Post mortem clears sad Bolton
AN “embarrassed and disappointed” Scott Bolton says it will take some time to move on from his unfortunate moment of notoriety after a goalpost robbed him of his moment of glory against Brisbane.
With his side down by four points with 90 seconds left on Friday night, the prop looked certain to score the matchwinner, but lost the ball after smashing into the Suncorp Stadium post.
The moment even attracted attention in the US, with popular sports site Deadspin exclaiming the match ended on “an heroic goalpost”.
Scoring the matchwinner would have been a fitting reward for Bolton, who was superb last year in the absence of injured teammate Matt Scott.
“I’m very disappointed and a little bit embarrassed as well,” Bolton said.
“I could have made a pretty big play for the team and help Tones ( winger Antonio Winterstein) celebrate his 200th NRL game.
“I got extremely close but the goalpost got pretty big on me pretty quick,” Bolton said.
“If I hit it probably an inch either way I’d probably have scored, but I hit it dead square.
“It’s probably going to go through my head a million times between now and next week. tackle from the
“You’re always going to think ‘ what if I did this and what if I did that’.
It didn’t happen and I have to move on and hopefully make the play next time.”
Bolton’s teammates were quick to rally around him and were adamant he shouldn’t blame himself for the loss.
“Like everyone I thought he was going to score,” co- captain Johnathan Thurston said.
“We can talk about that all we like but the game got away from us ( when momentum changed) in the first half.
“We were on top early and when it shifts the other way, defensively we’ve got to be a lot stronger than what we were.
“When the tide turned, we weren’t good enough.”
Coach Paul Green added: “I thought Boltsy was over, but you can’t blame him.”
Broncos coach Wayne Bennett knew his team dodged a bullet.
“We needed a bit of luck,” he said.
“That’s what made it pretty special. They were up 8- 0 but we hung in good.”