Set of Six: The biggest grubs in the NRL

Some players just have a special knack for getting under everyone’s skin. Jarret Filmer pays tribute to the six most notorious grubs currently in the NRL.

John Hopoate. Les Boyd. Danny Williams. The history of rugby league is littered with enough rapscallions and rogues to fill the First Fleet. Their names of these grubs echo through the ages almost as loudly as the Immortals.

A true rugby league institution, a grub is probably best defined as the sort of player who pushes the rules to the limit, engaging in the sort of dirty and aggravating play that makes him adored by his own fans and despised by everyone else. A true grub is as cherished for his competitive streak as he is vilified for his dirty acts.

The retirement of Mick Ennis has left a void at the top of the NRL grub food chain. ‘The Menace’ was a grub par excellence. Indeed, his tenure as the NRL’s pre-eminent irritant was so enduring and indelible it seems possible no future grubs will ever live up to his filthy legacy. But nature abhors a vacuum. Here are his six nearest counterparts.

1. Josh Reynolds

No list of NRL grubs could be complete without the man whose nickname is simply ‘Grub’. Reynolds demonstrates a trait common to many of his fellow grubs: an almost pathological competitiveness that has the unfortunate tendency to boil over into outright filth. His trademark act of grubbery is the foot trip. Reynolds is notorious for flailing a leg out when he has been wrong-footed by a sidestep, an act which he claims is an involuntary reaction. The frequency of his attempted trips suggests he is either a grub of the highest order or he has about the same control over his lower extremities as an epileptic Morris dancer.

Greatest Act of Grubbery: While Reynolds is most renowned for his tripping, perhaps the grubbiest act he has committed was his faux-Hopoate on Aiden Sezer, a shout out to the most perfidious incident of grubbiness in the history of the NRL. Reyolds claimed it was a joke between friends, but there are few acts grubbier than a finger up the bum.

2. Russell Packer

Packer isn’t just a grub on the field – in 2013 a brutal assault saw him jailed for the sort of off-field savagery that would make even Greg Bird blush. His cheap shot on the Panthers Peta Hiku earlier this season shows that while Packer has got his life together off the field he is still a monster on it. While there are certainly heart-warming aspects to how Packer has seemingly put himself back on the right track, he’s still not a bloke you want to see outside the kebab shop at three in morning.

Greatest Act of Grubbery: Assault convictions aside, the grubbiest act Packer has committed on a rugby league field was when he dropped to a knee, slid his George Gregan out the leg of his shorts and relieved himself on the field. Anyone who treats the hallowed turf with the same sort of respect that a Labrador shows for a lamppost is a grub of the highest order.

3. Cam Smith

While Packer and Reynolds are examples of a gladiatorial fury that burns white hot, Cam Smith is the Hannibal Lecter of grubs – cool, calculating and cerebral with just a hint of the cannibal lurking beneath.

Cam Smith’s reputation as perhaps the biggest winner in the history of the NRL is tarnished by his capacity for grubbiness, a trait often glossed over by Queenslanders and Melburnians. Smith has turned whingeing at the referee into an artform, while his Melbourne Storm teams have spent the better part of a decade contorting the definition of a legal tackle into a pretzel. Between the ‘chicken wing’, the ‘crusher’ and the ‘prowler’ an entire menagerie was necessary to describe the Storm’s grubbiness. Smith is the grub-in-chief who uses his reputation to paper over the Storm’s transgressions and bully the referees to overlook his side’s filth.

Greatest Act of Grubbery: While Smith is usually quite stealthy in his grubbery, his most egregious act of filth was blaming Alex McKinnon for the tackle that left him paralysed while McKinnon lay prone on the field. To be fair the Storm skipper didn’t know the full extent of McKinnon’s injury at the time, but it’s still pretty grubby to be more focused on avoiding a penalty than on an opponent’s wellbeing.

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4. George Burgess

The Burgess brothers could have been included as a single entry but in recent times George’s grubbery has clearly exceeded that of his brothers. While his older brother Sam perfected the ‘squirrel grip’, George specialises in a wide variety of raw-boned, northern England grubbery that includes shoulder charges and using his elbow as a battering ram. Burgess’ increasing grubbiness seems to run parallel to his diminished effectiveness as a player – as though he is trying to compensate for his failing form with greater acts of thuggery.  George is currently side-lined for a bone-rattling shoulder charge that left Brisbane playmaker Anthony Milford severely whiplashed and turned him into an internet meme. If Burgess continues with his repeated acts of grubbery he faces the prospect of infringing his way out of the NRL.

Greatest Act of Grubbery: In 2015 Burgess copped a contrary conduct charge for heaving a water bottle at Roosters forward Kane Evans – while sitting on the bench. It’s a high-level grub that can earn a suspension while sitting on the pine.

5. Kenny Edwards

Edwards might not yet be one of the most notorious grubs in the NRL, but he is certainly trying. A troubled player who bounced around several clubs before making his first-grade debut, Edwards’ grubbiness seems to stem from his inability to control his temper. He returned from a seven-match suspension for domestic violence last weekend only to became the first player to be sin-binned for slapping an opponent. He was then caught on camera taking out his fury on a chair in the Eels locker room. This is hardly the first instance of grubby behaviour from Edwards – while playing for the Dragons NYC he was accused of biting an opponent, and he’s been a regular visitor to the judiciary ever since. It’s almost like Edwards is playing grub bingo – the way he is going he’s only an eye gouge and a ‘Hopoate’ away from a full house.

Greatest Act of Grubbery: Edwards managed to get banned for a season in the Gold Coast lower grades when he wasn’t even playing. While acting as a trainer for Southport Tigers under-17’s he apparently repeatedly incited his side to fight the opposition. It takes a special kind of grub to cop a huge ban for encouraging grubbiness others.

6. Paul Gallen

In recent years the Cronulla Sharks have been ‘Grubs R Us’, employing the likes of Michael Ennis, Andrew Fifita and Greg Bird while also being embroiled in the peptide scandal. There is just something about the blue, black and white that inspires players to commit breathtaking acts of filth. Perhaps the biggest grub of them all is also the best Cronulla Shark of all time: Paul Gallen.

‘Gal’ is a classic grub. He takes almost puritanical umbrage when anyone mentions that peptide scandal and then plays innocent while dishing out a relentless mix of stiff arms and high shots. He scores highly for his ability to pull off some of the dirtier underhand filth in the game and then act with righteous indignation when anyone suggests that he might have overstepped the line. Last weekend’s diving scandal highlighted exactly how massive a grub Gallen truly is – not only is he willing to blatantly bend the rules of the game, he acts with complete indignance when he is called out on it.

The most telling factor in Gallen’s grubbiness is how much he loves the filth. He positively revels in it, and if his grubby antics manage to upset the opposition then so much the better. Cronulla and New South Wales fans describe Gallen as ‘tough’ or ‘uncompromising’. Everybody else calls him exactly what he is: King of the Grubs.

Greatest Acts of Grubbery: Gallen has committed a slew of grubby acts, both on and off the field. Some examples: elbow-dropping Josh Maguire, ripping stitches out of Anthony Laffranchi’s bandaged face and racially abusing Mickey Paea. But perhaps the grubbiest act he has committed was verbally abusing a young fan during the peptide scandal. Pulling out stitches is one thing but it’s hard to blame an act of filth on ‘white line fever’ when it happens in a hotel lobby. Grub.

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