'The players involved have fully cooperated': Storm trio meet with NRL Integrity Unit

As a mother of a young son. If my son looks at a footballer as a role model I haven't done my job. Footballers are just kids themselves

Munster and Cheese could never wait to get in front of a journo to have a crack. How quickly things can change. Hope these two learn from this - but unlikely.

apparantley there is some agreemant btwn the NRL and RLPA that out of compatition drug testing is a no go zone

So they have identified what the white powder was who purchased the it and from who and who used it and of coarse they have volunteered for a drug test. If not they have not cooperated at all.

With the testing they use, cocaine is generally out of their system after 24 hours. The NRL are wanting to move to hair folic testing, which shows cocaine in the system up to 3 months after it has been ingested. The AFL use this testing standard.

Unfair to label this as a Storm issue. How many other players over the years have been done for cocaine? And considering Australia is the highest users of coke per head of population, it’s more a societal issue than just the NRL or a particular club.

I'm a Storm fan but I think stupid behaviour no matter which club or players comes from needs to be stamped out, there's no place in rugby league for this type of behaviour, the NRL should throw the book at them and the club needs to also hand out heavy punishments to those involved.

Yes agree, that's all the NRL have on them. It's probably gone from their system by now. Re: testing, potentially true but the NRL or RLPA have no control over ASADA from what I understand. No doubt someone at the club knows when they are going to test but for a player not to be available to test is just as big as issue as going positive.

It is about time illegal drugs taken by players were dealt with correctly. I don't care what their reputations automatic 3 months de registration for the first offence, 6 months for the second and so on, right now players get fined or dropped from a club just to move on to another club almost immediately. "The current illicit drug testing policy prevents the NRL from taking samples outside the season " Munster $40000 and Smith $20000 plus a few games at the start of next season - not good enough Fines just announced as I wrote this piece.

Yes Xerri was tested in November, so I think the RLPA were able to change the testing rules since then. Currently the NRL can't test players out of season without their permission. The Storm players haven't been tested and they weren't arrested (as Reece Walsh was), so the charge from the NRL will be "bringing the game into disrepute".

That is a good question. In this current climate, I'd reckon the NRL and the broader community will come down harder on Covid breaches than they would for recreational drug taking. Definitely the courts view Covid breaches far, far more seriously. For example, last month a bloke was done with just under 1g of cocaine in my Qld town and received a $600 fine with no conviction. At the same time, a lady broke Covid protocols by sneaking into Qld from NSW and was fined $4,135. Last year the NRL imposed no suspension on Brent Naden when he tested positive for cocaine out of season, which they viewed it as not performance enhancing. The Panthers imposed their own 4 week suspension. I think the Storm players may cop something similar.

But they also would have been paid more as well Jimmmy.

Xerri was outside of the regular season too wasn't he?

One of the (many) attractions of the white lady is that it is untraceable in the human body after a few hours as opposed to say for example weed. This obviously varies between different human bodies. Therefore if someone tests positive for cocaine use it means that they must have had it fairly recently. This is based on oral fluid testing.

This should be very worrying as this Storm Dust is affecting the Storms top players getting on the dust! It has to start at the top and these players have to be warned and fined heavily by the club! The NRL if they are fair dinkum? Have to stamp this out of the NRL completely and they have to use this as a major benchmark against drugs, not the benchmark that they showed with Pearce as this is 100% more serious especially for our kids! As 2 weeks to 4 weeks is a joke of a punishment when Pearce got 10 weeks and a 100K fine! And that its “only a recreational drug” nonsense and they are young kids with money blah blah blah is just not good enough as illegal drugs should not be acceptable in the NRL in any shape or form as this has to be used as a warning and the biggest example that the NRL can dish out “Get fair dinkum all you at the NRL”!

I get that, and probably have just as many stories, but these guys are professionals in a professional sport and know not only where the boundaries are, but also that if they go outside the boundaries that there is a significant risk that it will be revealed.

Yeah , I agree but the reputation damage comes from the filming. If its filmed its a disaster . If its not who cares. Great way to establish a moral code. Can you imagine the reputational carnage in the 70s and 80s if smart phones were around then. ? My God , twitter would literally melt down. I can tell you some stories if you like but ' pictures or it didn't happen 'is the current zeitgeist.

That was very poor from Melbourne in regard to Bromwich. Absolute cop out.

Perese. Young bronco now playing for the Tahs.

Kent advised that the trio would be missing first two games of 2022 plus fines of $40?/ $20? /$10? Remember Proctor and Bromwich J.