MARK ‘SPUDD’ CARROLL: The NRL should do nothing about Spencer Leniu confronting Jonathan Thurston

Stay out of it!

That’s my message to the NRL over the Spencer Leniu-Johnathan Thurston stoush.

We don’t need an inquiry into the affair or fines and warnings handed out.

It was just two blokes, who don’t particularly like each other, having a robust discussion.

Yes, Leniu could have toned down his language and shown a tad more respect for one of the game’s greats.

And he could have picked a better time and location, which I will get to later.

But this is rugby league, baby.

It’s built on hostility, rivalry, hatred and feuds.

Believe it or not, but your columnist didn’t see eye to eye with everyone during my career.

There are still some blokes I would cross the street to avoid.

But one thing I always prided myself on was treating the media with respect.

I didn’t always agree with everything they wrote and said, but I appreciated the exposure they gave me and the game.

And if I had a problem with the coverage, I wasn’t afraid to pick up the phone and thrash it out with a journo.

Leniu is a player from a different era and has social media to help get his message out there – an avenue we didn’t have in the 1980s and 90s.

Call me old-fashioned, but I would have preferred if the Roosters prop had called JT privately and vented on the blower.

To take him on in front of the cameras after a big Friday night game – when Thurston was there as an official member of the media – was an ugly look.