Jack de Belin set to challenge NRL suspension in court

well said Rhys!

Well, apparently there is no rule in place to stand anyone down Slightly embarassing for the NRL Please Start the comp early so that we can watch some football...

'The only things stopping you from playing will be injury or illness' True apart from the no fault 18 month enforced break you will get if falsely accused of a serious crime. Dylan Walker isn't alleged to have struck his fiancee either.

“Another player that think’s he is more important,and bigger than the game.” Well guess what, “the game” is just that, a game, and a person’s human rights are infinitely more important than it. Rugby League can survive doing the right thing in this instance and if it can’t, then perhaps it shouldn’t.

How does cheating on your wife bring the game into disrepute? If that’s all he did, are sponsors going to turn away over that? Hardly.

Does he have to front the media every week? I don’t think he does. He’s not the captain and doesn’t have to front up to post match press conferences.

Your feeble imagination led you to believe Bozo deliberately sabotaged the NSW SOO team to favor his club and the same feeble mindset imagines that I change my mind based on whatever he says. Your grip on reality and logic is alarming.

I said any power of that kind had to be exercised reasonably. A court will always back an employer taking reasonable action to uphold their duty of care to the people their employees deal with as part of their job, especially if they deal with particularly vulnerable people. If that isn’t a factor, as is the case with JDB, then a reasonable investigation is required. I’m not inventive enough to make that up - that’s based on case law.

I respect your comments for sure, no show and a part of me thought the same as you - just wear it JDB and let the League get back to doing what it does best; entertaining it's fans. The other part of me has no issue with Greenburg's decision being challenged, just to be sure he and the NRL have it right. If they do, it's a huge win for the NRL and clearly puts players on notice. If not, Greenburg and co have some important learnings to address; first, make sure any action taken against players would be likely to pass judgement in court and secondly, use the findings to come up with "sanctions" that DO work long term, eg re-writing contracts to cover this type of issue, etc

The NRL's handling of this was shown to be very poor in court today. Imagine making a big media song and dance about suspending De Belin and then having to admit that he hasn't been suspended. Jesus wept! Their case was already looking shaky before that admission because 'no fault' suspensions is asking for trouble. But the icing on the cake was announcing the suspension before they have officially made the decision to suspend. I'm pretty confident that the NRL's case is toast and De Belin will be playing this year - which in my view is the least worst outcome. Policy on the run is rarely going to stand up to scrutiny. Next time the NRL might want to get a barrister's opinion first even if they cop some short term heat getting their ducks in a row.

Now you have completely changed your argument - now you are saying it is that they are "fundamentally unsuitable for the job" is a reason for standing down, but before you were adamant that no action should be taken against anyone unless they had been found guilty. In any event being a football player is more than just catching and passing - it is about being a representative of the game - by playing he is a risk to his employers stream of income at the very least.

His reasons are known though: He wants to keep playing until the outcome of the court case is known Not unreasonable actually, just against what the NRL want to do I would have agreed with you until recently as don't judge rugby league by the small amount of people that do, or allegedly do something wrong But the amount of negativity from punters at the moment has driven the NRL to act and I don't have an issue with it Whether it stands up in court is another thing I just think that he should have shut up, accepted it just to keep himself and the NRL out of the bad books for a while

Of course I have sympathy for both Jack De Belin and his partner. Don't you TB? I also have sympathy for the young lady who is also at the centre of this unfortunate affair (bad choice of words). One of them is telling fibs but which one? Do you know TB? Unless I am mistaken JDB and his partner are still together and his partner has not made any statements to the media so no clues there. Or is there? Shall we toss a coin to see who is at fault here TB? Certainly someone has made a poor life choice but which one? If only we had some way of getting all the facts together in one place and hearing both sides of the story so someone who is familiar with the law and has experience and wisdom can sort this mess out. If only it were possible TB? Then perhaps we wouldn't be playing guessing games and getting into accidents forgetting to indicate while virtue signalling (apologies Aiden) now would we? In the meantime if you really had sympathy for what JDB's partner is going through TB perhaps the less this is discussed on a public forum the better? Just a thought.

But the fans aren’t relevant to the charge. If he was accused of raping a fan on game day then you could say he poses a potential risk to fans, sure.

Yet if Bozo came out in support of the rule his opinion would change in that instant.

But he still has access and exposure to fans - and they to him - which caused the problem in the first place. He doesn’t cease to be an NRL player as soon as he steps off the field

Here we go again... Anyone that disagrees with you is the “rabble” or “losing the plot”

Do you not have empathy / sympathy for JDB’s partner unless JDB is found guilty of rape?

" His contract doesn’t require him to be a decent boyfriend/husband/man." ... Doesn't it??? Soooo... any player can stroll through the streets, being uncouth, acting like an idiot, unsociable, drunken behaviour... and all's good? Don't contracts have a 'bring the game into disrepute' clause?

“…be surprised if theres enough left in the NRL to field a first 13.”” You might be right…then what a really ordinary and lowbrow world this has become….