A slap on the wrist? Who are you kidding?

How can a player be allowed to play in their next game, if they are found to be two times over the legal blood alcohol level? It is wrong to deny someone their job for a minor offense. Did he crash into anyone, no so what the hell is the problem. He should be allowed to work just like anybody else.

Why do Australians insist that sport stars are or should be role models in society? Sport stars are paid to entertain in the same way as actors, rock stars, authors, artists etc. How many of these people lead flawed lives? I'm not sure why people can't differentiate between the entertainment that a person provides and their life outside of their profession. If Australians want to put sport stars up on a pedestal as examples of how we should all live our lives then maybe we have our priorities wrong. Shouldn't it be the parents, teachers and other authoritative figures in children's lives that are the role models?

Saying that the tax payer pays the players' wages implies that they are paid from government expenditure, i.e. tax dollars. Private companies make money from paying customers. If the customers don't like it, they have the choice not to buy merchandise, attend games, renew memberships etc, whereas the tax payer does not have the choice to pay taxes or not. So yes, I am serious.

YES I AM a Dragons supporter and very entitled to my opinion!!!!!

"How can a player be allowed to play in their next game, if they are found to be two times over the legal blood alcohol level?" He was definitely not the only footy player who was 2 to 3 times over the limit on the weekend. They are young men and most young men like to go out on the weekends and have a few drinks, nothing unusual there but he is a dumbass for driving.

I don't understand why the NRL hasn't stepped in. It should be a mandatory suspension like they do in the NFL (They always give 4 weeks minimum for DUI) as well as mandatory community service. It is the only way people learn, and it also ensure the club takes some responsibility by providing more education and resources so that players don't get themselves into those situations. And best of all it will provide some consistency. This should be one of the first things an IC looks at, an Independent Tribunal that sets the expected minimum punishments for these sorts of events. The club could go over and above these if it deems it warranted (as you don't know what has been going on behind the scenes).

believe it or not Life does go on if you give away the booze..speaking as one who gave it away 4 years ago..and life hasn't been better.. society has to get more proactive on this as they did with smoking..I recall B.U.G.A.U.P (I think thats how they spelt it) and all the bad coverage they originally had.. and how they fought to educate everyone 20 to 25 years ago.. now it's a part of everyday life.. it will come with alcohol, I really think it's inevitable that it will happen, but might be quite a few years down the track still; afterall we were founded on Rum in the early days.... Oh and we're not all wowsers.. madam premier... :-) anyway off my soap box now.. and back to the subject...

Totally agree with you Adrian. He needs to be punished now and properly. Letting him off lightly will not deter Williams or anyone else.; The NRL and all clubs in fact, need to start clamping down and HARD on misbehaving players. Its the only way they wil llearn. And Billo Boy, champ you are way off the mark. You say our footballers are over scrutinised. Mate, thats why they get paid as much as they do! For a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year, they need to be setting better examples. They are privlidged in the fact that they get to do something they love for very good quid. And if they want to kick up a stink about the size of fines they get or the fact that they get suspended, they can go carry bricks for minimum wage!

Springs..I certainly did stick up for the footballers because I LOVE their visits, especially if it is a Dragon player visiting the school. I just feel it was such poor timing after I explained to this parent that all footballers are not like the ones on the back page news and then..... he makes the news and this guy will say..I told you so! We don't have the luxury in my profession to say what we REALLY think as we have to be professional so we have to be nice to parents.. but the banning Tongans is a bit rich! I don't think I will put that in my email reply!

:S You serious? And how do private companies make money ? Fans attending their games, buying their merchandise etc! The "tax payer"....Don't look at it so generally.

Manly must have an amazing legal team if they can manage to influence the DPP to not charge their players for criminal offences.

Lets see.Should a policeman be caught drink driving and there have been a few,or a policman speeding off the job and there have been more than a few.Should we ban the force from coming to the schools and teach kids about road safety. Should we prevent sending our kids to schools because a few teachers and there have been more than i care to add up ,have been involved in serious allegations. We have had a recent situation where a journo from a Melbourne paper,had too much and his car made the wrong turn. Will he lose his job?Or be fined by his employer?. We have had commentators arrive to work TV and radio under the weather.They still have their jobs.They are high profile. If society is going to assume a couple of bad apples in the barrell,really means a barrell full of bad'uns then society better shut up shop,and not let the kids outside. I won't even attempt to throw light on the goings on in the entertainment industry.Polticians have a look at some of them. There should be punishment to suit the act for any rl player,but to make assumptions, QED something is rotten to the core due to the acts of few is way off the mark. I admit. it diminishes any code when a player does something plain dumb,and sometimes repeats the effort.

I really enjoy this website but this article from you is pretty lame. lets just get over it. He 's been fined $15000, will have no license for 12 months and will have to do community service. i think that's more than enough punishment. he's a football player. not a politician running our country. calling this punishment as soft is a bit much for to listen to. we judge our players way too harshly because we think we own them. they're not business manger's controlling 1000's of employee's, they're not policing our streets, they're not baby sitting our children. they're playing sport to entertain us.

Angela, you must be a DRAGONS supporter. That explains everything. EPIC!!!!!!! There is a comment from Beer down the bottom. Also monster EPIC comment, next why don't you write the article, you comment was as long as it anyway. Beer you know the saying keep them short and EPIC.

What Graham is saying is simple Col - if Williams was banned for 2 weeks he would lose about $6,000 in match payments. A $15,000 fine is significantly higher than a lost of two weeks match payments. I believe he should have received both a significant fine AND been stood down for 2 rounds.

Hayley, I agree, but I believe that drink driving for anyone is wrong, whether they are a footballer or not. This goes for everyone here as everyone is entitled to their opinion, but these guys are in the spotlight, Williams is not the only one to ever be caught drink driving but its stupidity on his behalf to think you're right to drive being 3 times over the legal limit..being a big fella that takes a lot of piss to get that guy 3 times the legal limit, and you've gotta know you are not right to drive! Joe Schmo would even make the news being over 3 times the legal limit, yes no back page news but he would be in the paper. Williams could have killed someone while driving and that is a concern, thats the point people are missing here, he was risking not only his life but those on the road with him at the time. I think he should be suspended for a few games and have to work his way back into an already strong backline. I dont rate him a very very good footballer anyway and believe he is only there because stewart is out, but besides the point he should be stood down for a few games to teach him a lesson. Regardless of how big this guys contract is, he is a young guy and money is going to come to him easy in life as he is only young. I agree with the point ludvig brought up about not playing players and their stocks decrease. I see that as a very good point, and williams just be punished further than just hit in the pocket but playing time also. There's no consistency with these penalties to players who continue to misbehave, there needs to be set guidelines and penalties for these guys to follow. Its funny as williams only just recently came from the Toyota Cup and they teach them off field issues at the beginning of the season. These guys are continually warned of this and it seems to go in one ear and out the other. They just don't learn!

I am often torn with instances such as this. Yes I believe that footballers are role models, but at the same time, they are also just young kids who have been thrown in to the spot light because they have a talent. And while they are aware of this when they choose a career in the NRL, do we honestly believe that because this guy has been caught drink driving, a 17 year old the weekend is also going to risk the same, because his "hero" did. I think we need to give young people more credit. While I do not condone what he did, many more people wil be caught doing the exact same thing this evening. The drinking culture is a society problem, and these sports people live in our society, why should we expect them to be immune?

You ask what is the difference between the Williams case and Jake Friend - well you answered one part yourself, Friend was done for high range, whereas Williams was caught mid range. Additionally Friend has prior offences, such as assaulting a taxi driver and getting in a nightclub brawl, while to the best of my knowledge Williams hasn't had any prior disciplinary infractions. From what I understand he is being fined anywhere between 10 and $15000 by Manly, which amounts to between 6-10% of his yearly income; a pretty substantial hit, and in addition to whatever fine/licence suspension and quite possibly criminal record he receives from the courts. He has certainly done the wrong thing, but to say he is being let off lightly is wrong.

This is what you old Bears fans do all the time...fail to get over the fact your club was rubbish for 80 odd years, and was rightfully ejected from the comp.