Duke, Juric show future is bright

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Tomi Juric showed his talent with a fine goal against Japan for the Socceroos Source: Ahn Young-joon / AP

IT was the ultimate in bittersweet experiences for Socceroos young guns Mitchell Duke and Tomi Juric as their joy at scoring their first senior international goals was tempered by Australia's 3-2 loss to Japan.

The defeat ended Australia's hopes of lifting the East Asian Cup, with Japan now in the box seat to win the tournament.

But for A-League pair Duke and Juric, they at least had the consolation of finding the back of the net as Australia fought back from 2-0 down to scare Japan, who then responded with a late winner from Yuya Osako.

"It's the greatest feeling in the world scoring at international level, and it was my first goal at international level as well, so it's been a great experience – (I) love it," said Central Coast Mariners striker Duke, who was making only his second Socceroos appearance.

"We knew what we had to do, get on the ball more and it worked out well for us. We were just unlucky with the result unfortunately."

Juric also earnt his second cap when he replaced veteran Archie Thompson with less than 20 minutes remaining.

The Western Sydney Wanderers striker had a near-immediate impact, equalising with a great finish.

"It was a good touch I got out on my feet and thanks to Mitch (Nichols), who let it go for me," Juric said.

"I got on to it and got into a good position to score and thank God it went in.

"But it's disappointing we lost. Coming back to 2-2 with the boys fighting back and trying to get a good result but unfortunately we were just unlucky."

Juric also felt he was unlucky not to be awarded in the dying stages.

"I thought he had his arms wrapped around me and brought me down when I turned the ball with the cross coming in," he said.

"I thought it was a penalty but unfortunately it wasn't."

Socceroos coach Holger Osieck praised both Duke and Juric.

"Mitch Duke had an outstanding game and got rewarded for that by scoring his first international goal and when Juric came on he showed some aspects of what he can give to the team," Osieck said.

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Hird, Evans at odds over drugs scandal

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Fall out ... James Hird and Mark Evans are under extreme pressure. Source: Michael Klein / News Limited

ESSENDON coach James Hird and chairman David Evans have fallen out as footy's drugs scandal deepens.

Hird and Evans - friends for almost 20 years - have starkly contrasting accounts of an emergency meeting held at Evans' Hawthorn home on February 4.

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In a day of drama the pair came face to face at a board meeting, as the team prepared for the blockbuster clash with Hawthorn at Etihad Stadium.

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Hird and Evans are at odds over what was said in telephone call between Evans and AFL boss Andrew Demetriou the night before the club self-reported to the drug watchdog.

Thursday's Herald Sun revealed conflicting versions of the meeting had been given to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

Hird declared "the truth will come out" over what transpired.

"We've all given our version of what happened, or the truth, to ASADA," Hird said.

"I know I've told the truth to ASADA and I know other people have as well, so the truth will come out over time," the coach said.

Hird said the content of Demetriou's call was discussed by those present on the night: himself, Evans, former chief executive Ian Robson, club doctor Bruce Reid, and football boss Danny Corcoran.

When asked whether Demetriou had done anything wrong, Hird replied: "I'm not sure.

"I wouldn't have thought he has, but I'm not the ACC (Australian Crime Commission), I'm not ASADA. I'm a football coach trying to coach a game (tonight)."

In a statement to the Herald Sun, ACC chief executive John Lawler said he did not have evidence any of its information had been used inappropriately.

"The ACC does not have any information to support the assertion that representatives of the Australian Football League failed to honour their written undertakings, given to the ACC in accordance with the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002, to protect the content of the confidential briefing they received," he said.

Evans has categorically defended Demetriou's version of events at the February 4 meeting.

He said after a club board meeting he would not be standing down as club chairman.

"I want to make this really clear: tonight was a regular and scheduled monthly board meeting," he said.

"In relation to media reports, I am not standing down as chairman and the board did not ask me to explain my version of events.

"This was a routine board meeting.

"Yes, we've got some big issues ahead of us, but we are all awaiting the ASADA investigation to be completed."

Demetriou confirmed speaking to Evans, but firmly denied the league had tipped off the club.

"There absolutely was a discussion that I had with David, because I'd spoken to him throughout the day, and I did ring him that night because I was returning his phone call,'' Demetriou told 3AW.

"But it wasn't tipping off David Evans that Essendon was the club, because we didn't know who the club was."

Demetriou said Evans had been receiving calls from the media at the time about the use of supplements - calls the AFL had also received - before making his own inquiries at his club and becoming "quite disturbed", leading to the meeting being called.

"As David found out more and more things, he rang me to tell if I knew any more,'' Demetriou said.

"I kept saying, 'I don't know any more, David. I don't know who the club is'.

"He rang me and I returned his phone call at nine o'clock that night."

Asked if he had mentioned the ACC briefing of January 31 to Evans, Demetriou said he had not, because it was confidential.

"(I was asked) whether I tipped off David Evans before they came forward ... and I stated yesterday categorically, as I did on previous occasions, that I did not," Demetriou said.

"And I did not for one simple reason: I didn't know who the club in question was," he said.

"The AFL wasn't aware of who the club was in question because the ACC, who briefed us a few days earlier on the Thursday, wouldn't disclose to us who the clubs involved were."

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Folau sticks with Waratahs

Israel Folau is sticking with the Waratahs. Picture: Stephen Cooper Source: Stephen Cooper / The Daily Telegraph

THE NRL can forget about luring back Israel Folau after the superstar agreed to terms with the Waratahs.

Folau is understood to have extended his tenure at NSW by two years, and once the ARU top-up component of his deal is settled it will be publicised.

Folau, who was on Thursday night rubbing shoulders with other football heavies including NRL types at the subscription television ASTRA Awards, will become one of the highest paid rugby players in the country.

It could still take a few weeks to settle the contract but Folau'sre-signing is also expected to help the Waratahs secure Kurtley Beale, who was spotted at the club's Moore Park office on Thursday.

It is a time of change at the Tahs.

Coach Michael Cheika has taken a hard-line stance on players leaving the club in the off-season.

After initially announcing that Japan-bound Berrick Barnes and France-bound Sitaleki Timani would be part of the Waratahs' two-match tour to Argentina next month, on Thursday he announced they had been pulled.

Cheika, who is filthy on a number of players who have decided to leave, wants to give opportunities to those who he may be able to use next season, and has now included Eastwood centre Michael McDougall, 22, as Barnes' replacement.

The Tahs play two games against Argentinau on August 3and 9, which the Pumas are using as their warm-up to the Rugby Championship.

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Salary cap destroying NRL: Johns

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Israel Folau has been a huge success in rugby union. Source: Colleen Petch / Herald Sun

WITH an alarming drop in crowds and television ratings this season, it's critically important the Australian Rugby League Commission addresses some major issues in the game immediately.

None is more important than a complete and utter restructuring of how it administers the salary cap.

For a number of seasons the people running the game have pointed to the evenness of the competition as evidence that the current salary cap structure is good for the game.

But don't confuse evenness for quality.

This year we are now faced with a competition in which too many teams and too many games lack genuine star power and quality.

Let me be more direct.

Life's too short to watch some of the matches on offer. Due to work commitments I take in every pass and every tackle, and it takes every ounce of self-discipline not to record some of the matches and fast forward through the muck.

It's time to lift the standard of the competition by rewarding successful clubs, rather than cutting them off at the knees.

The NRL needs to stop using the bottom clubs as a measuring stick to what everyone else can spend.

Sporting clubs like Manchester United and the New York Yankees are global brands because their governing bodies allow them to grow upon their financial and on-field success.

Our clubs work hard, win a premiership, then spend the next five years slowly being dismantled by a flawed system, which rewards mediocrity.

In American sports such as Major League Baseball, if a team is run better and is more financial than the team down the road, then they are allowed to spend more, as simple as that. Imagine the New York Yankees getting their cap cut in half, simply because half a dozen clubs were struggling to keep up?

The Israel Folau fiasco should be enough to trigger radical changes.

Here we have one of the NRL's most important teams, in Australian sport's most hotly contested region, western Sydney, and Parramatta weren't able to sign this superstar because he didn't quite fit under their cap.

The AFL had spent millions promoting Folau and we were about to get him back and his club of choice, Parramatta, couldn't have been more perfect, given they now can add the A-League's Western Sydney Wanderers to their long list of competitors.

Instead, he was allowed to go to rugby league's most traditional competitor, rugby union. And with the ease in which Folau has made the transition, he is basically a walking advertisement to other rugby league players, saying: "Come and join me. Half the work, twice the pay!"

Maybe that's what convinced Benji Marshall?

Meanwhile, Parramatta are hot favourites to collect another wooden spoon and hardly anyone's watching.

Anyone who doubts the impact Folau could've had at Parramatta need just look at what Josh Dugan has given the Dragons, Greg Inglis the Rabbitohs and Sonny Bill Williams the Sydney Roosters.

Speaking of Sonny Bill, what are we doing to try to convince him that he should forget about a return to rugby union?

It seems many at the NRL have taken it as a given that SBW will return to the All Blacks for the next World Cup. Well, change his mind, whatever it takes.

Another very important club which has completely lost its way is Brisbane.

If ever there was a rugby league team which had the money, the ambition and the success to become a global brand, it was these guys. That was their goal.

Now look at them, they are the perfect example of how the current system submits even the most ambitious into mediocrity. The Broncos are attempting to punch out of the corner by making a bold bid for the game's most influential player, Cameron Smith, for a reported $1.5 million a year.

He deserves every cent.

Problem is, that will account for almost a quarter of the Broncos' salary cap and therefore force them to cull many of their good youngsters, who only need a player like Smith to go to the next level.

The league needs to change the way it thinks. It should be encouraging teams like the Broncos, the Bulldogs and so on to spend money. Not only to keeps stars in the game, but also draw stars in.

Rugby's Quade Cooper is basically sitting out there with his hand in the air saying: "Come and get me someone." Yet no club is being encouraged to do so.

GET Israel back, KEEP Sonny Bill. GRAB Quade Cooper and SNARE Kurtley Beale while we're at it.

The salary cap was introduced to stop rugby league destroying itself, but if we're not careful it could be doing exactly that.

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Gutted Prince facing retirement

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Brisbane Broncos playmaker Scott Prince on the bench. Source: Tim Hunter / News Limited

A SHATTERED Scott Prince is facing the prospect of retirement, with the Broncos indicating the veteran playmaker will not be an integral part of the club's plans next season.

As he prepares for Brisbane's must-win game against the Cowboys on Friday, Prince's 15-year career could soon be over after discussions with Broncos hierarchy about his future.

The 33-year-old is contracted for another season, but has been given no guarantees of NRL action in 2014 as Broncos coach Anthony Griffin presides over a regeneration of the club's roster.

The development comes at a difficult time for the Broncos, who are banking on Prince's experience to overcome one of his former clubs, the Cowboys, and keep their season alive in Townsville.

Griffin declined to comment when contacted Thursday night.

The Courier-Mail understands the Broncos are happy to honour the final 12 months of Prince's deal, but he risks spending it languishing with a feeder club in the Intrust Super Cup.

The ignominy of a former Origin and Test halfback playing second-tier football with part-timers next year could convince Prince to quit the NRL at season's end on his terms.

Currently on 293 NRL games, Prince is on course to celebrate his 300th match in the final regular-season round against the Bulldogs at Suncorp Stadium.

Prince's halves partner Peter Wallace faces a similar predicament.

Axed to the bench on Tuesday, Wallace believes he is surplus to requirements at Red Hill and has begun exploring options to continue his career in the NRL.

Prince could put retirement on the backburner with a stint in the English Super League, but with his family happily settled on the Gold Coast, he would be reluctant to head offshore.

Prince's shock recruitment in the wake of his bitter split with the Titans was always going to be a boom-or-bust move. 

His signing raised the ire of rising pivot Corey Norman, who subsequently signed with Parramatta.

And while Prince has shown glimpses of his glory days, he and Wallace have struggled to consistently ignite a Broncos outfit languishing in 12th place.

The departure of Prince and Wallace would leave a major void at the Broncos scrumbase in 2014.

Boom 18-year-old halfback Ashley Taylor is likely to be added to the full-time squad, while Ben Hunt could be an option at five-eighth.

However, any playmaking strain would be eased by the arrival of Bulldogs sensation Ben Barba, who is tipped to join the Broncos next season and could be a game-breaker in the No.6 jumper.

Cowboys pivot Johnathan Thurston last night defended Brisbane's purchase of Prince and said he is wary of his former Queensland Origin halves partner.

"They have players moving on with the shuffles they have made, but they will still be confident in the halves with Scotty there," he said. 

"I played Origin alongside him and the Indigenous All Stars, he's won a premiership, played for his country and won a number of Origins. 

"Princey is probably what they needed, especially with Locky (Darren Lockyer) retiring. 

"They needed an old head to steer them around the park. He is a great footballer and hopefully we can limit him as much as possible."

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Frosty back in V8 title chase

Winterbottom's season has slowly picked up after a horror start. Source: Ian Hitchcock / Getty Images

MARK Winterbottom has declared he is back in the championship hunt with the Ford top-gun claiming he has rescued his title dream and can now resume his war with Jamie Whincup.

On the even of the Ipswich 360, Winterbottom said he thought his season was over just four rounds ago after bad-pitstops, crashes and blown tyres had him languishing at the bottom of the top-ten.

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But after going on a "nothing to lose" charge, Winterbottom has roared back into contention with a string of solid results seeing him climb to fourth in the championship with only Will Davison, Craig Lowndes and Whincup in front.

Winterbottom is hoping to continue his charge up the leader board this weekend and turn up the heat on his old sparing partner Whincup with three race wins up for grabs at the track known as the "paperclip".

"We are definitely back in it," Winterbottom said.

"I have been catching points and all those things that were costing us points now at the start are going right. We are not too far off it at all coming into the endurance rounds. We will certainly be in it if we can keep this type of form up.

"We have three races this weekend and it is very important to continue making gains and improving. Each race is becoming vital and we need to continue the push."

Winterbottom said he had given up on his season following a string of failures, the only thing keeping him going the prospect of endurance glory.

"I thought I was gone," Winterbottom said.

"I really thought we were no chance. We had good car speed but all the other things were going wrong. The pitstops, the gearbox, the tyres, it was all happening and we weren't expecting to catch points on the front guys but it has happened. We still haven't had the cleanest run but we are bagging the points. It has definitely changed because three months ago I thought it was over. It is a tight championship and I am sure it will come down to December."

Winterbottom was locked in a heated battle with Whincup at the beginning of the year - the pair taking each other out in a war in Auckland - and is now hoping to jump Davison and Lowndes so he can resume the fight.

"I am not that far away now," Winterbottom said.

"If I plug a couple more positions I am on him. It is going to be a fight and Red Bull (Racing Australia) are having there own battles now. They had there worst ever round in Townsville last month and really need to bounce back here to cement themselves in the championship.

"They are lucky they have lots of points and a buffer because there is a lot of pressure on them now and we need to keep it on. Hopefully we can pass those two guys and who knows? Maybe it will be our two cars fighting it out for the championship."

Winterbottom said he would not change his new found aggressive driving style.

"I will keep on pushing," Winterbottom said.

"I am not going to change anything. My job is still to put pressure on the others, that is it. I will keep on attacking."

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