NRL 2022: Cameron Smith, Greg Alexander in radio slanging match over controversial tackles
Rugby league greats Cameron Smith and Greg Alexander have become engaged in a slanging match on their own radio station in the fall-out from a controversial tackle.August 5, 2022 - 9:09AM
News Corp Australia Sports Newsroom
An explosive radio war has erupted between league legends Cameron Smith and Greg Alexander following accusations Melbourne Storm pioneered all of the NRL’s controversial tackles.
Smith and Alexander have become engaged in a slanging match on their own station – SEN Radio – in the fall-out from Brisbane Broncos forward Pat Carrigan’s four-game suspension for a tackle which left Tigers star Jackson Hastings with a broken leg.
Carrigan was suspended following a ‘hip drop’ tackle, where a player uses their body weight to fall on the legs of a ball-carrier while he is being held, forcing his torso to bend backwards.
The incident has polarised the game, with some believing Carrigan escaped with a lenient suspension given Hastings has been sidelined for at least three months.
And the debate has now turned nasty among radio teammates after “Brandy” Alexander accused the Storm of introducing all of the NRL’s controversial tackles over the past 20 years into the game.
Smith, the NRL’s greatest ever player with 430 games for Melbourne, hit back at Alexander on Thursday.
“Brandy (Alexander) is a great analyst of the game and one of the greatest players of our game,” Smith said.
“I just don’t know how he came up with that comment. To single out one club and to say that they introduced that tackle into our sport, that’s a little bit over the top.
“I can’t ever recall seeing Brandy at one of our training sessions throughout my career and my 20 years at Melbourne. I can’t recall him ever being at training.
“I work with Brandy on our radio station and he’s a great fella, but to single out the Melbourne Storm, that’s really unfair, really unfair.
“To say that a club or even clubs now are practising or teaching their players to fall into the back of legs, I think that’s a little bit over the top.”
Alexander, a Penrith great and current NSW Origin advisor, used his Friday morning program with Andrew Voss to double down on his comments and accused the Storm of introducing every dangerous tackle into the NRL over the past 20 years.
“I didn’t think it was any type of revelation when I made those comments about the hip drop emanating out of the Melbourne Storm,” Alexander said.
“I just thought it was a general consensus that over the last 20 years all the tackles, the wrestle, techniques have come from Melbourne. I might be generalising or even jumping to a conclusion, but I don’t think I am.
“These tackles over the last 20 years, all the different types of techniques, they appear in the game and it takes the game a little while to catch up to them.
“I think history shows, and it’s not a stretch for me to jump to a Melbourne Storm conclusion, that for 20 years, the grapple, the chicken wing, the rolling pins, the crusher, the hip drop … I think they all emanated out of Melbourne.
“Melbourne have led the way. They changed the way back in 2002-03, where the wrestle became part of the game. All those variations of slowing the play the ball down, I think they all emanated out of Melbourne, they were ahead of the game.
“I’m not at training. I have been to one session, they weren’t wrestling that day, but I’ve been commentating for 21 years on Fox and through those 21 years I have watched the tackle techniques of teams, but Melbourne led the way. Melbourne were the ones that set the standard with those tackling techniques.
“In 20 years, history shows me that the Melbourne Storm were the first to grapple, first to chicken wing, first to rolling pin – knees in the back of the leg.”
