‘It was a bad scene’: Klemmer reveals what sparked Hastings drama
David Klemmer reckons he couldn’t win either way.
If, as a prop forward, he didn’t go to the defence of Wests Tigers teammate Tommy Talau during Sunday’s game, then the pile-on would be relentless. Instead, Klemmer went to the aid of Talau, who was in no mood to accept an apology from Newcastle playmaker Jackson Hastings for breaking his nose. Then drama erupted.
“There wasn’t really much in it,” Klemmer said on Tuesday. “I could see that Tommy didn’t want to talk about it and some argy-bargy happened. I went over and said, ‘Leave him alone, he doesn’t want to talk to you’.
“That was it. The next thing there was a security guard and everyone is jumping in. Then he started mouthing off. It wasn’t like it was a melee … Then the security guard came. It was a bad scene.”
Adding intrigue to the confrontation, Hastings and Klemmer swapped sides during the summer. However, Klemmer is adamant there is no history between the pair.
“I don’t know him from a bar of soap,” said Klemmer, who felt Newcastle officials could have defused the situation by dragging Hastings away earlier.
David Klemmer said he was just stepping in to help a teammate.Credit:Getty
“Do I just watch and let them go at it? Do I just watch them throw it down? That’s what everyone wants.
“They want to see that. What do you do? I wasn’t even upset, I just said, ‘That’s enough. You won the footy game, just walk away’.
“Obviously, it’s blown up and people have their own views. At the end of the day, he got the win, he should have just walked away when Tommy said he didn’t want to talk to him, just accepted it.
“[Chuckling] Maybe I just should have let them have it. What do you do?”
‘Do I just watch and let them go at it? Do I just watch them throw it down? That’s what everyone wants.’
Speaking after the match, Hastings said he didn’t mean to inflame the situation.
“It was a heat of the moment thing,” Hastings said. “I went to apologise. I didn’t realise in the game I collected him high. I went to knock the ball out to stop a try. I got put on report and apologised on the field.
“I just tried to do the right thing at the end of the game by going up to say sorry, in the heat of the battle he was still angry, which I fully appreciate. No one wants to get hit in the head and they ruled him out for the game too, so I am remorseful, there was no intent. I can see why he would be frustrated.”
The Tigers have lost their opening two matches despite starting as favourites against the Titans and Knights at home ground Leichhardt Oval. They are 17th on the ladder after finishing with the wooden spoon last year.
Klemmer said incidents such as his run-in with Klemmer become magnified when a team is losing.
“I’ve been around the game for a long time, whenever something like this happens it blows up,” Klemmer said.
“It’s unfortunate, we’ve just got to win footy games. We start winning footy games and playing a lot better [and the headlines disappear].”
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