“Max played in the same position as Cameron, and perhaps there was a little bit of personal jealously there.”
However, on Friday Hasler told reporters if he were Smith’s coach he would want him to do the same thing.
“Good luck to him,” he said.
The wild rivalry between these two clubs has been one of the fiercest in the NRL for the past decade after fighting out back-to-back grand finals in 2007-2008.
A famous violent brawl broke out between the two teams at Brookvale Oval in 2011, and just last year Storm centre Curtis Scott was sent off after punching Sea Eagles counterpart Dylan Walker.
Setting up a brilliant confrontation between Melbourne and Manly on Saturday night, Bellamy then took aim at Sea Eagles coach Des Hasler, who he said could be ‘backstage while Krilich is on stage’.
The former Kangaroos captain lit a fire with comments to The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, saying Smith’s influence over referees is a ‘disgrace’ and calling out his ruck tactics as ‘not in the spirit of the game’.
“Melbourne lay all over the ball and the players but it’s ruled play on because it’s Cameron,” Krilich said.
“He will stand there and complain and the referees will say: ‘Oh, c’mon, Cameron’. It’s just not on. They’ve got to be tough.
“What he does isn’t in the spirit of the game — it’s not right — and he is getting away with it.
“The referees are scared to penalise him and it seems everything he does is squeaky clean. We need the referees to toughen up. I have no doubt the referees are very intimidated by him.
“They are scared of him and it’s a disgrace.”
However, Bellamy wonders whether Hasler is behind it all.
“It’s the same old song this time of year but a different singer. I don’t know if Des has been backstage with Max onstage,” he said.
“I didn’t read the article but I just found it a little bit surprising.
“I don’t like to be disrespectful of ex-players so I’m not going to say too much about it but I was very surprised.
“Max played in the same position as Cameron, and perhaps there was a little bit of personal jealously there.”
However, on Friday Hasler told reporters if he were Smith’s coach he would want him to do the same thing.
“Good luck to him,” he said.
The wild rivalry between these two clubs has been one of the fiercest in the NRL for the past decade after fighting out back-to-back grand finals in 2007-2008.
A famous violent brawl broke out between the two teams at Brookvale Oval in 2011, and just last year Storm centre Curtis Scott was sent off after punching Sea Eagles counterpart Dylan Walker.
