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Opinion
More than a week after footage of Payne Haas and Albert Kelly involved in a scuffle came to light, we’re still waiting on the NRL Integrity Unit to announce what sanctions they will face.
And they will – well, they bloody should – face sanctions.
High-profile football players getting in a scuffle in a public place is, in a nutshell, bringing the game into disrepute. People having a go at the person who filmed it as some sort of low-life are way off the mark – this isn’t acceptable behaviour from Kelly and Haas, and what the hell did they expect would happen in 2022?
You might not like it but the bad behaviour of famous people is probably going to be caught on camera.
That a person filmed an incident that was then investigated by the police – more on that later – is not the problem.
That said, if it had been two other footballers, they’d probably have copped a fine each and we’d all have moved on.
The issue is the size that it is due to the men involved and their history.
Albert Kelly is regarded as one of the NRL’s greatest ‘what if’ stories.
Basically, what if he wasn’t such a liability on the piss.
An Australian schoolboy representative who came through at Parramatta, he debuted in first grade for Cronulla, who reportedly beat out the Storm, Wests Tigers, Bulldogs and Titans for his signature in 2010.
He managed 14 games in the Shire and was even named in an extended Origin squad as a project player in 2011, but was sacked in early 2012 for what Fox Sports reported as being “nothing overly serious but still a breach of training and fitness guidelines”, in what was essentially the straw that broke the camel’s back after a string of arrests.
Kelly hasn’t quite lived up to his full potential (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“When do you stop writing breach notices?” then Sharks chair Damian Irvine said of Kelly being shown the door.
“It’s not about just sacking the kid. He’s had umpteen notices when you only need three.
“It’s very disappointing because Darren (Mooney) and Shane (Flanagan) put in so much work with the kid. They afforded him so much effort and time. Sadly, it doesn’t always work out.”
Kelly got a reprieve later that year, signing a second-tier deal at the Knights, but that lasted only a matter of months, getting the boot after smashing a light – having taken his shirt off, which is a detail I found too good to leave out – at Newcastle nightspot Fanny’s (which, in a heartbreaking and baffling move, has renamed itself Argyle House, meaning when it was at the centre of a COVID outbreak late last year, we were robbed of the opportunity for some truly brilliant headlines).
‘‘There is no doubt Albert is a talented young player who obviously had some issues off the field while living in Sydney,’’ then Knights CEO Matt Gidley said.
“Unfortunately, due to further disciplinary reasons, Albert has recently had his NSW Cup contract suspended, then terminated.”
After two years at the Titans, Kelly made the move to the UK, where in 2018 he again made headlines for his drunken antics, with the Yorkshire Post reporting he was filmed “launching drunken, foul-mouth abuse at a female McDonald’s worker”.
His club, Hull FC, said they dealt with the matter “internally” and that was it. But then Albert Kelly was a big fish in the Super League at the time, having been shortlisted for the Man of Steel the previous year.
In Brisbane he’s a third-choice half – at best – with a contract that expires at the end of this year.
Now, you could argue Kelly is the wronged party in this incident. Apparently he’s acted the goose by purposely treading on Haas’ new shoes, but punching someone in the head because he scuffed up your kicks is a massive overreaction.
Like, seriously Payne, say out loud, “I punched Albert Kelly in the head because he trod on my shoes.”
You get how juvenile that is, right?
That Haas reportedly wasn’t drinking at the time shouldn’t be seen as a mitigating factor – acting this way while sober is arguably more of a red flag.
But in the aftermath of the incident, the club was quick to put Kelly forward as the man in the wrong, with Kevin Walters telling reporters he didn’t “think Payne did anything too wrong, to be honest”.
He reiterated that view over the weekend, as well, the coach saying, “Payne didn’t do a lot wrong in the video” and even going so far as to predict that Haas would play against the Panthers this Friday night, since he didn’t anticipate his star prop to be banned.
Sorry to pour cold water on you, Kevvie, but you’re totally going to lose your prop for a while.
Because it’s not the first time he’s been in hot water either, having spent four weeks on the sideline in 2019 for failing to cooperate with the Integrity Unit, as well as a three-match suspension in 2021 for intimidating police.
(Matt King/Getty Images)
The latter incident saw him end up with a two-year good behaviour bond and turns out the police think punching someone in the head for stepping on your shoes isn’t particularly good behaviour, leading them to open a probe into the fight.
Now, I don’t think it’s an incident worthy of the police’s time, but maybe they’re inclined to give a little extra attention to someone who, barely 12 months ago, yelled at officers (among other things), “Get the f**k out of here, bro, get the f**k out of my face or I’ll take all of you on myself, you f**kwits.”
And at the end of the day, that’s why we’re talking about this. If it had been, say, Adam Reynolds and Ryan James filmed in a dust-up, this would already be yesterday’s news.
But it wasn’t those two, because they don’t do stuff like that. But Albert Kelly and Payne Haas? They have both got serious form.
As for suggestions it’s indicative of a broader cultural issue at the Broncos, I’d only say it’s an issue that Haas is going through another round of this.
His apparent ongoing disgruntlement over his contract status – which, as I’ve previously argued, is actually a fair deal considering he signed it at a time when he was an injured teenager who hadn’t played a collective 40 minutes of football – suggests the suits at Red Hill are giving him more than a little extra leeway to keep him happy.
But that’s a cultural issue that I’d suggest is common to pretty much all clubs – I mean, the Roosters were so eager to keep James Tedesco happy that they cleared him of any wrongdoing over the ‘Squid Game’ incident without even speaking to the girl he yelled at.
That’s why we’ve got an independent body to oversee matters like this. Because clubs can’t be relied on to leave their own self-interest out.
So what’s the outcome? Look, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. As I said, if it was most other players, we’re talking a slap on the wrist.
But because Payne Haas and Albert Kelly are serial offenders, it’s not a storm in a teacup that this has been brought to light.
They deserve to spend time on the sidelines, if only for the charge of repeated stupidity.
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