NRL Players Behaving Badly Again in Public

[Beaussie]

Gees is it any wonder why rugby league has a serious image problem:

Dog fined over brawl
By JOSH MASSOUD
October 26, 2005
http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/s ... 23,00.html

THE Bulldogs' reputation took another blow yesterday when favourite son Corey Hughes was fined $10,000 for his part in a wild racecourse brawl.

Hughes, the last remaining member of the famous Bulldogs clan at Belmore, allegedly broke on to a bus to punch punters who taunted him and brother Glenn outside Kembla Grange racecourse on Saturday afternoon.

Witnesses have told The Daily Telegraph police twice restrained the utility player, who fired up after a bucks group slurred the brothers with disgraceful calls of "rapists" from the coach.

The incident has caused further disruption at the Bulldogs with former star Graeme Hughes last night slamming the club's decision to fine his nephew.

Hughes – one of the Dogs' most revered sons – claimed Corey was not given a fair hearing.

"He's shattered by the whole incident and the severity of the penalty," Graeme Hughes said.

"We are most concerned about the due process.

"Corey was never invited to a hearing."

The incident is the latest in a long and repetitious pattern of ugly off-field behaviour among Bulldogs players.

A Mad Monday rampage through the club's offices, Sonny Bill Williams' drink-driving charge and several first graders being turfed from a Central Coast nightclub capped off a miserable 2005.

The production line of scandal has cruelled the club's efforts to repair its image so badly battered by the Coffs Harbour rape allegations last year.

Along with brother and former Bulldog Glenn, Corey Hughes boarded the bus and, according to a club statement, "confronted the individuals".

Within seconds a bloody all-in brawl erupted between the footballers and passengers, a group of men from Sydney on a bucks day.

Racecourse security and police managed to separate the brawlers.

Police declined to lay charges and no one was injured.

But Bulldogs CEO Malcolm Noad said the club could not afford to rest on the fact there were no criminal consequences.

"Corey was provoked and verbally abused and responded in a way that the club will not tolerate," Noad said.

Graeme Hughes, however, claimed Noad had "not even spoken to Corey about the incident".

"Corey had a meeting with football manager Brad Clyde and that's all that took place," he added.

Anger in the Hughes camp also simmers over the extent of the fine compered with the $5000 penalty Williams preceived for a criminal offence.

The clans' distress widens a fissure between it and the Bulldogs, who sacked Corey's father Garry as football manager in the wake of Coffs Harbour.

Noad was not available to respond last night.

But many in the club are extremely disappointed that Corey Hughes – who helped draft the Bulldogs' tougher players' code of conduct in the wake of Coffs Harbour – has brought about a fresh dose of negative publicity.

Only the utility's decision to come forward and volunteer the details of Saturday's brawl saved him from harsher penalty, possibly his sacking.