Manly have lashed out at allegations two of their NRL matches from the 2015 season are being investigated for match-fixing.
In a statement released on Friday, Sea Eagles chairman Scott Penn and CEO Joe Kelly assured its stakeholders that they would co-operate with any probe surrounding the cooking of games.
The club also stressed they had yet to be contacted by NSW police, and were upset with initial reports that two fixtures involving their NRL team are already under the spotlight.
“It is bitterly disappointed that the club’s hard-earned 70-year reputation for fair play has been unfairly tarnished by imputations raised by some media outlets involving two Sea Eagles matches last season, albeit there is presently no formal investigation,” the statement read.
Manly also said they endorsed NRL boss Todd Greenberg’s threat of life bans for any player or official found guilty of match-fixing and promised to be open with fans with any further developments.
“The Sea Eagles fully support the strong stance by NRL CEO Todd Greenberg that any player found guilty of match fixing be banned for life,” the statement continued.
“We will continue to support our players one hundred per cent and give them the presumption of innocence particularly against unfair mainstream and social media innuendo.”
Sea Eagles coach Trent Barrett has already addressed the situation with his players ahead of Friday’s NRL clash against Canberra in the nation’s capital.
A win over the Raiders would lift the Brookvale-based team back into top-eight contention.
“All I have said to them is ignore it,” Barrett told the Seven Network.
“They are professionals and we have a job to do. Where we sit on the competition table, this is an extremely important game for us.
“It is not ideal, we would rather it not be around the whole game. It isn’t ideal but the one thing we can control is guest to block it out, stick together and win for the Manly football club.”
Emcie
Roar Guru
Is it 50k a game or in total? Either way it's starting stink of the darkest day in sport fiasco, with stories being broken before any investigations are complete
MAX
Guest
A clearing post. Thanks noip. It occurred to me that to bribe one or even two players may be an unfortunate possibility, but getting six is a fantasy. Last night, Canberra ushered in two of the easiest six pointers to make the final score 30-18. I thought, "could this be a Raiders 1-12 sting" Must be getting paranoid.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
All the corporates have denied taking the bets. Most are listed entities so their denials are most likely true. NRL Integrity Unit says nobody raised it with them, so those same bookmakers had no issue at the time. It's also interesting that while the line in Souths game moved from Souths -7.5 at open to -9.5 at close (not an uncommon occurence), the line in the Parramatta game went from Manly -21.5 to Manly -25. Wouldn't the weight of money move the line the other way? I'm pretty sure at the end of the day nothing will be found. But the media have gotten their headlines and reputations tarnished.
MAX
Guest
The simple arithmetic on this issue raises doubts. 6x $50k = $300K outlay before kick off. The reluctance of the corporates to lay any bet of substance and surprisingly allowing one bet of $120K and refusing another of $100K... both @ odds unknown. Fraudsters would only be interested in super profits and the information to hand, was this achieved? Had a sting been financially successful it would have news before this. It would be interesting to know the full corporate payouts without names on these matches.
macca
Guest
if its true maybe toovey can bring a lawsuit against those players. the scenarios are endless even coming from a manly hater like me did tooves lose his job because off corruption. even I draw a line between honesty an dishonesty
ron
Guest
They have to pay for cherry evans somehow!
Nordburg
Guest
Not sure you could say Manly lashed out at anyone.They are following the correct protocol in this situation -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.