The Sydney Roosters are weighing up the immediate NRL future of Jake Friend and Sandor Earl after they were charged with assault following an fight at an inner Sydney nightclub.
In the latest in a long line of atrocities to grip the NRL this year, Friend was charged with assault and Earl two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm after an altercation at the Tank nightclub at The Rocks in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The pair was granted conditional bail to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on July 20.
There was no confirmation from Roosters chief executive Steve Noyce as to whether the pair would be available to play against St George Illawarra on Friday night.
A police statement claimed a 31-year-old Queensland woman – believed to be Kristy Bradley, the niece of ABC rugby league radio commentator David Morrow – sustained concussion, bruising to her face, pain to her neck and back during the incident.
Friend and Earl – along with Roosters halfback Mitchell Pearce who was also at the nightclub at the time of the incident – attended The Rocks police station on Monday for questioning.
Friend and Earl were charged after two hours of interrogation, a day after Roosters coach Brad Fittler defended the pair over their involvement in the fight.
The trio had been at the nightclub celebrating the Roosters’ 19-12 win over Cronulla on Saturday night, which snapped a six-game losing streak.
It is believed Bradley was part of a group celebrating the 21st birthday of David Morrow’s daughter Emily, when she became caught up in the middle of a disagreement between the Roosters party and a 29-year-old Leichhardt man.
“Police will allege a physical altercation ensued between the two groups and as a result the man received soreness to his back and a graze to his chin,” a police statement read.
“A 31-year-old Queensland woman sustained concussion, bruising to her face, pain to her neck and back.
“A 19-year-old Maroubra man was charged with assault and a 19-year-old Glebe man was charged with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.”
The incident has left Friend’s playing future in grave doubt with Monday’s charge coming on the back of last week’s drink driving conviction when he was fined $850 and banned from driving for 18 months.
The Roosters also dished out their own punishment with a $10,000 and two-week suspension.
Earl made his top grade debut in the seven-point win over the Sharks.
The NRL said it would await a full report from the Roosters before commenting on the incident.
It has become a familiar line from the NRL in 2009 with a spate of off-field incidents dominating headlines.
Former Cronulla star Greg Bird was earlier this month sentenced to eight months jail for glassing his girlfriend while a sexual assault case against Manly fullback Brett Stewart remains before the courts.
The Answer
Guest
MarkH, The last line of your post was one of the funniest I've read in a long time. A few too many Batman episodes for you. Or is "your" company DC comics?
Crosscoder
Guest
Roman. Rugby league on its last legs because of a few idiots.Judging by the record SOO Tv ratings,increase in crowd numbers and general Tv ratings,the opposite appears to be the case.Same applies in New zealand. These couple of Rooster clowns will be given the flick.Weed out any miscreants. It appears the public is well educated enough to know in any group of youths where "ink" is involved ,will carry on like loons. Schoolies week at Sufferers' paradise is a classic example.Also any nightclub or pub on any given Sunday etc etc. People watch a sport ,not because of the actions of a few idiots within a code,but the spectacle of the sport itself. If that was not the case,I would have also given up on swimming,gridiron,and even cricket .With all the drug taking in the Tour de France,I would have pedalled away from the sport as a viewer. The overwhelming majority behave as responsible citizens.It is the few that get the bad publicity and plenty of it. Origin 2 was hardly earth shattering as a spectacle,but did find a cure for insomnia after watching the NZ v Italians and Wallabies v French ru tests,
Craig
Guest
True Tah, That's Humans for ya. Not NSW or Qld The intrigue of the bad boys. (underbelly) This Barry Hall stuff at the moment is the best thing that could happen to the Swans.
True Tah
Guest
Craig it doesnt reflect too well on Australians (well those in Qld and NSW) that we reward such behaviour through increased viewing, hell in such an environment its entirely possible that Willie Mason will end up heading the NRL.
Craig
Guest
Roman, You don't know what you are talking about. And I bet you wouldn't have never gone to game any. Who said Club CEO giving a female a black eye, Group Sex with Kiwi slappers, Drunken Sexual Assaults, Punching NRL sponsors, Steroid use, Players urinating in public, Clubs steeling money off bogus dying people wouldn't pay off. Well the big game keeps getting bigger... Crowds, ratings boom in NRL resurgence. THE NRL is trumpeting an increase in crowds and television ratings for 2009. The league says crowds are up five per cent on the same time last year and have totalled 1,688,948 so far in 2009. It says game one of the State of Origin series reached a record average of 2.322 million viewers across the five capital cities, 177,000 better than the previous best, for game three last year. Weekly television ratings for NRL games are up 21.7 per cent in Brisbane and and 14.2 per cent in Sydney. And club memberships have grown 27 per cent with nine of the league's 16 clubs achieving record numbers. Despite the massive publicity generated by the Cronulla group sex scandal and sexual assault charges laid against Manly's Brett Stewart earlier this year, the league also claims an increase in the number of women interested in rugby league. "While the economic climate has been tough and while many people predicted we would see a drop in numbers, there have been a lot of positives and each week the NRL players are lifting themselves in a way that has inspired fans. People love this stuff it a soap opera.
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
What I read here is, to me, normal night out behaviour by the image absorbed and materialistic young in our sophisticated, modern, supposedly more educated world. My observation of behaviour around the Surfers Paradise nightclub strip is that, with the young party set, ready aggression and extreme violence bubble permanently just below the surface. It appears to me they regard getting falling down blind and having a violent blue is a normal result for a night out. You see it both in the street outside the clubs and when they are all jammed together inside. The streets have reasonably visible coppers walking through in their yellow safety vests but they are pretty ineffectual because they must let a lot of confrontational stuff go through to the keeper, for fear of getting a belting themselves I suspect. Or a bad staff report from their social worker chiefs. As an older, big bloke I can usually move through it all undisturbed (avoid the stumbling drunks, present no obvious challenge because of the age) but while I sit with my wife for coffee I can readily see the makings of swift retribution for any imagined slight. The scuffles we see involve the worst fighting habits - running in unsighted, putting the slipper in, king hits, restraining arms so your mate can have a free go and the like. The brave young fellas would not last a single round in the ring. The women / girls are just as aggressive as the fellas, too. Some ambo friends tell us the reported drink spiking is more often camouflage for binge drinking early in the night, to avoid parental rebuke. When the cops intervene it becomes an instant sideshow for the whole street - a screaming, baiting crowd forms, usually with some shrill young women demanding to be heard as self appointed legal counsel for the captives. The too well behaved cops are on a hiding to nothing. The cops tell us that, later on, Mummy and Daddy turn up in denial with threats to complain about them to the local member. I know it is an entirely intimidating and confronting environment for the timid or reluctant passer by. I have watched these conditions deteriorate over a couple of decades - it is not imagined and it is vastly different to what I witnessed as an active young bloke. I do recall the persuasive impact of a couple of big crown sergeants, with their big young apprentices, growling at us fools to get out of it, now!
Roman
Guest
i feel for an unnamed friend of mine who plays in the NRL. He is one of the nicest guys I have ever known and definitely not one like these tools beating women etc, however in my opinion rugby league is on its last legs. it is dying - even origin was a snoozefest. these idiots need to grow the **** up and realise they arent the untouchable celebrities they think they are
MarkH
Guest
I hate to say it but there is little anyone can do. These guys just dont get it. If a woman hits you in a bar go to security. Thats what they get paid for. Any man who feels that hitting a woman is fine is a joke and a coward. No matter about the sport, it is un-called for as a man to do something like that. I supported RL ever since my dad took me to to see Manly play Balmain at Brooky in 1977. Fitler is an idiot supported by a code that for mine is finished. Im over it. I will never allow my company to support that sport. Im done. Women walk around constantly scared of men from all forms of assault. If that were my sister / girlfriend etc. Id go looking for these two clowns. I know their faces. They dont know mine.