Fresh footage has emerged of Elliott Whitehead and Trent Robinson’s heated post-game confrontation on Allianz Stadium following a tackle which ended the season of Roosters hooker Brandon Smith.
Whitehead and Robinson revealed the details of the spat in their respective press conferences following Canberra’s 14-12 win over the Roosters.
In vision obtained by Fox League, Whitehead is seen going over to Robinson on the field just after fulltime where the two seemingly engage in a heated discussion before Whitehead walks away.
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The outgoing Raiders veteran, who has likely played his last game in the NRL after being slapped with a three-match ban for the tackle, said he attempted to apologise to Robinson for the tackle, but the Roosters coach rejected it.
It fired up Whitehead enough to bring it up in the Raiders presser, with Robinson returning serve in his media opportunity.
The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield called it “brilliant theatre” on NRL360.
“I love a bit of spice in rugby league and a lot of press conferences these days are cliché-ridden,” Rothfield said.
There was a blow up behind the scenes yesterday and we would have not known about it had Elliott Whitehead not told us about it and then Robbo responded.
“I think there is fault in both. Elliott should have not done the hip drop to start with and then should he have had raised it in the press conference and then Robbo responds but he has Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is a dirtier player than Elliott Whitehead.”
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The Australian’s Brent Read then said he thought Robinson had to “show a little bit more class” in this situation, which led to a fiery back-and-forth between Read and NRL360 co-host Braith Anasta.
Read: I don’t like the reaction from Robbo. Elliott has come to apologise and see how Brandon is so I think you have to show a little bit more class than to attack him (Whitehead). He’s lucky Elliott didn’t put one on his chin.
Anasta: Why would he put one on his chin?
Read: I mean he’s ripped into the bloke. He’s ripped into Elliott Whitehead.
Anasta: How has he ripped into him? All I’ve heard (Robbo) say was that he (Whitehead) does it too many times. He’s just had one of his player’s legs nearly snapped in half. Whether it’s an accident or not doesn’t matter.
Read: Well it does matter.
Anasta: Well if it is an accident then, Whitehead’s been charged more than any other player in the history of the game for hip drops.
Read: Only after this one. He was tied with (Roosters prop) Lindsay Collins heading into the weekend.
The panel then watched the footage of Whitehead and Robinson’s discussion, with Anasta putting to Read whether it looked like the pair were having an “abusive conversation”.
Read: Well, it doesn’t look like a pleasant one based on what Elliott has told us afterwards.
Anasta: So, he should have knocked him out you reckon?
Read: No, I’m saying he’s lucky he didn’t. I don’t think he should have.
Anasta: There’s two sides to it. I actually rate the fact Elliott went up to him.
Rothfield backed up Robinson’s comments, believing that the coach’s hand was forced when Whitehead addressed the situation in the press conference before.
“Once Elliott raised it in the press conference, I can understand Robbo having to go into more detail about his history to defend himself,” he said.
“He could have simply said I wasn’t happy about it. Why did he have to say this bloke is a serial hip drop merchant,” Read added before Anasta interjected with: “You’re adding words to that now. You’re adding drama to it now.”
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