- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Two months ago, Sharks captain Paul Gallen called for an automatic two-year ban on any NRL player found guilty of taking a banned substance.
Little did he know his president Damian Keogh will face an alleged cocaine possession charge on June 30, nor that Rooster Shaun Kenny-Dowall, the Storm’s Jesse Bromwich, and Titan Kevin Procter would also become embroiled in scandals related to the drug.
The Damian Keogh charge is a major bombshell.
The 55-year-old three-time basketball Olympian, a Hall of Famer, and CEO of Hoyts is one of the all-time solid citizens who is rightfully revered across Australian sport – not just basketball.
He has stood down as Sharks president, and told a media conference two days after being charged that he doesn’t have a drug problem, and will prove his point in court.
What wasn’t discussed at the conference was how he was in possession of the alleged cocaine.
We will have to wait until June 30 for that vital answer.
The same can’t be said for Kenny-Dowall, who was also charged with possession, and Bromwich, and Proctor, who allegedly snorted cocaine outside a nightclub after the Anzac Test on Friday night.
The Roosters have stood down Kenny-Dowall indefinitely, and no doubt the Knights will put their offer for next season on hold until his case is heard in court.
Bromwich and Proctor were allegedly filmed on CCTV snorting cocaine after the Anzac Test in Canberra.
Both have been banned from the New Zealand Rugby League World Cup squad later in the year.
(NRL Photos)
The Storm has also suspended Kiwi captain Bromwich, one of the world’s best props, for two games under their code of conduct, and dropped him from the leadership group, while Proctor has resigned as Titans’ co-captain, and awaits the club’s decision on his playing status later in the week.
What an unholy bloody mess. It follows on from Wests Tigers tearing up Tim Simona’s contract after cocaine use and fraud charges, and the Sharks did the same when Ben Barba tested positive to cocaine during the grand final celebrations last season.
That track record must surely make rugby league boss Todd Greenberg crack down harder on those who have proved to disregard the seriousness of banned drug taking, especially cocaine.
Keogh apart, how can well-paid rugby league footballers put their careers at risk? Especially with the alternative being a 9-5 job paying 20 per cent at best.
It beggars belief.
But rugby league isn’t the only sport under the drugs hammer.
Three Olympic swimmers – Madeline Groves, Jarrod Poort, and Thomas Fraser-Holmes – face two-year bans for avoiding three mandatory drug tests in the last 12 months.
All three are among the future of Australian swimming, and if the bans are applied, will miss next year’s Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
Again, why are they playing Russian roulette with their careers? It doesn’t make any sense.
It’s not as if the swimmers are pulling their weight in the Olympic team; their performances were totally underwhelming at both the London and Rio Games.
There’s a culture problem within the swimming ranks, and that, couple with the dramas in the NRL, just goes to prove overall the inmates have taken over the sporting asylum.