Seven Days in League: Cameron Smith gives Raider an ear-bashing

"Everyone needs to back off on Darius ... I had a look through the competition from last weekend," Seibold says. "There is an Australian No.6 [Luke Keary] playing for a team in Sydney who only made four metres last week and he missed five tackles and not one thing was said in the media."

It's a fair point.

Then again, Keary has produced 18 try assists in 17 games this season. Even when he spent a month on the sidelines with concussion he was having more of a dig than poor old Darius.

A WAR of words erupts between South Sydney and Melbourne over who are the NRL's grubbiest grubs.

Bunnies CEO Shane Richardson launches the first missile when he asks: "Who invented the crusher tackle, who invented the chicken wing, who invented the rolling pin?"

His Storm counterpart Dave Dongahy replies, with a yawn: "It's Kylie Minogue one year, Dannii Minogue the next year, Taylor Swift the year after. It's a different singer singing the exact same song every year."

Big Richo starts to lose it when the Storm suggest his tirade has been prompted by the Old Fox of Redfern.

"It has nothing to do with Wayne Bennett," he fumes. "I'd like to think after twenty f---ing seven years at the top of rugby league, I'd like to think I've got my own opinions."

I'm with Richo on this one. If the Old Fox was responsible, I reckon the singer would be Willie Nelson or Slim Dusty. I bet he doesn't even know who Taylor Swift is.

COWS coach Paul Green says some of his players need to take a long, hard look at themselves after their 42-6 hammering by the Knights. It's getting a bit late for that, I'd suggest. They'd be better off taking a long, hard look at which pubs in Townsville have the best beers on tap, because Mad Monday is looming at a rate of knots.

In Melbourne, the Raiders give the Storm an 18-0 headstart and somehow outgun them 22-18. The star of the show is Pommy kleptomaniac Josh Hodgson, who produces another crucial ball steal to swing the game in his team's favour.

THE video-refereeing bunker get a vital decision right - by accident - as the Sharks flum an 18-12 win against the Dragons.

With the game hanging in the balance, Sharks back-rower Wade Graham tries to catch a midfield bomb, which bounces fortuitously for centre Bronson Xerri to race away and score.

After repeated viewings, the bunker rule Graham did not touch the pill. But immediately after the game, he admits he did.

There is uproar about an apparent knock-on, only for replays to reveal Xerri was fractionally behind Graham.

Play-on. Never doubted those bunker boys for a minute.

CONTROVERSY erupts after photos emerge of Cameron Smith engaging in an apparent new wrestling technique, which is dubbed "the wingnut".

Slow-motion replays suggest Smithy has grabbed Raiders reserve Bailey Simonsson by the ear, in an apparent attempt to get him to submit in a tackle.

He concedes a penalty for what referee Ben Cummins describes as "rubbish on the face", and the NRL issues an official warning.

Some are saying the incident warranted suspension, but clearly the problem is deciding how harshly it should be judged.

Is it a grade-one wingnut, or a grade two? What does a grade five look like? And how does it compare to other dubious tactics, such as the squirrel grip.

On the subject of foul play, I am intrigued to read that South Sydney - the ones whingeing about Melbourne last week - are the NRL's worst offenders over the past three seasons in terms of suspensions.

The Bunnies have had players sitting on the sidelines for 31 games, compared to Melbourne's 15.

Funnily enough, I don't read any comments from Shane Richardson in the story.

PARRAMATTA forward Shaun Lane insists he is "an idiot, not a druggie" after being fined $17,5000 by the NRL integrity unit for a Mad Monday prank gone wrong.

Lane sent a mate a photo last year of himself holding a small bag of white powder, which predictably emerged on social media.

Manly coach Des Hasler reckons the substance could have been Panadol or Disprin, and Lane insists it was nothing illegal.

All of which raises the question of why he copped the fine, given he apparently did nothing wrong?

It would certainly add weight to his aforementioned self-appraisal.

KNIGHTS coach Nathan Brown faces the media to discuss his decision to stand down at season's end, and raises eyebrows when he says his "greatest achievement" at the club was to tackle a "horrible" drinking culture.

"When I first came here, to be honest with you, the best work was done at the Greenroof [hotel], on the dance floors at the nightclubs and the bars ... rugby league was probably the fourth priority on most people's minds here," Browny says.

It's fair to say the powers-that-be must have done a fine job of sweeping it under the carpet, because I don't remember hearing too much about it at the time.

Many Knights fans will agree Browny is selling himself short, and that their favourite memory will be a certain one-liner of his last year that put the Old Fox back in his box.