Is Kalyn Ponga's father bringing his comedy routine to Easts Leagues?

[The Thracian]

What a crock of shit. He’s a public figure. He’s the captain of his club. He’s a role-model. Plus he’s dumb enough to get caught. I’d be shattered if this was our captain.

Dont worry Rooster 6 has a history of defending alcoholics, drug addicts and repeat offenders He did it for 5 years with The Teflon Kid

[Dr. Voodoo Man]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/one...G5X37JFHNFGKY/. Fine article from SWB that shows exactly what these young blokes are going though

I also lost some respect for SBW after reading an article this morning in which he expressed his joy that his wife has decided to wear a hijab. Disgusting really.

[Rooster1908]

I also lost some respect for SBW after reading an article this morning in which he expressed his joy that his wife has decided to wear a hijab. Disgusting really.

Yes agree , I was more talking about the owning his mistakes and fixing them .Fame and wealth are used far to often as an excuse to be a di&k

[King Salvo]

Yes I have and I owned them . i learnt from them and realised I was an embarrassment to others . Family and friends which included footy mates .Its what you do with your mistakes that matter . So your answer is to not install cameras to protect the rights of people doing illegal things .Also a lot of these cameras protect the innocent from being attacked or for evidence against those that do. See the old bloke and the pick pocket at the RSL the other night . Only reason they caught him was surveillance camera

Difference is though your embarrassing moments were not filmed and put into the public domain. - Maybe your employer would have a view of this behaviour if they were made aware of it when it has been filmed and in the Public Domain.

As I said Legally the installation of CCTV/Recording devices are prohibited in certain areas - toilets/bathroom/washrooms/changing rooms for instance and thus by definition using hand held devices to film in such areas should also be prohibited.- These are areas where people would expect privacy i.e in this case a person or persons using a toilet.

Different matter having CCTV/Recording devices in other public areas of clubs in your example - these wouldn't be areas where people would normally expect privacy and are not defined as private areas under the relevant section under the NSW crimes act (1900)

[Rooster1908]

Difference is my behaviour was legal , embarrassing in hindsight but legal

[Rooster1908]

A lot of assaults happen in public toilets

[King Salvo]

Difference is my behaviour was legal , embarrassing in hindsight but legal

Maybe so but when does a persons duties and responsibilities as an employee start and end though. Are NRL players 24/7/52 employees i.e 24 hours/ 7 days a week/52 weeks a year.

Does your employer have a policy saying you are representing the organisation 24/7/52 so anything you may say or do could come under scrutiny by the employer.

Like the majority of employees they should be allowed their free time after the completion of their duties as an employee.

The 3 x 8 principle - 8 hours work / 8 hours recreation/ 8 Hours rest

The Players Union should be more active on this matter of player privacy when away from their place of work.

[Rooster1908]

Maybe so but when does a persons duties and responsibilities as an employee start and end though. Are NRL players 24/7/52 employees i.e 24 hours/ 7 days a week/52 weeks a year.

Does your employer have a policy saying you are representing the organisation 24/7/52 so anything you may say or do could come under scrutiny by the employer.

Like the majority of employees they should be allowed their free time after the completion of their duties as an employee.

The 3 x 8 principle - 8 hours work / 8 hours recreation/ 8 Hours rest

The Players Union should be more active on this matter of player privacy when away from their place of work.

As a representative of the club in my opinion he and others should abstain from any illegal activity regardless if you , me or them deem them harmless. 24/7

[Batemans Bay Rooster]

Maybe so but when does a persons duties and responsibilities as an employee start and end though. Are NRL players 24/7/52 employees i.e 24 hours/ 7 days a week/52 weeks a year.

Does your employer have a policy saying you are representing the organisation 24/7/52 so anything you may say or do could come under scrutiny by the employer.

Like the majority of employees they should be allowed their free time after the completion of their duties as an employee.

The 3 x 8 principle - 8 hours work / 8 hours recreation/ 8 Hours rest

The Players Union should be more active on this matter of player privacy when away from their place of work.

Of course a known public figure/celebrity/sportsman is employed under a different set of conditions than a regular Joe who is unknown to the general public. And when it comes to staying out of the media for bad behavior, yes they are 52 week 24 hrs a day employees. And they're all aware of it.

Regardless of the fact they're doing something which is nowadays entirely normal, in terms of people taking recreational drugs, there is still the dinosaur element of society that looks down upon it because "it's illegal." Their biggest crime is being so dumb as to do it in a bar where obviously because they are sports stars, people are watching their every move. Just do it at home you idiots.

The dinosaurs who scream "but it's illegal" also hold back the legalisation of recreational drugs, the subsequent trillions in government tax revenues on the products that could be used for so many things, and the overnight demise of the greatest proponents for maintaining the status quo, the criminal drug organisations.

[King Salvo]

The NRL players Union need to show some bottle in protecting the privacy of players away from their employment duties/place of work the same as any other employee enjoys and threaten the withdrawal of labour.

MLB have had many a players strike and lock outs in protecting the rights of current and future players as the MLB players Union are a very active Union.

Players should not be under 24/7/52 scrutiny

[player 1]

Of course a known public figure/celebrity/sportsman is employed under a different set of conditions than a regular Joe who is unknown to the general public. And when it comes to staying out of the media for bad behavior, yes they are 52 week 24 hrs a day employees. And they're all aware of it.

Regardless of the fact they're doing something which is nowadays entirely normal, in terms of people taking recreational drugs, there is still the dinosaur element of society that looks down upon it because "it's illegal." Their biggest crime is being so dumb as to do it in a bar where obviously because they are sports stars, people are watching their every move. Just do it at home you idiots.

The dinosaurs who scream "but it's illegal" also hold back the legalisation of recreational drugs, the subsequent trillions in government tax revenues on the products that could be used for so many things, and the overnight demise of the greatest proponents for maintaining the status quo, the criminal drug organisations.

There is a Netflix docuseries called Murder Mountain - about an area in Northern California famous for growing and supplying most of North America's marijuana since the 60s.

As many of these "farmers" made the transition from being criminals to legal growers, instead of being grateful for escaping arrest for their previous illegal activities they were now full of entitled self pity for having to now pay tax on their earnings, having clearly never experienced this obligation. Remarkable and hilarious at the same time.

[Bondicigar]

But it's OK for club doctors to dish out heavy pain killers like jelly beans

[Eggspert]

It’s so strange as a society that we actually care about something like this. As if it’s not happening in every night club or pub across all of Australia every week day and weekend… but now we are outraged and concerned because it happened to a footy player?

Sickening watching the vultures like Kent and Hooper come in and rip this kid to shreds over something that doesn’t haven any impact on them.

I hope Ponga is ok, he’s had a couple of wild months.

The said football player who is his clubs highest paid & biggest profile star should realise that whether he likes it or not he lives in a fish bowl while playing Rugby League & needs to use more common sense while out in public. Otherwise he can quit RL & go join Barry at the local council & live a quiet unscrutinised working life.

Drugs are still illegal, & his club don't pay him while injured & recovering to be hanging out in pairs in a public toilet cubicle. If he's going to make silly calls like this then he deserves the heat.

It actually rates very low on my outrage radar but people who defend him are plain wrong.

[King Salvo]

But it's OK for a club doctors to dish out heavy pain killers like jelly beans

And the League to have Alcohol and Gambling companies as sponsors

[King Salvo]

About time the RL players union stepped in - threaten to withdraw your labour if these witch hunt public character assassination trials continue


The players union has slammed the NRL’s target testing of Kalyn Ponga and Kurt Mann for illicit substances as a “witch hunt” and threatened to stop allowing the governing body to drug test players.

The Newcastle pair were made to provide samples to testers employed by the NRL after they were escorted out of a toilet on Saturday night. The incident is the subject of an integrity unit probe. Rugby League Players Association chief executive Clint Newton said there was no justification for Ponga and Mann to be tested, or for the matter to have been made public.

“We have serious questions about how this has unfolded and why a video of this kind – which the recording of is potentially illegal – has enough evidence to warrant target testing,” Newton said.

“There has been nothing random about how the policy has been applied in this instance. It’s not on the player to prove their innocence – we don’t live in a society where people are found guilty until proven otherwise, yet we seem to consistently want to do that in our game.

“What we have here is a witch hunt to validate the assumption of wrongdoing. An assumption is not enough for the integrity unit to target test players – it falls well below the required threshold.

“Maybe we need to kick the policy out the door and we won’t participate in it. In the upcoming CBA, we might just say we won’t participate and just leave it to ASADA [now Sport Integrity Australia].”

Newton described the process that led to the testing of Mann and Ponga as “completely flawed” and that the public had no right to know of their participation in it.

“In our view, this is an unmatched breach of confidentiality and an irrefutable abuse of a clear process set out in the NRL’s testing policy,” Newton said.

“The NRL talks about being critical of leaks in the game, but here’s an example of an unprecedented leak that unfairly and severely impacts the character of two players.

“It’s a massive breach of someone’s rights, let alone a player’s rights. Let’s not conflate the two things going on here. One is a club cultural or moral obligation to your team, whether you’re drinking whilst injured. That is separate to this. Those players are in a position where they are potentially judged off the back of them being filmed in a toilet.

“The NRL’s own testing policy explicitly states that information collected from players remains confidential, including the identity of those to be tested. And here we are, with a running commentary of the testing process that relates to these two players. Are we fair dinkum?

“It’s the integrity unit which has the primary responsibility for maintaining the confidentiality of the testing process, but now we have names of players apparently tested made public now up for debate. It is an extraordinary breach of the policy.”

The NRL has flagged an interest in hair testing, which can detect substances in the system months after they have been ingested. That would require the agreement of the RLPA.

“Good luck with that. The answer is no,” Newton said. “Again, show me some evidence to suggest that’s the right approach. Are we developing a catch-and-kill, name-and-shame policy or are we actually developing a policy that’s for health and wellbeing purposes?”

Asked, during and NRLW announcement on Wednesday, if he feared drugs were involved in the toilet incident, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said: “It’s not a concern that drugs were maybe involved.”

Meanwhile, Manase Fainu’s Manly teammates have been warned not to pay any more on-field tributes to the jailed former NRL player as the integrity unit investigates a try celebration from the club’s loss to the Titans. According to sources familiar with the situation, the squad was briefed about the issue after Haumole Olakau’atu appeared to imitate his hands being in cuffs after scoring a four-pointer on the weekend.

Fainu is in custody after a jury found him guilty of stabbing a youth leader outside a Mormon church dance in 2019. He will be sentenced later this year.

Fainu remains close with many of the Sea Eagles playing squad and Olakau’atu’s teammate Josh Schuster wore a wristband with the initials “MF” on it against the Titans.

“It’s something our integrity team is taking a look at,” Abdo said. “I’m not necessarily pleased we have allegations of players showing support potentially under these circumstances. I think the club will deal with the matter with the players over the course of the next couple of days.

“I’m not saying there’s been any breach of the rules, but clearly we want to make sure this is something that isn’t seen as a negative for our game, for the players or for the sport more generally.”

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/wit...17-p5bapd.html