The Canberra Raiders have no intention of banning players from events like Foreshore despite a couple of incidents at the music festival last month. Blake Ferguson tried to put a week of controversy behind him with a Canberra Raiders ''fashion show'' at Fyshwick's Jerseys Megastore on Saturday to showcase the club's new kit for the 2013 NRL season. Ferguson was in hot water last week after it emerged he had allegedly spat on patrons at Foreshore. Locker Room has also heard there might have been more trouble involving some other big names in Canberra sport.
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No advice needed
MOST golfers rely heavily on their caddie's opinion, but Canberra's Brendan Jones joked he certainly won't be taking any advice from his bagmen at next week's Australian PGA Championship. ActewAGL chairman John Mackay and J&J Interiors founder Dave McGilvray have chipped in $25,000 between them to carry Jones' clubs at the Hyatt Coolum course. It's for a great cause, with the money to be donated to the Canberra Cancerians. ''They paid a lot of money in a charity auction for the opportunity to do so,'' Jones said. ''I've had a cup of coffee with them and all they need to do is turn up, keep up and shut up. Hopefully they'll enjoy being on the other side of the rope.''
The fun never stops
SRI Lanka's cricketers don't give an inch in any battle they're involved in - including when they're taking on each other in a game of soccer. The tourists charged up and down a patch of the Manuka Oval outfield in front of the Don Bradman Stand at the end of Friday's play against the Chairman's XI. Tillakaratne Dilshan was so locked into the game he had to be summoned several times by the team manager for an interview with reporters after his unbeaten century.
Power and glory
A BIG congratulations to full-time personal trainer-turn-powerlifter Elizabeth Craven , who dominated the Oceania powerlifting titles in Sydney during the week. Craven broke the Australian and Oceania records for her bench press with 66 kilograms, demolishing the Australian record of 62.5 kilograms and the Oceania mark of 65 kilograms. She also won four medals in the 52-kilogram weight division: gold for the bench press, silver for the squat, and bronze for the overall weight class and the dead lift. ''Now I can finally have a beer again,'' Craven laughed. Canberra's other two powerlifters at the titles also performed well, with Melanie Flett taking gold in her weight class and bronze in the squat. Megan Hinchley got to the elite level two.
Hoops for charity
SHOOT hoops for a great cause when the Big Bang Ballers present the Santa is a Baller three-on-three mixed tournament on next Sunday. The Big Bang Ballers is a world-wide organisation which raises funds for programs for underprivileged kids in Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea. Teams of all standards are invited to take part at the Canberra Grammar School. Registration for a team of four is $50, with a $150 cash prize to the champions. Registrations close on Monday. For more information, visit http://bigbangballers.org.
Murray to watch tongue
US OPEN champion Andy Murray is cleaning up his act after promising to stop swearing while on court. The Scot has been warned about his language during matches in the past, but he believes non-Anglophone players get away with worse outbursts because umpires can't understand what they're saying. ''Obviously, me saying shit or whatever is bad and wrong, and it's something I want to try to stop doing,'' Murray said. ''But it isn't as bad as some of the stuff the foreign players come out with. I wouldn't want to name any names, but some of what they say is ghastly. It's just that all of the umpires speak English.'' Murray, who became Britain's first male major winner in 76 years when he won the US Open earlier this year, says his no-swearing campaign will begin at the Australian Open in January. The 25-year-old was given an official warning for bad language at the Rome Masters this year and he was also warned about his swearing at the 2011 Paris Masters.
Out of training, Alicia likes to hang 'round
SHE'S an Olympic champion, Australia's most successful swimmer from London and a five-time Commonwealth Games gold medal winner, so you'd expect Alicia Coutts to have a pretty impressive pool in her backyard. You can imagine our surprise when Coutts tweeted a photo of herself relaxing by a big, round inflatable pool. But she says it's strictly for leisure - not training. Lucky because ''I would get seriously dizzy swimming in that''. Coutts has enjoyed a stellar year, but she's been forced to leave her training home at the AIS because of a leak in the main pool and is now swimming alongside Canberra locals to get her daily routine out of the way.