Sterlo out, Brandy in (Saint, Sinner, Shoosh)

A SHOT OF BRANDY

FORMER Panthers star Greg Alexander will replace Peter Sterling as Freddie Fittler’s chief adviser with the Blues State of Origin team next year.

His role will involve team selections, training and team camps.

“There’s plenty of people out there who could do a good job as an adviser but Greg Alexander is a person I trust more than anyone,” Fittler said. “I’d trust him with my family. He’ll be hands on and involved in everything we do.”

Fittler and Alexander played two games together for the Blues in 1991.

Fittler will also have Phil Gould and Andrew Johns involved in some capacity.

Yep, Phil Gould.

The man he called a dinosaur this year.

SAINT

WE love how Mitchell Pearce is backing himself by joining the Newcastle Knights. It would have been easier and more comfortable to link with a powerful club such as the Sharks or Sea Eagles. Instead, he’s signed on for four years to play at the rebuilding club.

SINNER

IT could only happen in soccer in this country where its politics makes rugby league look like a walk in the park. All this rubbish about FFA administration threatens to overshadow the Socceroos’ qualification for Russia 2018 at a time when we have no national coach and seemingly no direction.

SHOOSH

WE are hearing soccer boss David Gallop is putting together an interviewing panel to help quiz applicants for Ange Postecoglou’s old Socceroos gig. The panel is likely to include Mark Bresciano, Craig Moore and Mark Schwarzer.

SHOOSH II

WHICH NRL club chief executive recently had Botox? You can tell because his forehead is not moving when he talks.

SPOTTED

BIG-SPENDING NRL commission chairman John Grant blowing more of the game’s money on yet another cocktail function in Brisbane last night.

SPOTTED II

FORMER NRL chief executive, the great Dave Smith, wandering into Rebel at Bondi Junction. No, he wasn’t looking for a jumping castle.

SPOTTED III

THE NRL referees’ squad training at South Cronulla Beach on Friday morning. Video reviewer Jarryd Maxwell was there, too, looking as surly as ever.

SPOTTED IV

NINE’S Wide World of Sport production staff enjoying Christmas drinks at the Woollahra Hotel on Thursday.

SPOTTED V

IT’S not often you see sporting superstars travelling on a plane in the cheap seats of economy. Wallabies and Waratahs back Israel Folau and his new wife, Maria Tutaia, were down the rear end of the plane on a flight from Fiji to Sydney after their honeymoon.

FLANAGAN HEADS TRIO OF NO SHOWS

CRONULLA’s Shane Flanagan boycotted the annual NRL coaches’ conference, claiming the meetings are a waste of time.

Flanagan, Wayne Bennett and the Warriors’ Stephen Kearney were absent when the coaches gathered at NRL headquarters on Monday to discuss rule changes and other issues.

Asked why he didn’t go, Flanagan said: “Not after what they did to us at the end of the season ($ 30,000 fine). I had other things to do.

“We go and listen to Tony Archer tell us how good everything is going. No thanks.

“It’s the same old stuff every year. I was busy coaching the team.”

The NRL was disappointed Flanagan and Kearney took no part in the meeting.

However, Bennett’s absence was understandable considering his commitment to the English team in the build-up to last night’s World Cup final.

Even Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart, who has been absent in previous years, went to the trouble of attending. Storm’s Craig Bellamy and the Cowboys’ Paul Green took part over the phone.

The consensus is that it was a flat meeting with little to be gained from it. We get the impression there will be more absentees next year.

TENSIONS AT THE EELS

WE keep hearing there is a clash at Parramatta Eels between coach Brad Arthur and star playmaker Corey Norman. It’s all being kept hush hush at the moment but we’ll be keeping an eye on developments.

There are other clubs still looking for a quality playmaker including Manly Sea Eagles and Cronulla Sharks who both missed out on Mitchell Pearce. Arthur obviously rates Norman highly as a player but there is a personality clash that is creating the drama.

STUMPED OVER SCOOP

QUESTIONS are being asked how Channel Nine missed the big cricket story at the Gabba last weekend when news broke that Jonny Bairstow had headbutted Cameron Bancroft in Perth.

Fox Sports reporter Neroli Meadows picked it up from the sledging on the Triple M sound-effects microphone and got the scoop.

Nine also has full access to the stump microphone but missed the yarn.

The network pays a squillion for exclusive cricket rights to broadcast the complete package and executives were not happy.

SO SORRY STEVE

WE almost survived another long year without need for a clarification or apology on these pages. Almost.

Last Sunday, I reported how cricket legend Steve Waugh had been removed from the SCG Trust along with four of his colleagues. Waugh did not return my phone calls. The office of Sports Minister Stuart Ayres refused to comment. The SCG Trust, however, said Waugh resigned of his own accord. We are more than happy to set the record straight.

Bring on the holidays.

BEAU’S BIG CUTBACK

BEAU Ryan’s future at Channel Nine is in the hands of lawyers. Ryan and his “consultant” Wayne Beavis recently met Nine executives and were told he would have a vastly reduced role on the Thursday night Footy Show in 2018 — and that he’d need to take a considerable pay cut on his contract that has two years to run.

Ryan was the highest-paid Footy Show personality on more than $ 500,000 a year.

He won’t be sitting on the panel as a regular.

The network has other plans for him in an interviewing role. Expect to see a lot more of Andrew Johns on the show.