KEY POINTS:
It saddens me to see that Graham Lowe is pursuing an unfair dismissal case against the New Zealand Rugby League for a six-figure sum.
Lowie has been a mate of mine for 20 years so I choose my words for this column carefully and I guess this is an open letter to Lowie.
Mate, everything that you set your mind to in our great game, you achieved it and more, from coaching the Kiwis with success to coaching and winning with Wigan and Manly and the Queensland side in State of Origin. Everything you turned your hand to turned to gold. And when you wanted to own and run the Warriors you did that too.
When you wanted to be a media commentator you did that and when you wanted to get back into the game for the NZRL but, on your own terms, you did that as well.
Over the years, Lowie, you have professed many times how much you love the game and, having known you for so many years, I know this to be true. So I can't believe that when the game is financially crippled and the revamped board find it necessary to cut costs you don't just cop it sweet and say "fair enough".
Instead you have to take the game you love and potentially pile-drive it into the ground by pursuing money it doesn't have.
You may well have a grievance with some of the personalities running rugby league and you may be able to make this stand up in the Employment Court and win a payout.
But Lowie, is it the right thing to do to the game? The people with whom you have grievances are not the ones who will have to foot the bill if you win - it will be the grassroots of the game that will suffer.
Over the years, because of your success in rugby league and the heights you reached, the game has looked after you and you have been well paid.
Why is it that now - at the end of your incredible career - you feel it necessary to take a swing right between rugby league's legs with a pair of No. 12 boots?
The sport cannot afford to take that sort of punishment from you.
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I'm pleased to admit that I got it wrong last week in tipping the Eels to beat the Warriors. I felt that without Steve Price and Wade McKinnon, the Warriors did not have a show against the form of the Eels, who had scored 28 unanswered points the previous week to dump the Bulldogs.
The Warriors proved they have developed the depth that might help them weather the storm for the eight weeks Price is out injured.
I thought they played well as a team. The young boys in the forwards stepped up and Jerome Ropati once again had a very good game. He's only 23 but already has 71 NRL games and four test matches behind him.
If he keeps progressing, I believe Ropati will become a real force for the Warriors. They will miss him if he is ruled out this weekend because of an ankle problem.
So, I'm going with my head again, rather than my heart. Manly are always tough at Brookvale Oval and, after losing the first two games of the season, they will be absolutely desperate to put on a good showing in front of their home fans.
I can only hope I'm wrong again.
