Paul Cooke has challenged Hull KR star Mikey Lewis to sort out his ‘petulant’ behaviour.
Hull KR’s Mikey Lewis is currently serving a four game suspension.
Paul Cooke has insisted ‘someone needs to get a grip’ of Hull KR star Mikey Lewis and has compared the Robins’ star’s situation to that of Leeds Rhinos maverick Jake Connor a few years ago.
Lewis is currently serving a four-game ban for a late hit on Warrington Wolves half-back Ewan Irwin and a petulant headbutt on Adam Holroyd, subsequently missing last week’s derby game against Hull FC.
It isn’t the first time Lewis has been in hot water on that front, either, tripping York Knights star Liam Harris in the opening round of the season – although that incident went unpunished.
“Somebody needs to get a grip of the boy,” Cooke, a former half-back at Hull FC and Hull KR, said. “It’s as simple as that. What he did the previous week, in my opinion, by attacking two players that couldn’t defend themselves is cowardly.
“The headbutt, particularly from behind – we’re waiting for someone to have a serious injury from such a stupid incident and then the Irwin incident, hitting him three seconds after he’s passed the ball and getting yellow-carded.
“At half-time, he’s walking off arguing with the Warrington players and whoever else. Somebody’s got to get a grip of him because he cannot continue to behave the way he’s behaving and cost his team because if they are without another win and they’re close to not making the six, I wouldn’t be too happy with him if I were in that changing room.
“You can’t continue to behave the way that he has behaved. He went back to some petulance that I’ve seen over the last three years, two or three years. I go back to the two-footed challenge at Leigh a couple of years ago.
“You just can’t behave that way. He’s the brains of the team, and with all due respect, what he did was brainless. He’s supposed to be guiding that ship around the field, and you’ve got to be calm and cool.
“It’s alright being on the sidelines cheering a derby win at the weekend, but if they don’t win games while he’s not playing and it costs them league position and they don’t go to a Grand Final, they don’t even make a six. I don’t think that’ll happen, by the way, but just let’s hypothetically say that anything can happen; somebody’s got to rein him in.
“But you can’t be given help ultimately as a human being unless you accept your feelings and that you need help with them. I’ll go back to a drug addict or an alcoholic. If you’re not willing to accept that you’re a drug addict or an alcoholic, then you can’t be given any help.
“You’ve got to want to change the ways yourself as a human being, and until Mikey Lewis accepts he needs some help – and I think he needs some help away from the game – to be able to balance life mentally and balance rugby league mentally because he can’t keep coming up with these amazingly stupid decisions that cost not only you game time but the club players and your team a quality player on the field.
“If you took a month’s wages off him, he wouldn’t be happy, would he? He’s missing a month’s rugby league for something stupid. I’m not sure whether a monetary fine would be enough for him to change his ways. I’m not sure what is enough for him to change his ways, but something’s got to give.
“And it’s hard in Hull. Listen, I’m speaking from experience. It’s not easy in the goldfish bowl of Hull because everybody wants a piece of you; particularly when you’re at the top, they want to knock you down. Something’s got to give for him. There’s no question.”
Meanwhile, Cooke has challenged Lewis to take a leaf out of Connor’s book, who was regarded as a pantomime villain during his Hull FC days but is now arguably the best player in Super League at Leeds Rhinos as the reigning Man of Steel and currently joint top in the running for this year’s award.
Documenting a change in Connor’s behaviour, Cooke explained: “Jake is someone who’s walked the shoes that he’s in. It’s interesting because I listened to Brad Arthur after the Bradford game talk about Jake Connor, and he said he can’t challenge him with rugby league because he knows more about rugby league than Brad Arthur actually does, but what he’s got to challenge him with is mentally being better, making better decisions on the field, coming up with less risk, and also staying calm.
“The one thing that really interested me was what he said about the way that he speaks to his teammates and the way he conducts himself with people within the game and outside of the game, basically being a better human being and speaking to people with respect.
“There’s a big lesson in that for Mikey Lewis, for me, because there have been too many off-the-field incidents as well as on-the-field incidents that have blighted him over the last few years.
“But ultimately would Brad Arthur have got the best out of Jake Connor five years ago if Jake weren’t ready to change? Ultimately Jake’s priorities in life have changed. Whether that’s marriage, children, or whatever it is, that different priority and balance of life comes.
“It’s an interesting comparison between Jake Connor and the way he was five years ago, three, four years ago, even, and the way that Mikey Lewis is now and how he changes.”