{"id":295340,"date":"2023-05-10T23:17:24","date_gmt":"2023-05-10T23:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=295340"},"modified":"2023-05-11T02:59:56","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T02:59:56","slug":"dont-know-much-star-backtracks-on-awkward-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=295340","title":{"rendered":"'Don't know much': Star backtracks on awkward criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dragons star Jack Bird<\/a> has apologised to St George Illawarra<\/a> fans for disparaging comments he made about them at a media conference.<\/p>\n

Bird fronted the media on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of the club's game against the Cowboys in Townsville on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Dragons have slipped to 16th on the ladder on the back of five straight losses, with only points \ufeffdifferential keeping them off the bottom of the table.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Very sad': Schumacher's F1 'hell' revealed<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Eddie, Lloyd clash over Buddy booing saga\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Hawthorn AFLW captain comes out as non-binary\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Embattled coach Anthony Griffin<\/a> is seemingly facing the axe as soon as next week, bringing to an end an unhappy two-and-a-half years in charge.<\/p>\n

\ufeffWhen questioned about Griffin's future, Bird took aim at the club's supporters.<\/p>\n

"Fans don't really know too much about footy I don't think. They've got a lot to say about people on the field," he said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

"I don't think they have ever played a game of footy. I am just speaking from first-hand stuff that I have been copping. I feel sorry for Hook [Griffin]. It is us [players] out there playing, so we should be the ones [fans] are baying for."<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>, Bird backtracked on his criticism.<\/p>\n

"I want to say sorry to the fans for upsetting them," he said. "In no way, shape or form did I mean to make comments coming at the fans personally, I was just trying to stick up for my coach.<\/p>\n

"What I said is not what I meant, I just wanted to clarify it. It came out the wrong way, I got tripped up a bit in the way I expressed myself, I didn't mean it in that way.<\/p>\n

"I just want to clear everything up. Hook is not just my coach, he's my friend as well."<\/p>\n

Bird said his comments came out the wrong way as he tried to support Griffin.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on <\/strong><\/em>9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"When you have a coach, you always try to back them, no matter what. He's obviously under a lot of pressure and I don't want to dog my own coach or see other people talk shit about him. I was just sticking up for him.<\/p>\n

"I'm fine with stuff coming my way. But people don't understand that with Hook going through a rough patch with football, he may be struggling with stuff outside of footy as well. That can push somebody over the edge.<\/p>\n

"It wasn't that fans don't know what they are talking about, it was that they may not know what's going on behind the scenes in someone's personal life."<\/p>\n

\ufeff\ufeffFor a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dragons star Jack Bird has apologised to St George Illawarra fans for disparaging comments he made about them at a media conference. Bird fronted the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":295342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295340"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295340"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295344,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295340\/revisions\/295344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/295342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}