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Since the wage explosion that came with the Super League war, the great majority of rugby league players have become full time professionals.
Apart from training and the games, the players are left to their own devices for long periods of time with a large disposable income. That has often been a recipe for scandal.
It could well be argued that there has been a rapid degeneration of morality among the players since that point.
Another view is that the players have always had a tendency towards the degenerate but there was a time when they weren’t subject to the ravages of a scandal-hungry media that takes every opportunity to thrust the decadence, debauchery and disrespect of some modern players before a willing public.
After a very short piece of investigation, it became apparent that you could field a sensational team from all of the players from the modern era who have brought the game into disrepute, so I decided to put together the Disrepute XVII.
Players in the Disrepute XVII have only been selected on the basis of established incidents. Hearsay and rumour aren’t enough to get a run.
1. Julian O’Neill
A star goal-kicking fullback who played for Queensland.
O’Neill is probably best known for an incident that occurred during a South Sydney preseason trip to Dubbo, where he defecated in teammate Jeremy Schloss’ shoe. There were reports that faeces were smeared on towels and thrown on the motel roof.
While on a trip to Australia with the Widnes Vikings in 2004, he allegedly tried to set fire to a highly flammable dolphin mascot suit that a 13-year-old boy was wearing on a river cruise in Port Macquarie. According to a letter of complaint written by the boy’s father and his business partner, the drunken O’Neill then stripped to his underwear and dived into the Hastings River, swam to shore and hitchhiked back to town.
2. John Hopoate
A ferocious winger.
During a 2001 clash with the Cowboys, Hopoate, in an attempt to put off his opposition, poked his finger in three players’ anuses. He was suspended for 12 weeks.
In 2005 he was suspended for 17 weeks for an elbow to the head of Sharks player Keith Galloway, after which Manly terminated his contract.
3. Blake Ferguson
A centre-cum-winger with great size, speed and dynamic skills. Blake could be a superstar if he stops being stupid off the field.
In November 2012 Ferguson was thrown out of a music festival in Canberra for allegedly spitting on people. In December 2013 he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman at a Cronulla nightspot while celebrating his selection for NSW with Josh Dugan earlier in the year.
His defence of the incident included saying, “I’ve always liked blonde girls, because I lived in Cronulla for a long time. I would like to say sorry to [victim’s name], I would never touch her in a sexual way. I’m really sorry I mistaked her for the girl I hooked up with at Northies. I would never touch a girl like that if I didn’t know them at an intimate level.”
On appeal no conviction was recorded.
4. Mark Gasnier
A superb centre for St George Illawarra, NSW and Australia, and the nephew of immortal Reg.
Gasnier was sacked from the Blues squad before Origin 1 in 2004 for leaving an obscene message on a woman’s answering machine.
“(Lady’s name) where the f___ are you? There’s four toey humans in the cab it’s twenty to four. Our c____ are fat and f______ ready to spurt sauce, and you’re in bed. F___ me fire up, you sad c___.”
Gasnier said he was so drunk he didn’t remember making the call.
5. Joel Monaghan
A very handy centre-cum-winger who played for NSW and Australia.
Monaghan was photographed simulating a sex act with a dog during the Raiders’ Mad Monday festivities in 2010. The story made news all around the world. Monaghan quit the Raiders in shame and has since played in the English Super League.
6. Brad Fittler
A superb five-eighth at club and representative level, Fittler captained NSW and Australia.
In 1999 he was found passed out in front of the Glebe police station. A police source described the incoherent Fittler as “the drunkest human being ever.”
In 2009, while he was coach of the Sydney Roosters, police were called to the Townsville Holiday Inn, where a heavily intoxicated Fittler, dressed only in shorts, was loudly trying to gain entry to a woman’s room. Fittler had mistaken the room for his own. He fined himself $10,000.
7. Todd Carney
The 2010 Dally M medallist is an awesome player on his day.
Sacked by three clubs, Carney was banned by a judge from entering his home town of Goulburn after multiple issues. Carney has been done for DUI, driving without a license, and running from the police. As well, he allegedly urinated on another patron in a Canberra bar in 2008 and most recently was photographed seemingly urinating into his own mouth.
8. Ryan Tandy
The late prop was a very handy player with a great work rate who could really bend the line.
Tandy was convicted of match fixing in a game between the Cowboys and his side the Bulldogs in 2010 that embroiled the game in scandal. It has been alleged that Tandy was involved in the incident due to large gambling debts.
9. Andrew Johns
An Immortal of the game.
In 2007 he was arrested in London for fare evasion and found to be in possession of the drug ecstasy. This led to revelations from Johns of long-term drug use.
In June 2010 Timana Tahu withdrew from the Origin 2 side after Johns reportedly referred to Greg Inglis as a “black c___”. Johns was removed from his position and Greg Inglis called for him to have no further role in the game.
10. Russell Packer
A fearsome ball-running prop, Packer is currently serving a two-year jail term for an assault in November 2013 that the judge described as “cowardly and deplorable”.
Packer repeatedly punched the man on the ground and then stomped on his head. Packer had previously been fined $15,000 for the “completely unacceptable” action of being shown on TV urinating in his shorts during a match.
11. Nate Myles
A superb and uncompromising second rower who is a fixture at representative level.
In 2009 Myles was fined $50,000 and suspended for six matches after getting locked out of his Terrigal hotel room naked and, after unsuccessfully trying to get into a nearby family’s room, defecating in the corridor. He was later found naked, dazed and disoriented in the fire stairs.
Adam Macdougall stated on television that other players were referring to him as ‘the Squatter’.
12. John Elias
A journeyman second rower, in 1994 Elias was involved in a match-fixing plot that involved players from Souths and players from Wests.
In 1995 he was jailed for nine months for two counts of supplying amphetamines, one count of possessing F1 sub-machinegun parts, and one count of possessing prohibited military artifacts. Elias was also implicated in the Ryan Tandy match-fixing incident.
13. Paul Gallen
A superb forward for the Sharks, NSW and Australia, of whom he is respectively the captain and vice captain.
Gallen has a long list of indiscretions that includes being suspended in 2008 for trying to rip the stitches from Anthony Laffranchi’s head wound during a game. In 2009 he was suspended for racially abusing Mickey Paea. In the same year he was also arrested for urinating in a public place right next to a person’s head.
Interchange
14. Craig Gower
A well-credentialled halfback who played for NSW and Australia.
After Gower exposed himself to a woman in a Coogee bar in 1999, he was dumped from the Kangaroos squad and pleaded guilty to indecent exposure in court. However, that paled next to his behaviour at a charity golf event in December 2005.
He was reported to have groped rugby league legend Wayne Pearce’s teenage daughter, then chased a 16-year-old Mitchell Pearce with a bottle and vomited on him, crashed a golf cart he stole, streaked nude, put a knife to the throat of a another guest, and got into a brawl with security.
He was ejected from the resort into the custody of police, stripped of the Panthers’ captaincy, and fined $100,000.
15. Willie Mason
A rampaging forward who has represented NSW and Australia, in 2007 he was voted the most hated player by a fan poll. He has a rap sheet too.
Mason tested positive to an illicit social drug in 2003 and fined $25,000 by his club. He has twice been caught urinating in a public place, first in 2008 with Anthony Tupou in Port Macquarie, and then again in May 2009. He was also convicted of driving under the influence earlier this year.
16. Josh Dugan
A dynamic fullback who plays for St George Illawarra and NSW.
In 2013 Dugan skipped training with the Canberra Raiders and, along with teammate Blake Ferguson, climbed onto a roof to drink alcopops and decided to take a selfie giving someone, possibly his coach, the bird. He then posted the photo on Instagram. Shortly afterwards he was sacked.
He almost signed with the Broncos soon after, but Brisbane pulled out after Dugan had an exchange with a Twitter follower in which he told the man to “end yourself” and alluded to being able to better sexually satisfy the man’s girlfriend.
17. Konrad Hurrell
A barnstorming centre for the warriors and New Zealand.
In May of this year a video of Hurrell engaging in a sex act in a car with a well-known New Zealand actress appeared online. Hurrell was fined $5000 and ordered to undergo counselling on the use of social media.
Do you agree with the team? Who would you include?