By Steve Jancetic
August 26th 2008 @ 2:02am
Bird’s career hangs in the balance
The NRL career of Cronulla star Greg Bird hangs in the balance after the Australian representative was today stood down by the Sharks pending the outcome of allegations that he assaulted his girlfriend.
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Bird was today granted strict conditional bail after spending Sunday night in police custody charged over an incident at his Cronulla apartment, and is due back in court on October 8 - three days after the NRL grand final.
The Sharks star is accused of inflicting grievous bodily harm on his girlfriend, Katie Milligan, who remains in Prince of Wales Hospital where she is expected to undergo surgery for cuts to her face and a fractured eye socket.
Bird is unlikely to play again this season but Cronulla chief executive Tony Zappia said the club had stopped short of tearing up his contract - which runs through to the end of the 2012 NRL season - until the case is concluded.
“Whether to stand him down or sack him were always considerations for the club and the board and the coaching staff,” Zappia said today.
“At this point in time, we don’t have all the facts and obviously it’s important that we do have all the facts before any further action is determined.
“He certainly won’t be training or playing with the NRL team and I would say it’s highly unlikely he’d play again this year.”
NRL chief executive David Gallop admitted the league could follow the same path taken with Canberra bad boy Todd Carney - who will not be allowed to play in the NRL next season - should the charges against Bird be proven.
“Certainly if these allegations are proven then we are certainly into the territory of looking at not only his future at that club, but his future in the game,” Gallop said.
“Obviously these are very serious allegations. It’s now a matter for the courts, but I certainly support the action of the Sharks in standing the player down.”
Bird was today granted bail by Magistrate Bev Schurr, who ordered he comply with the conditions of an interim apprehended violence order (AVO) issued yesterday.
It forbids him from making contact with Milligan, his flatmate Brent Watson or any neighbours.
Bird was released from custody on a $5,000 surety today.
Bird was accused of lying by police prosecution in court today after alleging his flatmate Watson was responsible for his Milligan’s injuries.
Mr Watson told police he was playing golf at the time of the incident.
The Sharks issued a statement last night saying `Following initial enquires, the club understands that an argument between two guests at Greg Bird’s Cronulla unit has resulted in an injury to a friend.’
Asked how the story he had been told yesterday compared to that told to the court today, Zappia said: “They’re reasonably different.”
“But obviously the matter is a legal matter.
“It is a bit of a kick in the teeth, luckily I’ve still got my teeth.”
Questioned over accusations of double standards after the club had shown former hooker Tevita Latu the door before he was convicted of breaking a woman’s nose in 2006, Zappia - who was not at the club at the time - said the two matter were not the same.
“From what I understand it was pretty cut and dried circumstances and the matters were not contested by the player,” Zappia said of Latu’s sacking.
“From what I understand happened this morning at court, Greg and his counsel said that he would be strongly denying the allegations.
“It’s a slightly different situation.”
Coach Ricky Stuart admitted he was “hurting” for Bird, but said the club would move on immediately as it looked to keep its premiership campaign on track.
The Sharks ensured a home final with last week’s win over the Sydney Roosters, but Bird was seen as one of the key men behind the push for a maiden premiership.
“Without Greg Bird’s qualities as a footballer it makes it a lot tougher for us, it’s another obstacle we have to face,” Stuart said.
“I’ve assured the players that I’m going to unite this team like they’ve never seen before, I’m going to make this a journey they remember.”
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Jason said | August 26th 2008 @ 8:49am | Report comment
Greg Bird’s main problem is that he was born without a brain. He’s a goose and coward. Only scum attack women. If I was him I’d come clean about his obvious steroid abuse (he got very big, very quickly) and try and plead he was suffering from roid rage. The main problem with League is the constant pandering to these players. Even in this story the phrase “solid kid” was used. I’m sorry but this MAN is 24 and he is therfore not a kid. In our society once you are 18 you are no longer a kid you are an adult. I sincerely hope the full wait of the law is thrown at this yellow coward and that he is made an example of. If he dooesn’t serve at least 1 year behing bars our society is soft. It needs to be made clear that man (espescially powerfully, stong elite athletes) can not attack defenceless women. In fact he attacked an American citizen. Send him to Gitmo. That will sort the coward out.
Phil said | August 26th 2008 @ 11:09am | Report comment
My thoughts go out to the poor girl and her family. This is a disgrace of the highest order and should not be accepted. I pray if he is guilty he ends up in jail as well, right next to Wayne Carey.
Mark H said | August 26th 2008 @ 11:31am | Report comment
Very Poor form. Whats worse, Ricky Stuart was on TV saying he felt sorry for the guy???? Stuart is an idiot. By By Birdy. He’ll be pulling beers at his local by friday as he wont have a job.
Phil Coorey said | August 26th 2008 @ 11:33am | Report comment
Mark - if he is prosecuted like he should be he’ll be pulling something else in jail instead…
Peter K said | August 26th 2008 @ 11:43am | Report comment
I think that in Australia professional rugby league and AFL players have a misogynistic culture, as exhibited by this incident, various sex assault cases, the woman being assaulted at a petrol station by a league player etc.
Note this does not mean the fans or the officials or administrations do as shown by their reactions, just the players and ex-players like Stuart.
Michael C said | August 26th 2008 @ 11:56am | Report comment
Peter K
given that Australia runs professional domestic AFL, NRL, RU and Soccer comps - - the actual overall number of incidents is probably not too bad given the range of demographic backgrounds that players are drawn from. Different ethnic, educational and family backgrounds……….and some handle success and a little cash and a bit of attention different to others.
For a country of 20ish million, the NRL and AFL between them have over a 1000 professional footballers. But - -remember the churn rate on that, so, if you rattle off 10 incidents over the last 10 years, there’s probably a churn rate of 250 players a year.
It’s a little too easy to make a comment like “Australia professional rugby league and AFL players have a misogynistic culture”. It’s not fair to tar all with the one brush based on a handfull of incidents.
Some of the worst ‘incidents’ have been associated with retired stars (from AFL perspective Gary Ablett snr and Wayne Carey in particular) - - but, hardly unique in the world of professional sports. We know even just from the world of soccer - past champions who hit post career doldrums and struggle with life after competition - - such as George Best, Maradonna and Gascoigne.
Phil Coorey said | August 26th 2008 @ 12:05pm | Report comment
Agree Michael C - how many of these cases hit the courts that we don’t know about. Still I refuse to tolerate violence against women and hope he is prosecuted like a normal person.
The guy is a crumb of the highest order though - he’s shown that by the way he plays the game and his off field discretions already. Maybe if these people were made to work for a day or two in their lives they might appreciate the position they are in.
Peter K said | August 26th 2008 @ 12:08pm | Report comment
Michael there are many professions or companies with far more than 1000 employees. They have a lot lower strike rate of these type of incidents.
I said they have a culture that is misogynistic, that does not mean all players are misogynistic. The rate of incidents and serious ones are far too high. Sure having lots of idle time with plenty of money can lead to trouble, but where is the trouble directed.
In Australia the professional rugby, cricket and soccer players get into trouble as well BUT not into bashing women and assaults.
Views like yours excuse the culture which is rampant. I do not care about the socioeconomic background or religious or whatever they occur across similar sizd organisations, it is still far too many incidents. Yes they handle cash spare time poorly and this is the culture of the NRL players.
Overseas is another matter they have similar cultures in soccer , basketball, grid iron baseball etc. I am talking about in Australia.
Mark H said | August 26th 2008 @ 12:13pm | Report comment
Phil, that was funny.
There is no excuse. I dont care what anyone says. If you can Vote, have kids and pay taxes, your as liable as anyone. This guy needs to be kicked out, no question. I still think Stuart is an idiot.
Michael C said | August 26th 2008 @ 12:57pm | Report comment
Peter K,
I don’t excuse any such behaviour. But - - sadly, it happens. And, yes, let him be dealt with appropriately. (and perhaps, in the ‘old days’ many incidents might have been swept under the carpet).
As I indicated, the churn rate means that for say a 10 year period, you might be looking more at 3000 players who pass through the combined NRL and AFL ’systems’.
Regarding the ‘rampant’ nature of the culture - - the NRL might well be a little behind the AFL on this one. So excuse me if you’ve got perhaps a more NRL based point of reference.
No doubt though, the AFL, and perhaps via the Toyota cup, will be going down the same culture change path the AFL has been. It takes time, it’s generational.
btw - the reference to the ‘backgrounds’ of players is more, and related to say the illicit drugs - is that these are young men coming from many different backgrounds, with many different local ‘role models’, major influences, stable or broken homes etc. The thing made obvious around Wayne Carey for example was that he came from a broken home with a strained relationship with his father. The lesson out of his time in the AFL was probably that this wasn’t recognised in providing him with strong new male role models. I gather his ex wife had more blamed the people around him, herself, the manager, the club etc for never saying “NO” to him. He was a product of his environment. Thankfully, people are getting better - - and even just the recent about face by Collingwood to start setting a public example shows that the culture change is occurring.
The interesting thing though, organisationally, is that it really has to be club by club, so, that’s 32 NRL and AFL clubs.
btw - - Rugby was insulated for some time by being amateur, soccer because domestically the players have zero profile and not as much cash, and most therefore are overseas, out of sight, out of mind. And cricket…..oh well, there have been some issues there too…….however, again, the number of profile players at any time is miniscule. The 6 state teams with squads of 20 or so, 120-150 players - - only less than half of those will have any ‘profile’ (news worthiness). The Australian squad, certainly, about 20 top players have a profile. However - - we also know from the Australian cricket perspective that there’s a dirth of talented youngsters in the squad at any time. These days, debutants are often aged the other side of 25. So - - we aren’t really running a fair comparison on any of those fronts - - it’s a damn sight easier for those 3 codes to appear squeaky clean by comparison…….heck,……….even swimming was seen as spotless until a certain unsavoury incident in the lead up to these Olympic Games…………………so, how big is the swimming squad? 30? And this fellow might well have been in there,………so, 1 in 30, that’s be 33 in 1000 if we extrapolate out………..yep, those swimmers, they’re all drunken brawlers who can’t be trusted.
That’s a vast difference say to the more mature age cricketers compared to 18-19 years olds suddenly being over-exposed in the AFL and NRL. And don’t ever try to deny that there are predatory people out there who effectively prey on AFL and NRL players. People know that in a lot of cases they can become a ‘victim’ and seek payment to keep it quiet. (and btw - - don’t ever complain that they might be overpaid, because by US basketball or the EPL standards, $80K to $200K or so a year is nothing compared to $50K - $150K a week!!!)
Again, not defending Bird or his specific case at all. But, you’ve gone well behind him with your sweeping generalisations.
Peter K said | August 26th 2008 @ 1:16pm | Report comment
Micahel C - I never made any sweeping generalistions outside of the players culture being misogynistic.
I did not include drug taking, brawls at night clubs or any other activity.
I still hold the culture in Australian professional league and AFL players is misogynistic. Like corporate culture was in the 70’s towards women but cleaned up a lot.
What cases with abuse against women can you cite in the other sports in australia. Not other inappropritae activity just ones against women. Players , not administrators or coaches as well since I was talking about player culture.
Michael C said | August 26th 2008 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
Peter K -
interesting question.
The ‘proven in a court of law’ cases? or just claims full stop? I can’t cite much off the top of my head, but, I gather there have certainly been some people with pretty big collections of skeletons in their closet…….just what that means….well. Who knows.
Certainly - there HAS been such a culture - - but, both codes to varying degrees have been going down a path of greater education around social responsibility and respect for women etc.
On some issues - these 2 codes are probably a ‘lag’ reflection of societies ’standards’.
In other issues - these codes are expected to take a ‘lead’ role in changing societies ’standards’.
Certainly on illicit drugs use OUTSIDE of ‘competition’, the AFL has had the blow torch on it - - not because it had the lowest standards - - indeed - - because it DID have an ‘illicit drugs’ policy to start with.
LIkewise, the AFL got forced to confront racial vilification some time back via NIcky Winmar and Michael Long. We’ve seen this last cricket season how far advanced the AFL is on the ICC for example.
Peter K said | August 26th 2008 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
Michael C - I agree that the AFL has taken the lead in other social areas and deserves to be commended.
I also agree the administrators are trying to do a lot to change the attitude towards women, just that they have not been successful, that is why I also said it was a player culture not organisational one.
The NRL I do not think so, it has not taken the lead on social aspects.
Andrew Johns and revelations of recreational drug use by a lot of players.
I restricted my piece to women because I think this is the area where the players in the codes are the most out of step with society or the other sports. Also the current topic was the idiot Bird and hence was relevant , other behaviour is not.
Worlds Biggest said | August 26th 2008 @ 5:49pm | Report comment
Ricky Stuart coming out and saying ” he feels sorry for him ” is outrageous, what about the poor girl who might lose an eye.
Any man that lays a hand on a woman is a coward of the highest order. I don’t care if Bird has roid rage or booze issues it is simply unacceptable in society. Obviously he is innocent before proven guilty but I can’t see how he get’s out of this one. Behavourial issues are common place in Pro Sport as has been mentioned by everyone so you can’t label League as the main offender. Sure they have plenty of issues like all sports. By and large most NRL players are decent blokes as is the case for AFL, Rugby & Soccer. Australian Sporting teams usually adopt the no d*ck head policy as opposed to Pro Sporting Team in the USA and UK / Europe. Unfortunately Bird has bucked this trend.
Recidivist said | August 27th 2008 @ 9:10am | Report comment
Hey guys, if a man hits a woman it is bad enough. if he uses a glass and might affect the woman’s eyesight that is horrendous.
In this case the manager of the player appears to be getting involved to make sure she does not provide teh evidence that the cops need to lay charges. If that happens then the legal process is distorted.
it is all very well for Gallop to jump up and down and say Bird might be banned for life but he still has Darren Lockyer as Australian skipper even though he cracked the ‘joke’: “St George, they won 11 premierships with one Raper. Imagine how many Canterbury will win.”
The culture needs to be changed so that more and more of the players step forward and say to their mates that treating women poorly is not acceptable!