COMMENT
The NRL has its justifiable share of villains, with names like Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Matt Lodge and Gerard Sutton infamous for sending followers fluorescent with rage.
However after the occasions of Thursday night time, we are able to safely add Taane Milne to this membership of flagrant provocateurs.
Watch each recreation of each spherical this NRL Telstra Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks throughout play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Begin your free trial at the moment >
Milne’s despicable act within the closing levels of Souths’ traumatic 54-20 flogging to Melbourne was so putrid even Tommy Raudonikis would’ve been clutching his pearls.
And even regardless of the Match Evaluate Panel slapping him with a wafery three-week suspension (two with the early responsible plea), it ought to nonetheless be the ultimate nail within the winger’s dipsy NRL profession.
Deep in to junk time and with nothing to achieve however indignant notifications, Milne launched in to the legs of a stationary Cameron Munster with a feral cannonball that just about left the five-eighth with marionette knees.
The winger was subsequently sin-binned, however he was lucky to not be despatched for an early bathe (albeit with solely 9 seconds remaining) and 6 months of full-blown deradicalisation.
You possibly can watch the ugly sort out within the video above
The sort out was finest summed up by commentator Ben Te’o on Triple M as “one of many grubbiest performs of the season”, with even his coach Jason Demetriou slamming it as a “dumb play to finish a dumb night time.”
However for Milne, it ought to finish greater than only a dumb night- it ought to be the final play of an NRL profession that sees him end in notoriety, or simply as chilly, the English Tremendous League.
A sturdy service of the ball, Milne has rebounded from his sacking from the Wests Tigers in 2018 to carve out a spot as a pinch-hitter for Souths on the wing and back-row.
Nevertheless, his rebirth has been potholed with a collection of mind snaps and butter-fingers which are much less useful than Hopoate-ish.
Milne’s most memorable efficiency was getting sin-binned twice in Souths stirring semi-final win over the Roosters in 2022, however that was solely till it was usurped a fortnight later when he earned six weeks for clocking Spencer Leniu.
However along with being a loose-armed hothead who likes to puncture a coach’s belief as a lot as an opponent’s spleen, Milne has been a abdomen ulcer for Souths followers when he’s truly on the paddock too.
He’s equal with Latrell Mitchell as one of the crucial penalised Rabbitohs in 2024, plus he makes extra unhealthy choices in defence than Bruce Lehrmann.
It’s no rarity to see the Fijian worldwide wafting on the wing like an aimless plastic bag, as evidenced by the abundance of contemporary air Xavier Coates loved down his aspect within the AAMI Park smash-up.
Whilst you can’t accuse Milne of not giving all-out effort in a Rabbitohs season drenched in torpor, Demetriou wants his wingers attacking yardage, not ACL’s.
Regrettably for the 28 12 months previous, unsocial gamers like him have gotten a knife-edge proposition for coaches in an period the place you could be suspended for a nasty tone of voice.
Don’t get me fallacious; all of us love our footy edgy and undomesticated, with many people craving for the great previous days once we waved away Terry Lamb’s excessive shot on Ellery Hanley as a very good ankle-tap.
However it’s fairly simple to get your self suspended as of late, and blokes like Milne who earn all their working metres trotting off for an early bathe have gotten too dangerous if you could be penalised for one thing as benign as purses within the tunnel.
In a season for Demetriou of mass droppings – each on the workforce sheet and performance-wise – one other raft of modifications have been flagged following the Storm loss.
However even with the membership’s harm disaster leaving his shares right down to bone marrow, you’d be mad to wager in opposition to the coach taking the safer choice over Milne, like enjoying with 12 males.
– Dane Eldridge is a warped cynic craving for the glory days of rugby league, a time when the sponges had been magic and the Mondays had been mad. He’s by no means strapped on a boot in his life, and as such, ought to be taken with a grain of salt.
