silvertail
Reserve Grader
However, one of the game's biggest stars, Benji Marshall, was in court last week, successfully defending himself against an assault charge, while Manly fullback Brett Stewart was found not guilty of sexual assault by a jury less than 12 months ago.
The four-match ban imposed by the NRL on Stewart has been the cause of much resentment towards Gallop and he explained why other players, such as Marshall, had not received similar stiff penalties.
Quote from today:
''Brett Stewart was a player who was handed a position of responsibility in our game, to be the face of our advertising campaign,'' Gallop said.
''We took the view that he let us down by being asked to leave a hotel for being intoxicated at the club's season launch. We penalised the club $100,000 for not properly handling alcohol at that function.
''We just saw Benji Marshall go through a court issue. This was a case where everything was in dispute and we didn't act … because we knew that all the facts were up for dispute and we thought we would leave it to the court system.''
The four-match ban imposed by the NRL on Stewart has been the cause of much resentment towards Gallop and he explained why other players, such as Marshall, had not received similar stiff penalties.
Quote from today:
''Brett Stewart was a player who was handed a position of responsibility in our game, to be the face of our advertising campaign,'' Gallop said.
''We took the view that he let us down by being asked to leave a hotel for being intoxicated at the club's season launch. We penalised the club $100,000 for not properly handling alcohol at that function.
''We just saw Benji Marshall go through a court issue. This was a case where everything was in dispute and we didn't act … because we knew that all the facts were up for dispute and we thought we would leave it to the court system.''