Lions left lost after Voss sacking

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The Brisbane Lions players are in apparent shock after the sacking of Michael Voss (far left). Source: Darren England / News Limited

BRISBANE players were left shocked and stunned by the axing of senior coach Michael Voss on Tuesday.

Lions players were told of Voss' demise at a special meeting at 3.30pm, and a sombre mood prevailed over the playing and coaching group as they entered the club's Gala Auction function at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

It was a noticeably awkward atmosphere at the usually laid-back, fun-filled function. It was more like a wake than a fundraiser.

Brisbane great Simon Black said he felt for his former teammate, good friend and fellow Brownlow Medallist.

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Black and Voss shared in three premierships as teammates and made up two of the club's famed "Fab Four'' in Brisbane's glory years. 

"I didn't see it coming at all,'' Black told The Courier-Mail.

"It was a complete shock.

"Vossy has been an enormous part of my life.

"I think the world of him.''

Voss was cleaning out his desk at the Gabba as guests were ushered into the function.

He said the overwhelming emotion was disappointment.

"I'm disappointed that in the end, I didn't get to finish what I started,'' he told The Courier-Mail. "We were improving which makes it all the more disappointing.'' 

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Earlier on Tuesday Voss said, "I don't know how I feel''.

"Tomorrow I will wake up and don't go to work and that's all I know,'' he said.

"I have loved more than anything else, and the club is dear to me, but I have gone every day and there has been something to improve in our players. That is what I will miss the most.'' 

It is understood that chairman Angus Johnson, CEO Malcolm Holmes and football manager Dean Warren delivered the news to Voss early in the afternoon after the board held an unscheduled meeting in the morning. 

Voss is yet to address the Lions playing group but hopes to speak to them on Wednesday.

He felt he was meeting the criteria of blooding young players and closing the gap on the top eight after winning 10 games in 2012. 

Brisbane defender Daniel Merrett said the news was still sinking in.

"Everyone is absolutely shocked,'' he said. "We didn't see it coming at all,'' he said.

He paid tribute to Voss for helping shape his career. Merrett played his 150th senior match last weekend after making his debut in 2005 when Voss was still Lions captain. Merrett was part of the club's leadership group when Voss took over as senior coach. 

"I can't say enough about what a great mentor he was to the players,'' Merrett said. "I've known Vossy for a long time.

"I've played with him. I've been coached by him. He's had a massive impact on my career.''

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Selectors must 'pick and stick': Waugh

Phillip Hughes has been hard done by, according to former Test captain Steve Waugh. Source: AFP

CRICKET legend Steve Waugh says selectors need to pick and stick with the nation's top six Test batsmen if they're to have any chance of putting Australian cricket back on the winning path.

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He says the axe hanging over the heads of Australia's fringe batsmen is preventing them from relaxing and playing their natural game.

"Look at Phil Hughes, he's been up and down the order and has been dropped three or four times in 20 Tests. That doesn't give you much confidence," Waugh said.

"Usman Khawaja is another example.

"Selectors have got to say: 'We're going to go through some tough times, but these are the six or seven batsmen we believe in and we're going to back them even if they don't succeed straight away'."

Waugh's comments to ABC's 7.30 program came the same day Australia's batting order crumbled once again to hand England the fourth Test in Durham and a 3-0 series victory.

Chasing 299 to win the Test, Australia was in the box seat to win at 0-109 before collapsing to be all out 224.

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The 168-Test former captain says he has experienced first-hand the benefits of selectors showing faith, as he didn't win a Test match until his 13th Test and failed to score a ton until his 26th Test.

However, he then flourished into one of Australia's most successful batsmen and captains, accumulating 10,927 Test runs with an average of 51.06 and leading Australia in 15 of their record breaking 16 consecutive Test victories.

"It took a long while for me to get it right as well," Waugh said.

"But I had the benefit of getting it wrong.

"Right now, the selectors need to pick and stick and show confidence in players."

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Don't give players a breather: Kent

Souths prop Sam Burgess gestures to the referee during the Rabbitoh's match against the Storm on Friday night. Source: Getty Images

LIKE most reasonable thinking men, I spent yesterday hiding from Noel Kelly just in case he got frustrated.

That was us brave souls over there, cowering in the corner, legs crossed. Kelly is probably the most loveable bloke in the game now, quick with a story matched only by his wit.

His assessment that Sam Burgess's squirrel grip on Melbourne's Will Chambers was nothing more than frustration borne out of the game no longer tolerating a player being able to punch someone had many of wondering what he is capable of if things got really bad.

What if you accidentally picked up his drink in a bar? Or stepped on his shoe while lined up at the bank?

If you remember rightly, the NRL came out strongly after Origin I and declared that punching was not acceptable and anyone challenging this belief would be immediately sin-binned.

Some lamented the softening of the game, even if it wasn't exactly right. The game has never tolerated punching.

And Kelly should know. He was sent off 17 times in his career, including twice in one game on the 1963 Kangaroo Tour.

He was sent off so many times, he once said, that when he's out front gardening and the postman goes past and blows his whistle he gets up and goes in for a shower.

In other words, it has never been in the rules that you are allowed to punch someone.

Even if you are getting a little frustrated, or things aren't going right, or the guy opposite is laughing at your missing teeth.

Oh, most did it at one time or another, and it was accepted that sometimes it just happened.

But nothing has really changed.

What else hasn't changed is that squirrel grips have never been accepted as fair play on the paddock. Nobody can justify it, or really attempt to, like they might a fight.

But Kelly isn't altogether wrong about increasing frustrations in the game, and the NRL would be wise to hear him out before dismissing him as the ramblings of a sentimental old man.

Noel Kelly after being sent off playing for the Kangaroos against Widnes. Source:

Burgess was clearly frustrated throughout the game. Melbourne's wrestling tactics were strangling the life out of Souths last weekend and, with it, any chance of winning.

Last week on NRL360 we showed how much slower the game is today than it was 20 years ago, running split frames of scrum and penalty restarts and an entire set of six. Despite the players being slower, less fit and less athletic 20 years ago than today, they got to the last tackle six seconds quicker than they do today.

Over 60-70 sets in an average game, that's an extra 360-420 seconds, or an extra six to seven minutes football we had back then that we don't get now.

Then you've got the time wasting at scrums and penalties, where most players have time to roll a cigarette before play restarts.

Poor vigilance has allowed all these bad habits to creep into the game and, slowly, change its fabric.

The wrestling slows it down mostly, though.

So why don't we outlaw it?

Wrestling is like a complicated tax law, too hard to understand, too entangled in the system to simply remove. Best get on with it and hope everybody learns to live with it.

Every club is doing it, not just Melbourne. The Storm just happen to do it best. While it can never be completely eradicated anymore, the NRL needs to find ways to lessen the wrestle's impact. Quite simply now, the best teams are the best wrestlers, as it allows them to dominate defensively and keep fresher for when they have the ball.

The easiest and cleanest way to lessen the wrestle's impact is to cut down on all that rest time before scrums and around penalties and on kick restarts. Countless seconds are burned while players hold committee meetings and referees get their breaths back.

Shortened rest periods would increase fatigue and impact on teams' abilities to get so many players into each tackle to wrestle. It would give us more football in our 80 minutes.

Of course, coaches will then search for other ways to slow the game to reduce the impact a shortened rest was having, particularly if they are about to defend a set, but that again falls back on the lawmakers.

A couple of quick penalties would soon fix that.

The modern player should have no trouble understanding that, and if they do they can ask Kelly what that sound is.

It sounds like the postman riding past while you're out front gardening.

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Toomua to trump Quade for No.10

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McKenzie (L) is set to throw Toomua a shock debut against the All Blacks. Source:Getty Images

EWEN McKenzie is set to make a shock selection in his first Test by handing Brumbies rookie Matt Toomua a Test debut in the Wallabies No.10 jersey against the All Blacks on Saturday.

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Keen to use the element of surprise against New Zealand, the Daily Telegraph understands McKenzie has overlooked Queensland Reds playmaker Quade Cooper for a comeback, the scenario most predicted based on their provincial history.

Instead the new coach has plumped for Toomua, 23, whose impressive form this year helped the Brumbies to the Super Rugby final two weeks ago. Cooper is likely to be injected into the game from the bench and James O'Connor, who filled the five-eighth's role against the Lions, is set to be moved back to the wing.

The opening Bledisloe Cup clash at ANZ Stadium will be Toomua's first taste of Test football, after injury last season robbed him of a probable call-up and ex-coach Robbie Deans ignored his claims for the Wallabies' squad against the Lions.

Toomua displayed his capacity to shine in big games, in any case, when he guided the Brumbies to an historic victory over the midweek Lions in Canberra.  His defensive prowess, particularly, stood out in that game and charging, hard hits were a feature of his strong Super Rugby form as well.

McKenzie's selection will likely see the young playmakers of the Super Rugby final – Toomua and Chiefs star Aaron Cruden – matched up again, and that defensive starch is no doubt an asset that appeals to the new Wallabies coach.

Cruden is the man tipped to wear the All Blacks No.10 after Dan Carter was ruled out with a calf injury on Tuesday. Toomua belted Cruden with a trademark shooter in the final, and his defensive pressure has the ability to not only rattle Cruden, but contain hard-running No.12 Ma'a Nonu as well.

It could also throw All Black planning to target Cooper out the window.

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Toomua is no greenhorn at the professional level, having accrued 37 Super Rugby caps since debuting as an 18-year-old in 2008.

His Brumbeis mentor Stephen Larkham said earlier this year Toomua should have worn the Wallaby No.10 against the Lions.

"Defensively he is outstanding, his attack is coming on and his kicking has certainly improved, and he is understanding the game way better," Larkham said.

"He has definitely got that ability to rise to the next level. Having a look at him two years ago to now, it's chalk and cheese. He has got smarts, control, "nd understanding."

Toomua said last week he would love to play against the All Blacks:  "They're the best team in the world at the moment. You kind of what to pit yourself against that. It would be really cool playing against them."

McKenzie has gone to great lengths to keep his first team under wraps, restricting media access to training and giving little away in public discussions.

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Centre Adam Ashley-Cooper, who is expected to retain his No.13 jersey, said players were still shifting around in training. The unknown factor of McKenzie's first team is hoped to work in their favour against the All Blacks.

"Delaying the selection, which they probably will too, doesn't give them too much certainty and gives us that little element of unpredictability," Ashley-Cooper said.

"We haven't had much time together and we are going up against the number one team in the world first up so maybe that competition (for spots) will prove the turning point.

"I feel off the back of Super 15 campaigns this year, we have had some success there in terms of a lot of individuals growing as footballers. The squad we have here is really exciting. I am really liking the look of the new faces that have been included, and over the last couple of weeks at training there is a real buzz and a real excitement."

The Wallabies under McKenzie would look to use plenty of width in their game, said Ashley-Cooper.

"We have more working on creating a lot more opportunities. Depending on who we got with, you can just expect a more expansive game, but with us making good decisions," he said.

"With the distributors we've got in the team, Matt Toomua, Bernard Foley, Quade Cooper, James O'Connor, the likes of those guys can play with an expansive game. We have a lot of quality out wide and it would be rude not to use it."

There's still plenty of tickets left for the Bledisloe Cup opener in Sydney - check them out here ticketek.com.au

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Benji eying World Cup berth for NZ

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Benji Marshall of the Tigers runs with the ball. Source: Matt King / Getty Images

AMBITIOUS? Driven? Or just delusional?

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Wests Tigers star Benji Marshall revealed his football plans to represent New Zealand at the rugby league World Cup and then become a rugby union All Black. 

Despite his career sliding, Marshall, it appears, still wants it all.

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Marshall, who has signed with the Auckland Blues Super Rugby franchise, wants to represent Steve Kearney's Kiwis in England later this year before then pulling on an All Blacks jumper ahead of Dan Carter and Aaron Cruden. 

During a press conference at Concord Oval yesterday, Marshall also refused to apologise for wearing a Blues jumper in a You Tube announcement while still contracted with Wests Tigers. 

Despite defecting to rugby union, Marshall still wants to play in the rugby league World Cup.

"Absolutely," he said.

"It's something that I have always done proudly throughout my career. That is to represent New Zealand.

"One of the proudest moments of my life was being captain of New Zealand. Yeah, absolutely."

Pressed on whether he could then become an All Black, Marshall said: "Absolutely.

"I know it is going to be a tough ask and a tough switch but that is what it's about.

"You've to have challenges in your life to strive for.

"If I don't look to make it to the top I don't think it would be a success.

"I've got a lot of hard work to do, no doubt. If I can achieve what I want to achieve with the Blues then it will go a long way to achieving the All Blacks."

Marshall wore a Blues jumper to announce his shift to rugby union, angering Tigers officials and fans.

Asked did he regret his decision, Marshall said: "What's been done has been done.

"At the end of the day that's where my job is going to lie next year and they wanted to put that out and release. That's over. 

"As far as I'm concerned, I don't need to comment on that.

"I am happy to talk about the Tigers but I won't be talking about that."

Marshall though was pressed on the issue.

Asked how Tigers fans would have felt, Marshall said: "Like I said, what's been done is done.

"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and if people feel that, they feel that way.

"At the end of the day I had to put out what I put out for the Blues sake.

"We're not in finals contention so it was the time to do it."

Wests Tigers coach Mick Potter attacked Marshall on Sydney radio.

"Yeah I see it a little bit like that but I think it's more just in bad taste," Potter told Sky Sports Radio. 

"I wouldn't say it's naivety because I think Benji probably knows better."

Marshall strangely dismissed Potter's criticism.

"He actually didn't rip me hard. He actually called me last night to me it was quite the opposite,'' Marshall said.

"The relationship between myself and the coach is great. No dramas there.''

Marshall will leave rugby league under a black cloud.

Tigers CEO Grant Mayer admitted yesterday it would be a "sad" departure.

Asked would his legacy be tarnished, Marshall said: "I don't think it should to be honest.

"As far as I am concerned, what I have done for the game on a personal level — not only on the field but also off the field — has been quite positive. 

"There has been a number of negative stories about me throughout my time in rugby league that I haven't had a lot to do with.

"I have made quite a positive impact on rugby league and that was my goal, to be leave the best legacy possible and be a great role-model for children. 

"I am proud of what I have done."

Wests Tigers centre Blake Ayshford said players were trying to ignore the dramas at Concord.

"I don't know what is going on with a lot of the stuff," he said. 

"I don't really know most of the stuff that goes on.

"I am not going to judge or criticise anyone in this club for what has happened."

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Ferguson wants out of Raiders

Blake Ferguson of the Raiders runs with the ball. Source: Mark Metcalfe / Getty Images

BLAKE Ferguson is torn between his loyalty to the Canberra Raiders and a craving to return to Sydney to be with his uncle, Anthony Mundine.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the blockbusting centre wants out from the final two years of his Raiders contract, which he signed less than 12 months ago. 

He will approach Raiders coach Dave Furner before the end of the season to formally ask for a release.

Every club in Sydney would want the NSW State of Origin star, who could ask for upwards of $500,000-a-season.

Only St George Illawarra have been ruled out, because his minders understandably don't want him at the same club as his old partner in crime Josh Dugan. 

Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan and CEO Steve Noyce are aware of the situation and are desperate to get him back into a Sharks jersey. 

Parramatta Eels coach Ricky Stuart is also close to Ferguson from their days in the Shire.

Their relationship was so tight that there was a clause in Ferguson's contract that should the coach leave, he would become a free agent. He activated it and joined the Raiders. 

The Ferguson situation is almost identical to Dally M champion Ben Barba and boom rookie Anthony Milford, who want out from the Bulldogs and Raiders, respectively, on compassionate grounds. 

They are both expected to join the Broncos at the end of the season.

Ferguson has a great relationship with Furner, who has resolutely stood by him despite a number of serious issues at the Raiders.

He is also tight with the Canberra players, who have been just as solid in their support.

The long and lonely hours away from football are the problem. 

He desperately misses Sydney, having recently spent a month under the care of Mundine at his home in Sydney's south.

The Blues star is still undergoing counselling and feels his best chance of moving forward is by having the boxing champ permanently in his corner. 

Mundine recently told The Daily Telegraph about how he was caring for Ferguson and getting his life back on the rails. 

"My focus has been to get him right mentally," Mundine said. 

"To get his head strong. 

"I've been teaching him my philosophies on mental strength so that, when the time comes, he is going to make the right choices.

"And believe me when I say he will; that he's turned the corner ... I'm expecting nothing but greatness from now on.

"With a strong mind, Blake will be the best centre on the planet. Not a good centre, not a great centre, but the best centre anywhere."

Ferguson is rated as rugby league's next big thing, potentially another Mal Meninga, Gene Miles or Justin Hodges. 

He recently missed six weeks of football after being stood down by the NRL when he was charged with indecent assault following a night out with Dugan. 

He has pleaded not guilty and the matter has been adjourned until September 3, days before the final round of the regular NRL competition. 

Despite the lay-off, Ferguson made a barnstorming comeback to the NRL for the Raiders against the Sydney Roosters last Saturday night. 

It was as though he hadn't missed a game.

The performance didn't go unnoticed by Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens and his selectors, who will soon finalise their World Cup squad for England in October. 

On the same weekend Test centre Justin Hodges broke down with a season-ending achilles injury, Ferguson proved he is the ideal replacement. 

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