CATALANS DRAGONS head coach Steve McNamara has launched a strong defence of his halfback Luke Keary following his explosive comments about Super League.
Among Aussie veteran Keary’s quotes in Wide World of Sports were: “I’ll go on the record saying it is in such a bad way, the game is horrendous over here.
“It’s the product, the coverage, the news around the game, there is zero.”
RL Commercial managing director Rhodri Jones defended Super League in response on BBC Radio 5 Live and said: “He’s been perhaps a bit over-dramatic in his comments.”
After Catalans went down to a narrow defeat to Leigh Leopards at Magic Weekend, McNamara said: “It’s a really long interview that he’s done.
“Some of that was used over the Easter period, some of it has been used over the last few days, and there’s a lot more of it to maybe come out, they might use it or might not.
“The stuff afterwards that he spoke about, the great talent in the competition. He talked about what this game deserves, and what he’s used to and experienced.
“How he’s said it and how he’s come across, quite clearly he’s been in an aggressive manner there.
“But journalists want people to say things, to not just sit on the fence all the time, and someone has come and done that and given his opinion.
“He’s a three-time Grand Final winner, he loves the game and wants the game to be like that in the northern hemisphere as well.
“He’s allowed to express his opinion. I agree with some of the things, there’s some things to be debated there, but he’s giving his opinion.”
McNamara was far from pleased with the defeat to Leigh, saying: “We played really poorly.
“You’ve got to give the opposition credit, they’ve got the job done as they have against us a few times.
“We missed that many tackles in the first half and made so many errors in the second half, we feel we’ve given that one away.”
He also explained captain Ben Garcia’s first-half withdrawal was down a groin injury, which makes him a doubt for their Challenge Cup semi-final with Hull KR next Saturday.
“He’ll work extremely hard next week to get himself right but he’ll be a doubt,” noted McNamara.
