As Suzanne Young, the NRL’s Chief Operating Officer, delivered the findings of the investigation into the Rabbitohs’ dealings with Tom Burgess and John Sutton, neither the media nor fans were expecting much in the way of punishment.
Needless to say they were right. The NRL have fined the Rabbitohs $20,000 with no further action to be taken against the players involved.
Young stated that the Souths had met their obligations in advising the integrity unit of the incident. However, she then said Souths have been fined because they did not follow the investigation “to its conclusion” – i.e. the charges against Burgess were only dropped after a payment had been made to the bouncer involved in the altercation.
Young went on to say, “there is no evidence to show Shane Richardson, who was CEO at the time, or any other official was aware of the payment.”
It is hardly remarkable that those were the findings given, as Young stated, “the integrity unit relies on the clubs to provide reliable and accurate information about any incidents involving players.”
Thus we are still left with a raft of questions. Who made the payment to the bouncer? If it was indeed Burgess, how did the club not know he had made the payment given he was on an official club trip? And lastly, how can we be certain the Souths made full and frank disclosure considering the integrity unit rely on clubs to provide said disclosure?
In addition to the above issue is the punishment doled out to the two players. Sutton has had his captaincy stripped, however when asked by The Daily Telegraph if there were any extenuating circumstances for the demotion, Richardson replied, “Not to my knowledge – it was Madge’s [coach Michael Maguire] call”.
Granted Sutton hasn’t been found guilty of anything, however when Mitchell Pearce was fined for refusing to obey an order to leave a licensed premise he was fined $20,000, given a one-match ban, and ordered to attend counselling. Boyd Cordner was fined $5,000 for being with Pearce.
Tom Burgess was granted a release to move to Manly without any other punishment. This is clearly inconsistent given Parramatta’s Nathan Peats was given a one-match ban and a $5,000 fine following a complaint for an alleged altercation in Bali.
Given the police report into Burgess’ actions were made public, it reeks of inconsistency that he has faced no further sanctions. Even Konrad Hurrell was given a $5,000 fine for filming himself receiving oral sex while driving. You would have to imagine assault would lend itself to a larger penalty.
The soft punishments doled out to Souths and the two players highlights the shortcomings of the NRL integrity unit. There is no incentive for clubs to give full and honest disclosure for off-field incidents, because if they don’t they are likely to receive less of a penalty.
Perhaps instead of using their war chest for the marquee player allowance, the NRL should invest in a robust investigative arm, as it is apparent that self-reporting is not working.
One thing is for certain, Suzanne Young and the integrity unit need to improve quickly, or the integrity unit will become another rug under which clubs sweep player indiscretions.
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