Three Penrith players have been issued breach notices by the NRL – with one also being stood down by the club – for controversial photos that surfaced following their 2021 premiership triumph.
The Panthers had drawn heavy criticism from all NRL circles after reports emerged that the Provan-Summons trophy had been broken in wild post-match celebrations, with further ire drawn after Nathan Cleary and Stephen Crichton were shown pushing the various pieces of broken silverware around in prams.
The NRL today, while absolving the duo of personal responsibility for damaging the trophy, alleges they “subsequently treated the Trophy in a manner which showed disrespect towards the individuals depicted in the iconic moment memorialised on the Trophy.”
Fines of $7000 for Cleary and $4000 for Crichton – differing due to their salaries – have been proposed.
The Panthers have also been tasked with footing the bill for the cost of repairing the iconic trophy.
In a club statement, Panthers CEO offered a sincere apology for the “distress this matter may have caused the Rugby League community and particularly the Provan and Summons families,” while also insisting Panthers players never intended to show disrespect to the trophy, nor to Norm Provan or Arthur Summons.
Meanwhile, Tyrone May could be in even bigger strife after he too was issued a breach notice, before being stood down indefinitely by the club.
A $7500 fine was proposed for May, for the alleged “posting and being part of social media posts which do not align with the values of the game.”
May recently posted a since-deleted image on Instagram of him leaving Parramatta Local Court with rap lyrics that appeared to dismiss his recent legal troubles. May plead guilty in 2019 to four counts of intentionally recording an intimate image without consent.
In the same club statement, the Panthers announced that May had been stood down “from all club-related duties and appearances until further notice,” and that an upcoming board meeting would see the matter discussed further.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Hang in there DPS. It's always darkest before the dawn. #BlueDawn :laughing:
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Thanks, so far, we’ll see how the year pans out :thumbup: :happy:
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Are you OK now mate?
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
lockdown/home detention. With this government there isn't much difference...
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
You mean lockdown, DPS? People will think Shawshank Redemption otherwise.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
G'day, just been surviving Melbourne prison term....
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Where have you been DPS? We missed you mate! No one here is seeing reason and they all want to give the Panthers a free pass and turn a blind eye to their systemic serial che@ting tactics. We both know that if Souths had been doing this all year and won a premiership as a result this forum would have exploded with vitriolic attacks against Souths. No question at all. So why then are so many here willing to roll over when it is the Panthers or the Chooks? DPS, the Eels were robbed of their rightful place in a preliminary final by a Panthers side who threw the rule book and all sense of fair play out the window. Given that the Eels had already beaten the Storm twice this year and given the form of the Storm in the prelim final there is little doubt that cost the Eels a place in the GF. I would be saying the same thing if it were Manly who had made it to the GF instead of Souths. I don't get how ROARers still whinge about Souths being granted salary cap relief for medical retirements for Greg Inglis and Sam Burgess but they have no problem with the Roosters being over the salary cap in 2018 and 2019 when they became back-to-back premiers or with the Panthers che@ting their way to a premiership. It seems a little inconsistent to me.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Strip the premiership would be a decent call given the manner of their victory ad the dodgy rule breaking that went on in the lead up.
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
Have a look at tonight's Telegraph report: "The NRL has confirmed Penrith Panthers stars Nathan Cleary and Tyrone May were the ones who handed out free grand final tickets to friends who had illegally entered Queensland on false Covid-19 exemptions. But no action was taken against the two players because they both convinced the integrity unit they were unaware their mates had unlawfully crossed the border 24 hours before the decider." The user friendly Integrity Unit mistakenly named Ivan's finest as Richie Cunningham and Dudley Do-right, noted their files as "Din-do-nuffin" and officially thanked the work experience kiddies who sat as Alternate Unit Members this week.
Brian Westlake
Roar Rookie
Not the only reason, but a big one. And because its the right thing to do? Maybe he or she should have stepped in earlier. And the Umaga part? I'll stand by what I said. But I totally agree with you on the May part... He can get a job steel fixing with BJ
Dandragon
Roar Rookie
Yet again, Clouseau, you’ve drawn the same wrong conclusion and appear to have no memory of the time a moderator stepped in to publicly correct you in this obsession. Why would I busily create all these accounts when I could just use this one? I’ve never understood why you keep accusing me of this. And which of my posts have been so “abusive” to warrant your request to The Roar to ban my account? In applying your own logic - if you can call it that - wouldn’t I just use my apparent plethora of random accounts?
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Another "guestie" account danielle/Dandragon? [insert eye roll emoji here]
LMM
Guest
Albo, soak up the hate. It means we are good. With this amount of hate, we are very, very good.
LMM
Guest
Watch the game again. Souths clearly went out with an edict to be aggressive and unsettle the Panthers.Problem is, when you have such geniuses as Sua, Burgess, Arrow, Walker, Mitchell etc then you are going to give away penalties.
LMM
Guest
Watch the game again. Souths clearly went out with an edict to be aggressive and unsettle the Panthers. Problem is, when you have such geniuses as Sua, Burgess, Arrow, Walker, Mitchell etc then you are going to give away penalties.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
Great! Yet another "guestie" account no one has seen before targeting me and commenting on nobody else's profile. And surprise... it's the obsessed and deranged "Alex Forrest" straight out of Fatal Attraction as the only profile to have "Liked" the comment. And posted after the stroke of midnight (12:01am) like all her abusive tirades on ZT that got the site shutdown for a month to remove her toxic garbage. Can the editors please remove Dandragon? Check their history, it is only abusing or baiting me and offering nothing worthwhile or relevant to the forum.
The Sporacle
Roar Rookie
I just didn't like that it seemed you thought the only reason a relative would pull his nephew into line is because he wouldn't get a car, not because it was the right thing to do. So because Umaga wrote about it makes it representative of the way that it is across the entire community?
Brian Westlake
Roar Rookie
Why is it ordinary? It's true. Read Tana Umagas bio if you want proof. At 23 I was in my final year of engineering, working, playing footy, surfing and I had been going out with the future Mrs Westlake for a year. I had a wonderful coach who often said "Don't put yourself in a position that will put you on the front page of the Herald." Words even more pertinent today. So if Cleary makes another "mistake", two things come to mind... You would have a broke, incredibly stupid football player on your hand, that cannot learn from his "mistakes".
Realist
Guest
Souths are grubs & deserved every penalty. Latrell got off lightly with both the Manu & Brimson incidents, would have been a big blowout in Penrith's favor if he had played the GF, feet for hands / aint care about bombs & brain explosions galore!
SPM
Roar Rookie
I mean as long as they don’t damage the one thing they spend the entire season trying to get their hands on. Plenty of people have fun without breaking stuff.