There is blood in the water and a rancid smell in the air.
The NRL's draw committee and integrity unit have been hammering our team since our grand final appearence last year.
The latest imposition to the Eels, is they are the only club to not get a bye round prior to an Origin game.
It reeks of inconsistency and is downright unfair, especially when we have up to 4 players this week on origin duties.
The same week the integrity unit gave Dylan Brown a seven-game suspension for touching a woman, twice.
In comparison, they gave NZ Warriors' second rower Josh Curran for a two-game suspension for a night club incident in October last year where he: assaulted a 16 year old teenager, knocked out a number of his teeth, and also stole his mobile phone.
He was originally charged with Assault Occassioning actual Bodily harm (a maximum "5 year jail" term) and Larceny (a maximum "5 year jail" term) and Reckless Grivious Bodily Harm (a maximum "10 year jail" term).
Despite that, unlike Dylan Brown, No NRL no fault standown sanction was imposed on Curran.
Curran played in every NRL match this year. It returned to court this week with Curran pleading guilty in Port Macquarie local court to Assault Occassioning Actual Bodily Harm with the other two charges withdrawn under negotiation for a guilty plea.
Curran won't play against the Eels this week but will be available for their next game.
It's difficult to see consistency in any of the above noted.
One would imagine in a country where everyone is supposed to be treated equal, that the assault on a 16 year old boy, removing his teeth and taking his mobile phone worth a 2 game suspension would be treated similar to the offence of touching someone, " a 7 game suspension " .
It sure reeks of inconsistency, and is a hard pill to swallow for Eels fans.
Replies
BE, the eels have had the easiest draws for years for a start, Dylan is lucky to only receive 7 matches it could easily have been the rest of 2023, he deserves it and needs to wake up to himself. Looking at origin, we only had one player last year in Paulo, and if not for the Cleary injury, Moses would not be playing- hence our lack if byes throughout origin. Next season our current rep players will be taking into account in reference to bye rounds.
Why are you worried about Curren, he isn't even playing on Saturday and the word is Shaun Johnson is very long odds to be on the plane.
Your probably right chief. Maybe its me thats out of sync, and im happy to wear that if its the case. I dont understand punching a 16 year old child, loosing two teeth and having his mobile stolen less of an offence then touching a women. I see it as inconsistant and the punishment hurts fans more then Dylan himself. I would much prefer to see Dylan get 2 games and a $50,000 or $75'000 payable fine.
The easiest draw is not quite true we were ranked as 5th hardest draw this year and the hardest run home of any team. Our team played a grandfinal last year and I would have thought on potential there were a number of players that could particpate in origin. Surely we deserved one of our byes over the origin period. Look at this week, how I wish we had the bye this week, it could be the difference between a top 4 and top 8 spot or even missing the top 8 at years end. I certainly thought it was worthy to discuss here.
Blue Eel, you're right about Curren, two weeks after he plead guilty for assault is ridiculous, but who knows what the full story was. As for brown, he just needs to concentrate in footy
BE, I believe the point you are making re the inconsistency in sentencing is very valid.
The draw issues, you never know and this year we have games that indicate a tough run home but those same sides are not doing as well.
Last but not least (by any means) is that Chief is trying to sound logical and serious and he is disagreeing with you. Remember the last time Chief was right? off course not! nobody can!. Enough said.......
He's not taking about this year , he's talking about the last 6 years where parra has some of the easiest draws in living memory , I'm sure you did have a problem then .
Frankie as you and I both know you can only control the controllable, I have never whinged about a draw.....its out of our control,
If Dylan wasn't such a fuckwit and simply acted like a normal human this conversation wouldn't be had. Comparing what he did to other cases doesn't make things any better. 7 weeks is seriously nothing for what he did considering the alternative.
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Rubbish the problem is that Dyllan acted like a normal 22 year old and like thousands of his peers, would never have been prosecuted under normal circumstances.......I was more disappointed that he was drinking that much, which again is not uncommon with his peers, but as a young athlete, he most certainly is shortening his career if he keeps it up.
In hindsight it maybe the best thing that could have happened as we can guess it was not an uncommon occurence (heavy drinking).
So to question his normality as a human being just says you are a fucking old wowser and a miserable bastard EAM.
There were so many ways you can chastise or treat a person and if you like to understand a young athlete. This has been a godsend for him and maybe or maybe not we have someone around the traps that is driving that home to him. Lets hope so.
In the interim and in keeping with the look of your avatar, go feed some pidgeons.
The NRL have had to take a very strong stance against any kind of violence or inappropriate behaviour against women because so many damn players seem to have an issue with it.
Their hand has been forced. As soon as Dylan did anything that involved unwanted inappropriate behaviour towards a woman he was sunk. He's a moron and a jerk for doing what he did - you simply can't do that stupid crap in today's day and age.
All he can do is learn from this. I hope we use this to make sure any behaviour clauses in his contract are airtight.
I will leave you with " all he can do is learn from this" otherwise take note the comments I made to EAM.
Any criticism now and going forward rest's squarely with the player management group.....this maybe within the team or having a respected councillor as part of the overall setup. Moses, Guth, Paulo were all "players" in their day....Paulo at a criminal level, this group need to pull him aside and then you need a hard head. I noticed David Gower at his original mention, Gowie would be a good guy to keep an eye on him or any of the other young upstarts coming through.
Take note that pushing forward with his hands out in a modern dance and touching her boobs has been around for 50 years at a minumum. If that was done in "dirty dancing" it would still be G rated. I am not condoning it, I am just saying it was a shit example but the more important of the whole thing was bringing to light a drinking problem he cannot afford to have.
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