Hannant stung by after-match insult from rival front-rower Gibbs
CHRIS BARRETT
April 17, 2010
BULLDOGS prop Ben Hannant was left fuming last night about a comment directed at him by opposing front-rower Bryce Gibbs as the players shook hands at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Visibly upset at the remark, understood to have been an insult of a personal nature, Hannant faced up to the Tigers prop before the pair was separated by Bulldogs team manager Fred Ciraldo.
Sitting among teammates in a jubilant Canterbury dressing room after their victory, Hannant was the odd man out, clearly still upset by the confrontation which had looked set to worsen.
He would not say what was uttered by Gibbs but the Tigers' hardman's words clearly had the desired effect.
''I'll keep it to myself,'' Hannant said. ''He knows what he said. I don't really want to comment on it at this point in time.''
Asked whether he was upset by what Gibbs had said: Hannant replied: ''It looked that way.''
Gibbs was not in the mood to chat about the incident either, as he sat in the Tigers' room. ''I don't want to say anything. There is no point,'' Gibbs said. Of his subsequent altercation with Ciraldo, he offered: ''He was just trying to push me out of the way, I guess.''
It was not quite the ending Hannant, who made 35 tackles and 17 hit-ups as the Bulldogs' held off the Tigers, had in mind. The final siren that sounded a moment earlier signalled a return to the winner's circle for a club which has stumbled out of the blocks this campaign.
Canterbury coach Kevin Moore was delighted, although he acknowledged his side was far from its best in dismantling a potent opposition.
''Whilst our attitude and defence and effort were great, we are still nowhere near our best,'' Moore said. ''When you spend a few weeks in bad form, your confidence and your cohesion and your teamwork can sort of just fall by the wayside.
''It takes a little bit of time to get it back. Hopefully, next week we're going to improve on that. It was good tonight but we certainly need to go to another level next week and get consistency.
''I haven't been happy for a few weeks with where we're at. Sometimes you just fall into bad form - lack of confidence, lack of troops, all that sort of stuff. We've had to work hard to get it back.''
Bulldogs captain Andrew Ryan, whose tireless performance Moore singled out for mention, said the win would give his side confidence in its defence.
''For us to keep them to four … they've got some quality attacking players in their team, so it was good to just keep them to that,'' Ryan said. ''We'll keep working hard and she's on again next week.''
