All Star boss calls for Knights cap help

Saturday 13th February 2010

By STEVE MASCORD at Skilled Park

NRL All Stars coach Wayne Bennett called for Newcastle to be given special salary cap relief if their captain Kurt Gidley is ruled out for the rest of the season with a knee injury suffered in Saturday's historic loss to the Indigenous side.

A sell-out crowd of 26,687 saw the All Stars concept introduced to rugby league as Indigenous substitute Jamie Soward scored the match winner with six minutes left at Skilled Park - but injuries to Gidley and Australia captain Darren Lockyer marred an emotional evening.

There are grave fears fullback Gidley has anterior cruciate damage after a tackle by Newcastle clubmate Cory Paterson - bringing comparisons with Arthur Beetson's hit on fellow Parramatta player Mick Cronin in the opening State of Origin match thirty years ago.
And Brisbane five-eighth Lockyer decided against playing on in the second quarter amid fears of torn left biceps.

"I think perhaps the League should look at, if Kurt has got a long-term injury, some compensation under the salary cap to help try and replace that bloke," Bennett said.

"I don't think there's enough done there at the moment, when you play in this type of game (Newcastle) will be disappointed, the Broncos will be disappointed but it won't over-ride all the good stuff that's been done here tonight."

Asked about Bennett's idea, NRL chief executive David Gallop told rugbyleague.com: "There's obviously some salary cap rules around long-term injuries. We'll have a look at that."

Paterson said the incident involving Gidley had marred a wonderful experience for him. "Obviously what I did, what happened to Gidsy, is not really nice," he said.

"I went and saw him afterwards and it happened before I tackled him. It's a bit of a relief but I still feel pretty bad about it. It's a big downer on the night. I hope he's OK."

Torn biceps could leave Lockyer in danger of missing round one of the NRL. "It was the very first tackle of the game, from the kick-off," he revealed, before suggesting the lack of field time might encourage him to play on in representative football.

In possibly his last first-class match, Indigenous winger Wendell Sailor provided an early highlight when he ripped a cornerpost out of the ground and mimicked playing it like a didgeredoo after scoring his sixth-minute try off a Scott Prince kick.  Hooker Ben Jones' touchdown from dummy-half in the 33rd minute made it 10-0 to Neil Henry's side by halftime, but the NRL side grabbed the lead with scores to winger Josh Morris (54 minutes), five-eighth Benji Marshall (58) and centre Michael Jennings (61).

That set up a grandstand finish and man of the match Johnathan Thurston provided St George Illawarra's Soward with a sublime flick pass for his 40 metre run to the line.

"It reminds me a lot of the first Origin game we ever played," said Bennett. "Queensland had to aim up otherwise it was dead in the water. The Indigenous team had to aim up here tonight."

The first proponent of the All Stars idea, Indigenous captain Preston Campbell, went missing for an hour after the game as he visited friends and family in the crowd - including grandparents who had never seen him play before.

"Not just indigenous people - I really hope we inspired Australia tonight," he said.

One aspect of the night that was a failure was the rule variation under which teams could eschew a conversion in favour of trying to score a touchdown from the 20 metre line in one tackle.  The NRL side employed an American Football scrimage and a 1970s style ‘Wall', each without success.

And Nate Myles kicked ahead despite this being banned under the experimental rules.

INDIGENOUS ALL-STARS 16 (Wendell Sailor, Ben Jones, Jamie Soward tries; Johnathan Thurston 2 goals) beat NRL ALL STARS 12 (Josh Morris, Benji Marshall, Michael Jennings tries) at Skilled Park. Referees: Gavin Badger/Shayne Hayne/Luke Phillips/Ashley Klein. Crowd: 26,687.
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