Wade Graham Is The NRL's Funniest Cheat

They say if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying. Cronulla Sharks stand-in captain Wade Graham took that adage to hilarious new levels against the Titans on Monday, writes Jamie Wall.

Desperate to keep the Sharks’ 15-game winning streak alive after being pushed to golden point by the resurgent Titans on Monday night, Wade Graham committed one of the season’s biggest dog acts by blatantly changing his call at the extra time coin toss.

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The ref should probably shoulder a bit of the blame here, because he should have heard the original call. Titans skipper Ryan James certainly did, and issued an incredulous “no you didn’t!” when Graham claimed he called tails all along, which prompted possibly the least convincing “yeah” in recorded history.

When asked about the incident later, Graham answered cagily, “you’ll have to go back and check the tape there.”

Well, everyone did. Graham now joins the likes of pantomime cricket villain Saleem Malik (who did it twice), the father of bad sportsmanship W.G. Grace, and NFL legend Joe Namath as people who have hilariously tried to rig the toss. In Namath’s defence, he wasn’t trying to cheat – he simply found the whole thing a little complicated and forgot how it works.

Given that the Sharks couldn’t even use their advantage to get a win, Wade Graham’s deviousness achieved little more than ensure he wear the ‘grub’ label for all eternity. Fitting since he was standing in for regular captain Paul Gallen – arguably one of rugby league’s biggest grubs of all time.