Bitter Taylor slams Hagan
July 15, 2007 JASON Taylor's frustrations boiled over on his return to Parramatta Stadium when he and Eels coach Michael Hagan traded insults after South Sydney's 18-12 loss.
Souths mentor Taylor and Hagan traded verbal barbs as they crossed paths within earshot of the post-match press conference, an argument that became personal after Taylor had complained about the warm-up facilities at the club where he was caretaker coach last year.
The Rabbitohs were denied use of the Old Kings Oval after it was closed by the Parramatta Park Trust, but Eels officials said the visitors "jumped the fence" anyway after being asked to warm-up on the playing field.
Taylor was heard abusing Hagan in the gym next to the Eels' media room, saying: "How f….d are you? (Newcastle coach) Brian Smith's rebuilding what you f….d up (in Newcastle).
"What's here (at Parramatta) was already in place for you."
Hagan replied: "At least we won without Joey (Andrew Johns) today."
The Eels coach's comment was in response to Taylor previously questioning Hagan's ability to coach wins at the Knights without star player Johns.
"There was a bit of dialogue (with Taylor) about why they were declined permission to warm-up where we would always warm up on a home game," Hagan said.
"We informed them that they can 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?'
"And it sort of escalated from there.
"Obviously (Jason's) not happy and I think that's understandable but that's footy too.
"It was just a conversation, I'm not bothered about what was said.
"I think how he's chosen to deal with it is probably different to what you'd expect, that's up to him."
Asked if he thought Taylor's outburst was a result of sour grapes at missing out on the Eels job after he took over as caretaker last year, Hagan said: "I'm not sure."
Taylor refused to comment on the incident at the press conference and when approached by journalists afterwards.
