ch Jake Morton paid Nevin Shapiro $10,000 after he threat

Canterbury prop Aidan Tolman has hit out at critics who say the Bulldogs dont deserve their spot in the NRLs top four.The Bulldogs quietly slipped into the top four with four rounds remaining on the back of their unconvincing win over Newcastle on Saturday and North Queenslands loss to Wests Tigers on Sunday.After a sluggish start to the season, characterised by their inability to string wins together, the Dogs have won six of their last seven games.But they were thumped 36-0 by North Queensland three weeks ago and mid-season losses to Cronulla and Canberra also have many questioning their ability to beat the competitions top sides.NRL great Darren Lockyer, for one, has said he doesnt believe the Dogs cant win the competition due to a lack of consistency and ruthlessness.That is fine by us. We dont really care what everybody writes about us, Tolman said on Monday.The media has their own agendas, for us we are going about our footy.We are not playing our best footy yet but we find ourselves in the top four and that is where we want to stay.The Dogs face Manly on Thursday night, then Brisbane, North Queensland and South Sydney.Their round 25 clash with defending premiers the Cowboys at Belmore Sports Grounds shapes as a season-defining clash.A few results on the weekend fell in our favour and we are there in the top four, but we still have four big games ahead, Tolman said.It would be nice to keep this momentum going into the finals. The next four games are crucial for us.Brett Morris said the Dogs were timing their run into the finals nicely.Of late we have been pretty consistent. At the start of the year we were very patchy with win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, he said.But we have managed to string wins together now and that is what you need to do if you want to make the top four.We have been winning games. We have been winning them ugly and we know there is room for improvement.International forward Greg Eastwood sat out the win over the Knights and is not due back from a hamstring injury for at least another week.Cheap Baseball Jerseys . LOUIS -- St. Nike MLB Jerseys For Sale . Olli Jokinen, Mark Scheifele, and Bryan Little each had a goal and an assist as Winnipeg won 5-2, handing Calgary its record-setting seventh consecutive loss on home ice. http://www.mlbjerseyschinacheap.com/ . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. Cheap Nike MLB Jerseys . According the Toronto Star, a knee injury will keep Sundin out of the lineup, which includes former teammates Gary Roberts, Darcy Tucker, Tie Domi and Curtis Joseph. Wholesale MLB Jerseys Authentic . Down by seven with 90 seconds left in regulation, thats where they looked comfortable.KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The NCAA has accepted Missouris self-imposed sanctions over infractions involving its mens basketball program, but it tacked on a year of probation through August of next year.The NCAA infractions committee panels findings over what it said were roughly $11,400 in improper inducements and benefits given to players and a recruit by two boosters were released Tuesday, nearly seven months after Missouri admitted NCAA violations dating to 2011.Hoping to blunt NCAA punishment, the school announced in January that it was vacating its 23 wins from 2013-14, banning itself from the postseason last season and stripping itself of one scholarship last season and a second scholarship no later than 2017-18.The school, while agreeing to pay a $5,000 fine, also permanently banned one unidentified donor who the NCAA said provided impermissible benefits to three players and one recruit in 2013-14. The benefits included compensation for work not done at a business through a summer intern program, along with housing, $520 cash, local transportation, iPads, meals and use of a local gym.The NCAA concluded that a second booster also provided impermissible benefits to 11 mens basketball players and three members of a players family. Missouri has said those benefits included reduced rates at a hotel along with meals and a boat ride, and a student manager also provided transportation for multiple players to the hotel from the campus.The Missouri systems interim chancellor, Hank Foley, and basketball coach Kim Anderson welcomed Tuesdays announcement as a turning point for the program after roughly two years of turmoil.As responsible members of the (Southeastern Conference) and the NCAA, we chose to self-report potential violations of bylaws and self-impose certain sanctions, Foley said in a statement. Tuesdays announcement is a clear indication this was a wise decision by the university and allows us to put these issues behind us as we continue to rebuild a top-notch basketball program.Throughh cooperation between NCAA personnel, the University of Missouri and our Mizzou athletics staff, we are now able to draw this process to a close, added Anderson, who is 19-44 in his first two seasons in Columbia.dddddddddddd It has been my desire to move our program forward since learning of what had taken place.Missouri went 23-12 in 2013-14 -- Frank Haiths final season as coach before he left for Tulsa, not long after the school received a verbal notice of inquiry from the NCAA in April 2014, when Missouri hired Anderson. At that time, Anderson said he wasnt aware of the investigation.Haith, the former coach at Miami, was suspended for five games by the NCAA at the start of the 2013-14 season for inadequately monitoring former assistants interactions with a disgraced Miami booster and then trying to cover up a five-figure hush money payment to keep potential violations hidden.The investigation found that Haith and Miami assistant coach Jake Morton paid Nevin Shapiro $10,000 after he threatened to expose previous improper contact with high school recruits and amateur coaches.Haiths Kansas City attorney, Scott Tompsett, said Haith cooperated fully with the NCAAs investigation and was not named in or held responsible for any of the violations.As the NCAA Infractions Report makes clear, violations happened while Coach Haith was at Mizzou and they continued after Coach Anderson became the head coach, Tompsett wrote in an email to The Associated Press. The fact of the matter is that this is not a Frank Haith issue or a Kim Anderson issue; its an issue of Mizzou as an institution not adequately monitoring the summer employment arrangement. Thats what the NCAA found and Mizzou agreed.Haith, Tompsett added, wishes the best to the University of Missouri and its mens basketball program.A message left Tuesday with Haith at his Tulsa office was not immediately returned. ' ' '