Controversy erupts over Souths star's 'disrespectful' act

Luke Keary says Cody Walker will get what’s coming to him after his ‘disrespectful’ sledging of Cooper Cronk on Friday night.

Wayne Bennett has celebrated his first match as South Sydney coach with an impressive 26-16 takedown of reigning NRL premiers the Sydney Roosters.

It was a spiteful match that saw players push and shove each other on a number of occasions.

One such occasion was late in the match after Souths scored a try, with Walker and Cronk coming nose-to-nose and exchanging words.

Keary then lashed out at Walker after Walker shoved Cronk, sparking a big melee involving multiple players.

Keary has since revealed Walker was sledging Cronk.

“There was obviously that incident at the end where one bloke wants to carry on and be a bit disrespectful,” Keary said.

“But everyone who plays the game knows that’s how he plays it.

“That’s fine. If he wants to go around doing that, it should come back to him.

“It is what it is, some people play the game like that”.

However Walker dismissed the fiery scenes as ‘heat of the moment stuff’.

“I think it is just a little bit of a heat of the moment-type thing and it is a great reminder about the rivalry between Souths and the Roosters,” Walker said on Friday night.

“But when it is all said and done we shook hands and that’s where it stays.

“Those little battles will still be around when we are playing again later in the season but it is just great come away with two points against such a quality side at such an iconic stadium”.

Soon after there was blood spilt after Latrell Mitchell and Dane Gagai, who were at each other’s throats for most of the night, clashed heads late in the contest.

But in the end it was the Rabbitohs who claimed a knockout win in front of a crowd of 24,527 who braved the miserable weather.

with AAP