http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25715315-5012431,00.html
David Gallop defends stand on Sydney Roosters
THE NRL was forced to defend itself against accusations of a double standard yesterday after steering clear of issuing its own penalty against troubled Roosters players Sandor Earl and Jake Friend.
The Roosters yesterday cleared Earl and Friend to play St George Illawarra on Friday night despite police charging them with assault on Monday. They are next due in court on July 20.
The pair were with a group of Roosters players at a Sydney nightclub last weekend celebrating the club's first win in seven weeks. But there was an altercation with another group celebrating a 21st birthday and a woman was knocked to the ground suffering bruises and concussion.
This year, the NRL stepped in and suspended Manly's Brett Stewart for four matches, when the Sea Eagles named him to play in round one despite his drunkeness at the club's season launch.
It is understood Cronulla was pressured to suspend halfback Brett Seymour also this year after he was photographed with his shirt off lying drunk in a flower bed.
The Sharks suspended him for two games.
But NRL chief executive David Gallop said it had conducted its own preliminary investigation along with receiving a report from the Roosters.
"Everything is in considerable dispute," Gallop said.
"If that situation was to change then we would expect the club to take action and we would reserve our right to do so as well."
Roosters chief executive Steve Noyce said the players' version differed with other witnesses and police had let him view security camera footage, which did not show anything conclusive.
But he said his players would face severe sanctions if the charges were proven in court.
"Nobody wants to see anything like this take place and everyone is entitled to be upset at the fact a woman has been hurt," Noyce said.
"But the emotion of that can't stop us ensuring that we accurately establish the true cause.
"In saying that, I'm not questioning what others may have said. I am simply pointing out that there is a need to go through the proper (court) process.
"The presumption of innocence is the system we operate on in Australia."
Friend was also this year suspended for two matches and fined $10,000 for drink-driving before he appeared in court.
Both the Roosters and the NRL said the facts of that incident were not in dispute.
Noyce said he had not spoken to the chief victim of Saturday night's incident, 31-year-old Kristy Bradley, the niece of ABC Radio's chief league commentator David Morrow, but had contacted her family.
Gallop said it was unacceptable that a woman had been hurt and that no one had noticed her predicament.
Morrow has voiced his anger that no Roosters players checked to see if his niece was all right. Her brother, former Tigers and Manly player Nick Bradley, was also injured in the altercation.
"To the extent that we can apologise for what happened on Sunday morning we most certainly apologise to the young woman," Gallop said.
Yesterday, Morrow said he was comfortable with the two players not being suspended.
"I'm a great believer in you are innocent until proven guilty," he said.
"The incidents involving Cronulla's Greg Bird and Stewart are different. I believe standing down the three Roosters players would set a dangerous precedent and opens up a whole different can of worms.
"But should they be found guilty in court, then the club and the league should throw the book at them."
Manly's co-chairman Scott Penn reopened the debate for the establishment of an independent tribunal empowered to deal with player off-field misbehaviour.
"It would take player punishment out of the hands of an individual club, yet still be under the NRL umbrella," he said.
