"I did not coach or have a run-down football team at the Broncos,'' Benny says.

"Seibold has 12 players with Origin or Test experience. We are being lost in the smoke and mirrors. There is a lot of talent there under Seibold but no one is playing to their talent.''

Seibs opts to reply with a "no comment", which is disappointing.

I reckon he should have taken the Nathan Brown approach.

The highlight of Browny's stint as Knights coach was when he declared at a post-match press conference: "The reality is when Wayne came to town, if he thought with his big head rather than his little head, I wouldn't have had to rebuild the joint."

I'm not really sure what Browny was getting at, but at least he was willing to stick up for himself.

Seibs is obviously trying to be diplomatic but he could have easily have pointed out that in his first season in charge of the Broncos, he steered them into the finals.

And that's more than the so-called master coach managed back in 1988 with a roster that included superstars like Wally Lewis, Allan Langer, Gene Miles and Greg Dowling.

UNLIKE coach Anthony Seibold, Broncos winger Corey Oates decides to speak his mind after being dropped from the team to face the Warriors.

"To be honest, I didn't see it coming and I don't think I deserved to be dropped," Oates fumes.

"I was heartbroken when the coach dropped me. It bloody hurt. I didn't take it lightly and I wasn't happy, I was pretty pissed off ... it was a tough pill to swallow.

"I've had a conversation with the coach and I said I will still be the same person around the team. I will just train and work hard to get my starting spot back."

Oates gains a late reprieve and is recalled to the bench when prop Matthew Lodge withdraws through injury.

You wouldn't want to be standing in the big fella's way.

Sounds like he is fired up and ready to run through brick walls.

COREY Oates gets his chance to make amends when he enters the game late in the first half ... and promptly drops the ball cold on his first hit-up.

One of your best, Oatesy.

The rest of his teammates aren't much better and slump to a 26-16 loss to a Warriors team minus their only half-decent player, fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.

It's enough to make a grown man cry ... several of them, in this case.

Some find the post-match images heart-breaking. Personally I haven't laughed so hard since David Warner blubbered at his ball-tampering press conference.

At Bankwest Stadium, big BJ/Joey/Joseph Leilua stakes an early claim for the Dally M Dumbo of the Year award with a blatant stiff-arm on Penrith fullback Dylan Edwards.

It's fair to say BJ/Joey/Joseph was always one of the short-priced favourites for this particular trophy, given his track record of recurring brain explosions.

This season his main competition is likely to come from Tigers coach Michael Maguire, who apparently signed serial offender BJ/Joey/Joseph on the premise that he could somehow reform him.

Looks like they will both have a month to ponder their rash decisions.

JUST when it seems BJ/Joey/Joseph can start planning his acceptance speech, Manly prop Addin Fonua-Blake surges into Dumbo of the Year calculations from left field.

Fonua-Blake is sent off for giving referee Grant Atkins a massive gobful at full-time, after his team lose 14-12 to the Knights.

It is revealed that Fonua-Blake called Atkins a "f---ing retard", although he later apologises, with all the sincerity of a boofhead footy player who suddenly realises he is likely to renew acquaintances with the match-review panel.

Fonua-Blake wore one of those surgical face masks to a press conference earlier in the season.

Maybe if he'd been wearing it on the field he wouldn't be in so much strife?

THERE is pandemonium north of the border as Queenslanders realise they are running out of fingers to count the Broncos' consecutive defeats. They have already moved from one hand to the other, and confusion reigns supreme. What happens if the losing streak continues to the point there are no fingers left? For the record, it's Brisbane's worst slump since 2003, when they lost eight on the trot. I wonder who was coaching them that year?

FONUA-Blake might appear in deep poo, but it's all relative after his Manly teammate Manase Fainu appears in Campbelltown Local Court to face charges of stabbing a man in the back at a Mormon church dance party.

Fainu, who has been stood down by the NRL's no-fault stand-down policy since his arrest in October, pleads not guilty but police allege witnesses saw him stab the man during a brawl. The young hooker is committed to stand trial. If found guilty, he won't be packing into a scrum with Fonua-Blake any time soon.

JENNIFER Hawkins and her husband have sold their waterfront home on Sydney's northern beaches for a reported $20 million.

To think her rise to fame and fortune started waving pom-poms at the Newcastle Knights' home games. Surely our Jen deserves to be the first cheerleader inducted as an Immortal into the NRL Hall of Fame?