Raiders stars to stay, return; Rain can't stop research; When Terry Regan told a fib

Star winger may return, star hooker may stay, and star ... well he's not a star he's just the author of a new book about the Raiders ... visits Canberra for research purposes. Also little book extract

The People! Good day. Hope you’re very, very well.

I am in the great city of Canberra for a weekend of “research” masquerading as golf and beer-drinking, though the former is looking unlikely given master boat-builder Noah would be told by actor Roy Scheider who played “Chief Martin Brody” in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws, you’re gonna need a bigger boat.

True story. Fairly hosing it down in the capital, and golf’s off, and beer is on, though it was never not on. And here we are.

Regardless! If you’d join us to talk Raiders and Milk, perhaps Saturday or Sunday afternoon, do give us a holler.

In news of our dear sweet Canberra Raiders it appears that fine and stocky Origin wingman Nick Cotric, lured to Canterbury Bulldogs by very good money for even a fine and stocky Origin wingman, is, it appears, it’s not cast in stone but … according to The Milk’s Deep Throat within the bowels of Braddon HQ, maybe, on his way back.

“A deal is not done,” Mr Throat reveals. “The Dogs need to offload some players and both parties are just trying to sort out how much one pays the other.”

In hooker news, the best kind of news, it appears that dastardly basket case Wests Tigers no longer have their claws in Raiders rake Josh Hodgson.

“Sounds like the Hodgson deal with the Tigers has fallen over,” Mr Throat says.

Yes! To channel Master Yoda, gossip only this is.

But! People love a bit of that action, and our man The Throat has a respectable 66.66 per cent strike rate with excellent mail on the acquisition of Jamal Fogarty and Adam Elliott, while the non-retirement of Sia Soliola was true until it wasn’t.

True. And these are the licks one takes in the gossip industry, as my man The Mole could tell Mr Throat.

In book writin’ news, it’s just about writing itself. A lot of fun digging up old stories. Did you know Peter “Zorba” Peters first called the Raiders the “Pine n Lime Splices” but it it didn’t really stick, so he tried out “Green Machine” which did.

So there you go. Follows is another little yarn to get your teeth into…

Until next time … Up the Milk!

“On a chill and overcast day at Seiffert Oval in June of 1985 Parramatta Eels prop Glenn Mansfield approached touch judge Ross Pickard, lifted his jumper and declared that Raiders prop Terry Regan had bitten him below his left nipple.

Pickard suggested Mansfield tell referee Kevin Roberts, and Mansfield did.

Before Regan was called in front of the referee, Canberra hooker Jay Hoffman sidled up to him and murmured, “Tell me you didn’t bite him”.

Regan smiled and said, “Bloody oath I did. And I’d do it again”.

At a hearing nine days later “player Mansfield” told NSWRFL judiciary chair Jim “The Hanging Judge” Comans that he’d seen “the black headgear of Terry Regan”, noted a pain under his nipple.

Touch judge Pickard told Comans that Regan appeared to push his head into the Parramatta player's stomach area before Mansfield approached the touch judge and lifted his jersey to display two rows of teeth marks on the lower reaches of his left pectoral muscle.

Though he’d confessed to Hoffman on the field, at the hearing Regan told Comans that it could not have been he who bit Mansfield because he wore a mouthguard to protect his chipped teeth.

Raiders coach Don Furner backed up the spurious defence saying that it was “unlikely he would leave two rows of teeth marks on a player’s body by biting through the jersey”.

The Hanging Judge was not having it, however.

Comans’ nickname had come after he’d handed out 15-month bans to second-rowers Bob Cooper (Wests) and Les Boyd (Manly). Cooper’s crime was to have been (too successfully) fighting several Illawarra Steelers players and breaking Lee Pomfret’s jaw when the winger had been trying to break up an all-in brawl. (Tip for young wingers: don’t ever do that.)

Comans told Cooper: “Acts such as these must be obliterated from the game, and I'll begin by obliterating you.”

Comans waxed similarly lyrically when fronted by Regan.

“[Biting] is an act looked upon with disdain and scorn. We'll want the penalty to act as a deterrent to others,” Comans said. Then he slammed down his metaphorical gavel and rubbed Regan out for the rest of 1985.

Regan would use his time off to prepare for a fight against a Parliament House construction worker for a winner-take-all purse of $500.