Battered Oates ready to let bygones be bygones
BRONCOS winger Corey Oates says he holds no hard feelings towards former teammate James Roberts after copping an elbow to the head in Friday’s 22-20 loss to the Rabbitohs.
Roberts yesterday entered an early guilty plea for a grade two dangerous contact charge on Oates and has been suspended for two weeks.
The former Bronco dropped his elbow into the side of Oates’s head, who lay stunned on the ground for several seconds before stumbling to his feet.
The Rabbitohs flyer was sin-binned for the act and will now miss the rest of the regular season with his two-week ban.
Oates said Roberts had apologised to him later in the game and he didn’t hold a grudge against his former teammate.
Sporting a graze under his left eye, Oates said Roberts’s act may have just been frustration boiling over from his departure from the club.
“I don’t know (what I did to make him do that),” Oates said. “It might have been what happened here (at the club).
“He didn’t leave like he wanted to, so it just happened so we’ll leave it there and we’ll move on now.
“He probably went into the game with a bit of aggression and showed a bit on the night (but) he said sorry afterwards.
“I’m not the sort of person to hold a grudge.
“It’s a game of footy. You get hit, you get elbows, you get put on your head, stuff happens. People don’t intentionally go out there to hurt people.
“It’s happened, game’s over and we just have to move on to this weekend.”
The fuse was lit in the pregame build-up with both coaches, and Souths assistant coach Jason Demetriou, engaging in a war of words.
It set the scene for a heated exchange between the two sides at Suncorp Stadium and the players did not disappoint.
Another former Bronco, Jaydn SU’A, was also sinbinned and put on report for a careless high tackle on Alex Glenn.
SU’A was
$1150 fine. slapped with a