HE’S 197cm tall and weighs 116kg, abuses referees and has no respect for his opponents but the Blues love him.
Bulldogs bad boy David Klemmer, who was suspended in April for abusing NRL referee Gerard Sutton, is being hailed as some sort of folk hero in NSW for the way he acts towards Queensland opponents.
In 2013, before he had played a first-grade game, 19-year-old Klemmer clashed with Melbourne Storm, Queensland and Australian captain Cameron Smith in a trial game.
He pushed Smith without provocation after a tackle and then proceeded to ragdoll the Queensland skipper to the ground and had to be pulled off by teammates while screaming: “You’re a has-been. You’re a f***ing nobody.”
“Who was that?” a stunned Smith responded.
Klemmer is 12cm taller than Smith and outweighs him by 26kg. Smith has played almost 300 NRL games, 35 games for Queensland and 42 Tests; Klemmer has played about 35 games of first-grade, two Origins and three Tests.
Klemmer also clashed with Queensland veteran Corey Parker, who has played more than 300 NRL games and is in his 14th season in the top grade, during Origin II.
Parker told Klemmer to “show some respect” during Origin II only to be told by the Bulldogs prop to: “Get f ... ed. You c …”
Parker said his comments were the result of an incident with Klemmer during the first half.
“Obviously you only hear my comments to him and his comments back to me, but a lot goes on in a game of football and it wasn’t just that moment that I was talking about,” Parker told Sky Sports Radio.
“I haven’t seen any comments by him. It is a game of football and there was something that happened a lot earlier in that game, that I’m referring to. I’ll just leave it at that. That’s where that goes from.
“He’s done a fantastic job for NSW off the bench. He’s a big body and he does go hard. That’s what you want from a bench player to really come on and spark that energy when your starting props come off.
“He’s done that superbly for them in the past two games. It makes for a good third game, particularly in Brisbane.”
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