20 February 2008

Ex-Brumbie gets the boot

| Joe Canberran
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The ex-Brumbie (is traitor to strong a word?) that most Canberrans’ love to hate, the stupid haired, glove and handbag wielding Matt Henjak has been given the boot by the ARU and the Western Force after being found guilty by RugbyWA Conduct Committee (no news on any criminal proceedings to my knowledge) of breaking a teammate’s, Haig Sare’s, jaw while on a night out on the piss. Sare has also copped a fine and a suspension.

Is this a new standard in football to be followed by all codes or has Henjak just, despite his talent, pushed things too far? Is Henjak just a young bloke who can’t handle his grog or just a bad bad St Eddies (that was his school right?) boy?

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I used to play against Matt at school (not going to mention which one). He was a brat at school both off and on the field and often was involved in dirty tactics, including stomping peoples hands when scrums collapsed (i.e. Mine). I’m pretty sure he had an attitude problem before he made it big.

The Raiders are a very responsible and educating club. Everybody deserves a 3 strikes policy. No doubt Henjak did a stupid thing on this particular occasion, but I’m not throwing any stones. I’d hate to see players like this wasted in England or Japan or anywhere overseas for that matter. However, loyalty is an extremely rare thing these days…

Swap Henjak for Carney? One lot of trouble for another, seems like a fair swap to me.

I think there are a few that are coming off contract at the end of 2008 for the Green Machine.

anybody would do better than carney has

Since there are rumors that Carney is going to chuff off and play with Penrith (good on you Carney, you loser), I would personally love to see him play with the Raiders. Carney can go to Penrith right now for all I care…

Sare was fined for having a glass jaw and being a wuss obviously.

Out of curiosity why was the Sare guy fined also? Was it just for being out drinking too?

Holden Caulfield11:48 am 20 Feb 08

Maybe he’s learned a few tricks from his Perth based AFL cousins. 😉

I remeber watching a Brumbies game at the Kingo back in the day when Henjak was playing. There were a bunch of blokes there who I assumed were ex-Eddies rugby boys, jeering every time he got the ball, and cheering everytime he made a mistake (usually deciding to go himself rather than pass, getting isolated and losing the ball). They had some nickname for him but I can’t remeber it through my drunken haze.

Point is, seems he wasn’t well liked by a number of his ex-playmates, and things don’t seem to have changed much.

he’s a thug who actively picks and looks for fights when on the piss, i think his sacking was compeltely deserved

This is sad, and shows a lot of what is wrong with professional sport. Henjak was a good player who, a couple of years ago, was the logical successor as the Wallabies 9 to the sainted George Gregan. The decline has been dramatic, with him now rated behind many others (Sheehan, Holmes, Valentine, Phibbs, Burgess, Giteau at least). Perhaps he drank to deal with his disappointment; perhaps the disappointments happened because he drank too much.

He is young enough to get his head right and return to his former status. I hope he is talking to those who can help him find a way out.

I guess he’s got a fine career playing the thugs version of Rugby (league) ahead of him then now.

Most players manage to grow up when they leave school, unfortunately Matt did not.

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