25 July, 2016 10:45
CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
IN THE NRL, Wests Tigers executives have today announced they will meet to discuss Robbie Farah’s strident criticism of the club this week as the ongoing feud between coach Jason Taylor and out-of-favour hooker and on-again-off-again team captain Robbie Farah heats up.
After the Farah-less Tigers defeated St George Illawarra on Sunday in round 20 of the NRL, Coach Taylor indicated he would meet with the club to discuss Farah’s recent comments about the club and his coaching methods.
In a recent press conference that resembled more of a men’s support group, club veteran Robbie Farah made a point of awkwardly revealing to the media that his relationship with his coach is still quite strained, and that he doesn’t like the direction the club is heading.
“I feel I am getting treated differently to some others,” Farah said.
“I will continue being professional and try and keep my mouth shut and try not to do anything wrong because I think that is what they are trying to get me to do. But I think I am a bit smarter than that.”
Farah claimed he was being forced out of the club and ridiculed Taylor’s publicly made reasons for sacking him.
“During our most recent run-in I nearly pulled a Fa’alogo” he said
“He’s really winding me up, and it’s no way to treat a local legend. How many other players can say they are Leichardt born and bred? Other than probably Woodsy”
‘Pulling a Fa’alogo’ refers to the 2009 South Sydney Mad Monday celebrations, where Jason Taylor was once again caught up in a confrontation with one of his players, David Fa’alogo, who he coached through several seasons at the Rabbitohs.
It was midway through a lengthy session at the Forresters Hotel in South Sydney when the team’s coach [Taylor] attempted to bond with his young stable of players with some rough ‘Horseplay’. Headlocks and dead-arms were all a part of the boozy shenanigans. Right up until David Fa’alogo was bumped from behind, resulting in a spilt Vodka Sunrise. Within seconds, Jason Taylor was concussed.
The initial reports suggest Taylor was punched several times before being thrown down a flight of stairs and punched again. This incident saw Taylor take half a decade hiatus from coaching first grade, before returning to Wests Tigers.
Farah, who went on to give the media an intricate run down of his deepest emotional hurdles both on the football field and in his love life, says he still isn’t ruling out pulling a Fa’alogo, however Tigers great, Blocker Roach doesn’t think he has it in him.
“He’s talking a big game, but Farah is more of an emotional kind of footballer,” say Roach.
“He’s not a livewire like the great Fa’alogo. He’s more of a complain-to-the-media type, not an brutally-assault-your-coach-and-throw-him-down-three-flights-of-stairs type”
A true enforcer of the game, David Fa’alogo played his junior football for the Papatoetoe Panthers In New Zealand before being signed by the South Sydney Rabbitohs at a young age. Throughout his illustrious career with the green, white and red it became apparent that not only was this young Kiwi a natural rugby league footballer, but he was also a natural brawler.
Roach believes that Farah isn’t cut out for the Fa’alogo style of problem solving, when it comes to Jason Taylor.
“Remember Anasta? That was fuckin’ crook. Farah isn’t capable of that kind of behaviour” he said, referencing on-field discretion that left Sydney Roosters icon Braith Anasta with a mouth full of blood and a undeserved red card. ‘You’re off ya head mate’ has since entered Australian English as an expression of disappointment and unfair sentiment after Anasta was sent to bin for being punched out.
“He should stick to ‘pulling a Farah’ by complaining about club politics to the media until the club has at least three more secret meetings and Taylor gets replaced. It’s a tried and true formula.
Jason taylor needs to go