The NRL acknowledge Paulo's standout game with a "gorilla" emoji on their Instagram page, then it dawns on whoever is responsible that perhaps this all stinks a bit like Eddie McGuire.

A hasty retraction ensues, even though a host of NRL players have already "liked" the post, as have the Eels, who reply: "That's our guy right there."

Most importantly, it seems Junior enjoyed the attention and tells NRL CEO Andrew Abdo he was not offended.

Phew, that's a relief. There I was thinking the NRL integrity unit was going to have to sanction the NRL for bringing the game into disrepute.

DRAGONS forward Josh Kerr joins former teammate James Graham in declaring he is willing to pay the ultimate price to be an NRL footballer.

"If people are worried about [concussion], don't play the sport," Kerr declares.

"I know it might sound silly and a bit naive saying this, but I'd die for rugby league because of the people you meet, the places you go, the money you get paid ... you can't do this forever. I think you've got to be willing to die to play this sport."

Kerr's comments come just days after Graham tells Foxtel he was "willing to take on those risks" during his own playing career.

"I thought about what's the meaning of life," Graham recalled. "Maybe for me, finding the meaning of life was finding something worth dying for."

I'm not sure what to make of all this.

My initial reaction is that if I was going to die playing rugby league, it would hopefully be for a team who are some chance of winning the comp, not a bunch of basket-case easybeats like the Dragons.

Also, I'm not sure if this has occurred to young Josh, but all the friends and cash in the world won't be much use to him once he's brown bread.

Nonetheless, the more I think about it, the prouder I am of the greatest game of all. I mean, how many AFL players would lay down their lives for the aerial ping-pong code?

My guess is none. Their mailboxes would be overflowing with white feathers.

SEVEN Days rises after a troubled sleep.

It has dawned on me that perhaps there are many, many NRL players out there who share the same ingrained death wish as James Graham and Josh Kerr.

How long, I wonder, before unscrupulous NRL coaches start to exploit such Kamikaze tendencies?

It's not hard to picture a coach addressing his troops just before kick-off: "Big game today boys. Who's willing to have a real crack and die for us out there on the pitch?"

Indeed, it might seem like drawing a long bow, but at what point will human sacrifices become part and parcel of playing in the NRL?

I mean, imagine the intensity and commitment of teams if they knew that after every loss the player who missed the most tackles would get his head chopped off.

There would no longer be any such thing as a dead rubber. Just a dead halfback or hooker ...

THE Faiders head home from a rain-soaked Kogarah with two competition points, leaving Sharks halfback Chad Townsend kicking stones. Shame he couldn't kick a goal instead.

"It was never going to be an attractive game. It was just a gritty, shitty affair," says Canberra coach Ricky Stuart. Fortunately Sticky is never happier than when he's shitty.

THE bloke who has spent the past 12 months campaigning for a Joey Jones statue at McDonald Jones Stadium might want to think again, after news from Melbourne.

The recently unveiled Cameron Smith statue at AAMI Park has been desecrated over the weekend, by some smart-arse who has whacked a slice of devon on top of his melon.

Poor old Smithy. Here's hoping he pops up in a commentary booth soon with a full head of that Ricky Ponting-style astroturf.

Meanwhile, I note with interest a report from the nation's capital revealing that a cane toad has been found at a Yarralumla nursery.

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. Josh Pap-ah-lee-ee has been with the Faiders for years, and before him there were a long line of Cane Toads, such as Mal Meninga, Gary Belcher and Steve Walters.

A NAME jumps out at Seven Days - Justice Helen Syme - as I peruse the reports about Jarryd Hayne's sexual-assault conviction.

Hmm, where do I know her from? Then I realise she was the same judge who sent ex-Knight Danny Wicks up the river a decade ago for supplying drugs.

"This is a sad case," she said in sentencing Wicksy. "From time to time, good people do bad things. In my mind this is one of those cases."

I'll be surprised if the Hayne Plane receives such a sympathetic send-off when Justice Syme dispatches him to the big house.

The "Long Bay Lifers RLFC" announce on Twitter they have signed Hayne to a "four-to-seven-year deal".

Oh to have been a fly on the wall at Jack de Belin's house when Hayne's verdict was handed down.

The Dragons are reported to be interested in signing out-of-favour Sharks prop Andrew Fifita.

Just what they need ... an overpaid loose cannon with a chronic knee injury. Are they really that desperate?