Seven Days in League: It's bad and mean, the green cuisine

"It's funny, the criticism comes from some people that haven't really played the game and they haven't coached the game," Bellamy says.

"All of a sudden, they're experts. Cameron has played 400 NRL games, almost 50 State of Origins and so many games for Australia.

"But people that have never played the game, never coached the game, never really been involved in a footy club, come out and bag him all the time."

It's a fair point. I mean is there anything worse than those know-alls who have never felt the sting of a head-high tackle?

Fortunately after an illustrious season with Gundagai Tigers under-13s, and a game off the bench for Bathurst Railway under-18s, this columnist's credibility is beyond reproach.

At Central Coast Stadium, Tevita Pangai Jnr produces the first legal big hit of his career ... but David Klemmer and the Knights recover to donkey-lick the Broncos 27-6.

THE Old Fox of Redfern tells the media to mind their own business after TV cameras capture Latrell "Darius" Mitchell apparently having a blubber in the dressing room.

"He may well have been [visibly upset] but it's got nothing to do with you," Benny says, in an uncanny impersonation of the grumpy Clint Eastwood character in Gran Torino.

"The change room, for me, has always been a sacred place."

I'm not so sure what is "sacred" about a rugby league dressing room.

Back in the old days, press hacks used to have to venture into the sheds to conduct our post-match interviews.

They were invariably dank, dirty places full of sweaty footballers guzzling beer in various states of undress. Sometimes the BO was so overpowering it was a battle not to dry retch.

If that's where Wayne likes hanging out, I reckon it says more about him than it does about the media.

Incidentally, there would appear one surefire way to get the cameras out of the dressing rooms. Just get all the players to walk around starkers. I doubt the NRL would want broadcasts pushed back into an Adults Only time slot.

STEPHEN Kearney once was a Warrior after becoming the first coach punted this season, snatching the title from a host of short-priced rivals.

Speculation is mounting, meanwhile, that St George-Illawarra officials are poised to reward Paul McGregor with a long-term extension after the Dragons rack up back-to-back wins.

In the match of the season, the Roosters beat Parramatta 24-10 at Bankwest Stadium, despite the loss of champion fullback James Tedesco, who is reduced to road kill by Parramatta winger Maika Sivo.

The highlight of the game is when Daniel Tupou scores the match-sealing try and celebrates with a bushman's hanky, then immediately shares a high-five with Josh Morris.

No such thing as hand sanitiser on a rugby league field.

NRL players might be immune to coronavirus, but apparently not to food poisoning.

That's all Seven Days can deduce after Canberra's Cory Horsburgh reveals why he missed last week's win against the Tigers.

"I ate something bad," Horsburgh explains. "I was vomiting all Thursday and Friday. I was pretty crook ... I woke up in the middle of the night really sick.

"I was rattled. I just couldn't stop vomiting. On game day I was still in bed and hadn't been out of bed for a couple of days. I feel better now and I've put most of the weight back on."

The big ranga points to a couple of dodgy sausages as the likely culprit.

Apparently he thought the green snags that Canberra butchers produced for last season's grand final were still in circulation. But what he assumed was food colouring was actually a thriving batch of salmonella, leaving Corey feeling a tad green around the gills.

Perhaps it's time for the Raiders to update their theme song: "It's bad and mean, the green cuisine, it'll leave you perched on the latrine ... "

PETER V'Landys produces the first fumble of his time in charge of rugba league when he tells Channel Nine that another Brisbane team is the priority if expansion plans proceed.

Four clubs in Queensland? Really?

I guess at least the Broncos, Titans and Cows would have someone to beat.

COWS enforcer Josh "Spitfire" McGuire doesn't mince words when he analyses his team's loss against the Tigers last weekend.

"To put it bluntly, it was pretty s---house from us as a group," he fumes.

"We get everything given to us - a brand-new facility, information given to us on a daily basis.

"To go out there and not do your job, you're taking the p---."

Poor old Josh. If he had his time over, he would probably have stayed at the Broncos. Then again ...

Meanwhile, Nathan Brown - the Parramatta lock, not the ex-Knights coach - finds himself on holiday again after copping a two-week ban for a high shot.

He was in a purple patch of form, but it's another black mark against Brown's name.

KNIGHTS rookie Bradman Best cops a week on the sidelines for the heinous crime of visiting his mum at her home.

That'll do me. The world has officially gone mad.