St George Illawarra Dragons prop Aaron Woods has criticised Ryan Matterson after the Eels' forward elected to take a three-match ban over paying a $4000 fine for a dangerous tackle.
Matterson was placed on report for a crusher tackle on Dylan Edwards in last week's Grand Final loss to the Penrith Panthers and has since decided to relegate himself to the sidelines rather than go out of pocket.
Speaking on Triple M, Woods took fire at Matterson stating, “He's just one of the tightest humans you'll meet. I can't believe it, there's no way I'd miss a game, I'd pay $50,000 to play one game.
“If he was at the Dragons he'd be in the other change room because he wouldn't be allowed in our one, he'd be with the NSW Cup team.
“I don't understand, some people would be dying to play an NRL game and he's missing it for $4000.
“Just quietly he just got a big upgrade, he took the Dolphins for a bit of a ride then came back and got a good squeeze out of Parramatta. But he's only human, we'd probably all do the same thing.”
Matterson has responded to his critics telling the AAP on Wednesday he does not believe he should be fined for actions on the football field.
“At the end of the day, I have personal things I need to worry about outside of rugby league. I just didn't think it was warranted," Matterson said.
“If you do something wrong at work. They don't take money off you.
“I didn't do anything wrong. I'm playing rugby league."
Matterson has also feuded this week with Grand Final opponent Jarome Luai over his suspension, alleging that the Penrith five-eighth was kicking players in the head despite not placed on report.
My take on that is that he must be on a flat rate every week, regardless of whether he plays or not. Hence, missing three matches will not cost him a penny.
It strikes me that if that is the way Parra pays its players, it needs to change. I can understand that it makes keeping to the salary cap much easier, but that is not a sensible approach to financial management of the cap.
“If you do something wrong at work. They don’t take money off you.
“I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m playing rugby league.”
Makes me wonder if he has ever had a “career” job outside professional sport. Perhaps someone should tell him that people who do something wrong at work tend to get fired, and that tends to adversely affect their long-term prospects.
Perhaps someone should also tell him that taking three weeks off will go down so poorly with Parra management that they may use any infraction in future as an opportunity to rip up his contract.