Coaches collide in spiteful spat

Rival coaches Jason Taylor and Michael Hagan have traded bitter verbal blows in an explosive post-match argument following the Eels' tense 18-12 win over Souths at Parramatta Stadium on Sunday.

Former Eels and now Rabbitohs boss Taylor was overhead by reporters telling Hagan: "How f…..d are you? What's here (at Parramatta) was already in place for you."

"Smithy's only re-building what you f….d up." - a clear reference to the job Brian Smith is doing at Hagan's old club Newcastle.

It continued the feud between the pair, which Taylor started at a Parramatta post-season function when he taunted Hagan with the line: "Let's see how he goes without Joey (Andrew Johns)."

Hagan had the last laugh after his side's six-point win, telling Taylor: "We won without Joey."

Sunday's blow-up, which took place outside the Parramatta Stadium media room, followed a disagreement over the teams' pre-match warm-up area.

Taylor refused to elaborate when asked about the incident, but Hagan, Eels chief executive Denis Fitzgerald and Rabbitohs boss Shane Richardson were happy to talk.

Fitzgerald accused Taylor of immaturity and said it was that trait which went against the caretaker coach when the Eels' fulltime coaching job was up for grabs.

"It was a display of immaturity and petulance by JT (Taylor)," Fitzgerald said.

"I think it was a big build-up for him coming back to Parramatta and the immaturity that he showed was one reason why he didn’t get the job here."

Richardson shot back: "It was one of the greatest days of my life when Denis Fitzgerald said he (Taylor) was too petulant for the job."

"The day he became coach of South Sydney was the best thing that's happened to South Sydney in 25 years."

"I want to thank Denis very, very much for making that decision."

Explaining Sunday's argument, Hagan revealed: "There was a bit of dialogue about why they were denied permission to warm-up where we'd always warm up for a home game."

"Opposition teams to my knowledge wouldn't warm-up there, so we informed them they'd need to warm-up somewhere else and I don’t think Jason took too kindly to that advice."

"He asked me how our warm-up was and I said 'very good thank-you, how was yours?'

"It escalated from there. Obviously he's not happy and that's understandable but that's footy too."

"It was just a conversation and I'm not bothered about what was said to be honest."

"It's how he's chosen to deal with it and it’s different to what you'd expect but that's up to him."

Parramatta five-eighth Brett Finch suggested: "They (Souths) had sour grapes at half-time instead of oranges."

The off-field blow-up dominated post-match talk and overshadowed a great finish to an absorbing match.

The Rabbitohs scored a late converted try to trail by six points and pounded the Parramatta line late in the match looking for the four-pointer which may have sent the match into extra-time.

But the Eels held on to secure victory and move into third spot on the NRL table.