Party animals: ‘Arrogant and thoughtless’ Dragons players cough up over $300,000
St George Illawarra Dragons players who held a party at the weekend have been slugged with a total of $305,000 in fines and 20 match suspensions.
Senior player Paul Vaughan, who hosted the party, faces the heftiest penalty – an eight-match suspension and $50,000 fine.
All other players have received one match suspensions, and fined as follows:
- Corey Norman – $50,000
- Jack de Belin – $42,000
- Zac Lomax – $31,000
- Jack Bird – $25,000
- Matt Dufty – $23,000
- Blake Lawrie – $20,000
- Josh Kerr – $18,000
- Daniel Alvaro – $15,000
- Tyrell Fuimaono – $12,000
- Josh McGuire – $12,000
- Kaide Ellis – $5,000
- Gerard Beale – $2,000
Chief rugby league reporter Danny Weidler, who broke the story, told Mark Levy the players have been “disrespectful, arrogant and thoughtless”.
“Personally, I would’ve taken competition points off the club.”
Having attempted to evade police and mislead the NRL Integrity Unit investigation, Corey Norman and Jack de Belin have attracted particular ire and dealt accordingly tough punishments.
“Mark, I will tell you the story that I was told yesterday when it comes to Jack de Belin…”
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Rugby league legend Billy Slater told Mark the breach “shows a real lack of leadership at the club”.
“The most disappointing thing is that these players knew the were doing the wrong thing.”
The breach is a betrayal of fans, and the rest of the NRL will be tarnished too, he said.
“I don’t agree with [taking] competition point, because that hurts … people that are innocent.”
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Image: Ashley Feder/Getty Images