{"id":489433,"date":"2026-06-22T06:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/489433\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T06:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:08:14","slug":"not-a-crybaby-sharks-stars-eye-raising-declaration-as-robbo-weighs-in-on-fiery-on-field-feud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/489433\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not a crybaby\u2019: Sharks star\u2019s eye-raising declaration as Robbo weighs in on fiery on-field feud"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roosters coach Trent Robinson has had his say over the entertaining on-field feud between his winger Mark Nawaqanitawase and Sharks star Ronaldo Mulitalo. <\/p>\n

Watch every game of every round of the NRL Premiership LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on FOX LEAGUE, available on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nawaqanitawase and Mulitalo resumed their healthy rivalry in the Roosters\u2019 27-8 win <\/a>over Cronulla and went toe-to-toe on several occasions.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Both players were willing to engage in plenty of trash talk and it threatened to spill over <\/a>more than once. <\/p>\n

In one instance, Mulitalo shoved his forearm into the Roosters star\u2019s face in a tackle. <\/p>\n

The Sharks flyer isn\u2019t afraid to push the envelope on the field to get into the heads of his opponents but those tactics aren\u2019t always well received.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Nawaqanitawase got the better of Mulitalo with a double. In heartwarming scenes, the pair shared an embrace post-game with Mulitalo conceded the better man won at Allianz Stadium.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSometimes you\u2019ve got to take some humble pie, and he won today,\u201d Mulitalo told reporters post-game.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we exchanged words during the game. Everyone does. But if you\u2019re one of those cry babies at the end of the 80 minutes, then you shouldn\u2019t be playing the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a gentleman\u2019s game, it\u2019s a rough man\u2019s game. After 80 minutes, if you\u2019re still carrying on, you\u2019re a crybaby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Robinson and Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon were asked about the running battle between the two stars in their post match press conferences. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean it\u2019s a part of Ronnie\u2019s game and I think we enjoy watching it when it\u2019s not your team, there\u2019s a bit of that but that\u2019s not for coaches. That\u2019s for the players to sort out,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not for coaches, that\u2019s for players to sort out and work out for themselves but I liked the way that Mark reacted to it as well. He stood his ground, but then also uh played footy on the back of it. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s um that\u2019s why we enjoy watching our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fitzgibbon also conceded Nawaqanitawase won the night, but saw nothing wrong in how Mulitalo conducted himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey actually respect each other and get along,\u201d Fitzgibbon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo my estimation, it\u2019s 2-1 for Mark at the moment. Ronnie (Mulitalo) respects him and rates him as a player; look what he did tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get humbled from time to time, but Ronnie will back himself next time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roosters coach Trent Robinson has had his say over the entertaining on-field feud between his winger Mark Nawaqanitawase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-489433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}