Brisbane CEO Paul White has defended signing former NRL bad boy Matt Lodge, saying the controversial forward has “done his time”.
White admits debate over Lodge’s recruitment won’t go away soon as the former Wests Tigers prop prepares for his first NRL game in three years.
But he says the 22-year-old deserves another chance after paying “an enormous price” for his 2015 drunken New York rampage.
“He’s done his time. He’s been out of the game for almost three years,” White said of the giant prop on Friday.
“A lot of people don’t know Matt Lodge like we know him (and) he’s paid an enormous price.
“He realises he has made a terrible mistake.
“There will still be debate about that but all I can say is that I am comfortable with the process we went through with the NRL to get him here.”
Brisbane raised eyebrows when they signed Lodge on a 2018 deal after he was cleared by the NRL integrity unit, two years after being deregistered over his New York arrest.
Lodge avoided jail in the United States after pleading guilty to reckless assault but was hit with a $1.6 million damages bill.
After playing for feeder club Redcliffe in 2017, he is now primed to launch his NRL comeback after monstering Gold Coast in his unofficial return in Brisbane’s opening trial last week.
He gets another chance to impress ahead of their March 8 season opener against St George Illawarra in Saturday’s final trial against PNG Hunters at Port Moresby.
“He has come to the club for the right reasons,” White said.
“He has done an enormous amount of work off the field.”
Brisbane faced renewed criticism this week when a Fairfax report claimed the lawyer of Lodge’s New York attack victims said they had not been paid any of the whopping damages bill.
It is believed Lodge will earn $85,000 in 2018.
White said Brisbane would not get involved in the damages payment.
“The civil matter is between Matt and the claimants,” he said. “It’s a large sum of money. Matt is not on a large contract with our club.
“Hopefully at some stage in the future he will be (on a large contract) if he is successful.
“But there is a long way to go between here and there and that is a matter he has to deal with in the fullness of time.”
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