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WELCOME to NRL punishment lottery, where leaving a woman feeling “violated” after a semi-nude video-call won’t draw a fine but drunkenly simulate a sex act with a dog? You’ll cop a $125,000 plus an eight-match suspension.
A photograph of you pretending to urinate in your own mouth will see you possibly exiled from the game forever. Players exposing themselves on a wild Mad Monday celebration earns a club $250,000 fine.
But Souths? Nothing to see here — even though one woman says she saw more than she wanted.
The decision to exonerate the Rabbitohs players late Friday left chairmen gasping; “oh my God” and “are you kidding?”.
The Rabbitohs sexting scandal involving Sam Burgess, who was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Mitchell Pearce was banned for eight matches after simulating a sex act with a dog in 2016.
If you talk to most people in club land they’ll say the NRL’s off-field disciplinary scale is a mess.
“There’s a scattergun approach to punishment,” said one club chief executive. And in turn the NRL’s wildly inconsistent punishments are harming the integrity of the game.
Before the Souths scandal even broke, some time ago, Roosters chairman Nick Politis is understood to have raised this “inconsistency issue” with the NRL several times.
Politis’ concern followed the heavy sanction handed to his club regarding Rooster Mitchell Pearce who, after his simulation of the lewd act with a dog was captured on a mobile phone, was fined $125,000 and handed an eight-week ban.
This “inconsistency issue” was raised again 10 days ago at a meeting of club bosses and the NRL, which had just smashed the Canterbury Bulldogs with a $250,000 fine following their players drunken, nude, vomiting behaviour on Mad Monday.
The Canterbury Bulldogs club was fined $250,000 following their Mad Monday celebrations. Picture: Justin Lloyd
According to those in the room at the NRL chairmen’s meeting Wests Tigers Marina Go pushed the issue — before screen grabs of South Sydney’s lewd video call had hit The Daily Telegraph.
NRL chief operating officer Nick Weeks had just addressed the room of NRL chairmen about integrity and “talking up” all the work the NRL were doing.
An observer said Go then raised the point that the sport had an issue when it came to consistency and integrity issues.
“One of the biggest issues we hear when our club speaks to commercial partners is; we can see what you are doing, but the perception is as a sport, it’s inconsistent with how the NRL deal with integrity issues.”
A photograph of you pretending to urinate in your own mouth will see you possibly exiled from the game forever. Players exposing themselves on a wild Mad Monday celebration earns a club $250,000 fine.
But Souths? Nothing to see here — even though one woman says she saw more than she wanted.
The decision to exonerate the Rabbitohs players late Friday left chairmen gasping; “oh my God” and “are you kidding?”.
The Rabbitohs sexting scandal involving Sam Burgess, who was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Mitchell Pearce was banned for eight matches after simulating a sex act with a dog in 2016.
If you talk to most people in club land they’ll say the NRL’s off-field disciplinary scale is a mess.
“There’s a scattergun approach to punishment,” said one club chief executive. And in turn the NRL’s wildly inconsistent punishments are harming the integrity of the game.
Before the Souths scandal even broke, some time ago, Roosters chairman Nick Politis is understood to have raised this “inconsistency issue” with the NRL several times.
Politis’ concern followed the heavy sanction handed to his club regarding Rooster Mitchell Pearce who, after his simulation of the lewd act with a dog was captured on a mobile phone, was fined $125,000 and handed an eight-week ban.
This “inconsistency issue” was raised again 10 days ago at a meeting of club bosses and the NRL, which had just smashed the Canterbury Bulldogs with a $250,000 fine following their players drunken, nude, vomiting behaviour on Mad Monday.
The Canterbury Bulldogs club was fined $250,000 following their Mad Monday celebrations. Picture: Justin Lloyd
According to those in the room at the NRL chairmen’s meeting Wests Tigers Marina Go pushed the issue — before screen grabs of South Sydney’s lewd video call had hit The Daily Telegraph.
NRL chief operating officer Nick Weeks had just addressed the room of NRL chairmen about integrity and “talking up” all the work the NRL were doing.
An observer said Go then raised the point that the sport had an issue when it came to consistency and integrity issues.
“One of the biggest issues we hear when our club speaks to commercial partners is; we can see what you are doing, but the perception is as a sport, it’s inconsistent with how the NRL deal with integrity issues.”