Cronulla captain Paul Gallen says he won’t be taking a $50,000 fine meted out by the NRL lying down.
Gallen, who was slugged with the hefty fine on Monday for an abusive tweet directed towards NRL administrators, felt he had no choice.
“It’s unbelievable – I’ve got to fight it,” Gallen told News Corp.
“The last time I didn’t fight something (the ASADA ban) I regretted it, I will this time.
“How can they justify it? Blokes get fined $10,000 for an assault. Others have been arrested and not been fined anything.”
Gallen has had a tough year, he’s also currently serving a 12-week ASADA-imposed anti-doping suspension along with Sharks teammates from the 2011 season.
Like his fellow players he chose not to fight the ASADA ban.
News Corp had on Sunday reported that Gallen was suffering depression, but at a press conference on Monday to promote an upcoming boxing bout he refused to detail any specific problems he had.
BennO
Guest
aHaaHaha! You're kidding yourself mate. But it does make my point rather nicely, you want consistency of punishments, but you can't find a similar crime to compare it to. Not even close.
Squidward
Roar Rookie
Thurston. Huge wrap sheet of drunk behaviour. Nothing. Done. Seeya benno my busy little worker bee
BennO
Guest
Yeah that's rubbish mate. I tell you what my boss expects of me. He expects me to do my job, just like everyone's boss, whatever that may entail. If my job required me to put my body on the line and bleed or risk getting injured, and I agreed to do that, then my boss would expect me to do it, just like everyone's boss. Luckily for me my job doesn't require me to do that, instead I get to work 60+ hours a week. I get to wake up at 2am to be on conference calls with colleagues on other continents. I get to start work on Friday at 8am and work thru til 1am because international colleagues aren't long in the office by then. But that's all quite ok because I agreed to it - it's a great job. But guess what!? It's not a normal job. And I sure as hell can't talk about my boss or the senior people in my organisation in the way Gallen did and expect nothing. You want consistent punishments? When was the last time a player, coach or club official with a long and almost unprecedented wrap sheet, spoke publicly about the NRL in that way? Find them and check what they got fined.
Charles NSW
Guest
The problem is that we have a NSW captain and one of the leading figures in the game attacking the very game that pays his wages. With his standing in the game it really attacks what Rugby League is all about. If he has a problem all he had to do was contact the powers to be with his complaints. I feel his fine is a bit too high but by all means he should not be NSW captain or have the honour of representing our game in a certain length of time.
Squidward
Roar Rookie
As he should. It ridiculous. All everyone wants is consistent punishments and this wasn't And everyone that says "if I called my boss that id be fired" blah etc It's not a normal job. Does your boss expect you to bleed for him, or get concussed, or get injured putting your body on the line for the company. No.