Wests Tigers star James Roberts has been hit with a one-match ban and a $7,500 suspension by the NRL for breaching Queensland Public Health directives.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the league "resisted pressure" from the Queensland government to kick Roberts out of its bubble altogether by handing him the sanctions it did.
Roberts was meant to be in hard lockdown but was photographed standing on his apartment balcony, resulting in the NRL reporting a breach to Queensland Health.
According to an NRL statement, the sanctions proposed in the breach notice to the 28-year-old have "taken into account the difficulties Roberts has had in coping with quarantine", with Roberts also "provided with additional wellbeing support".
The breach notice also suggests that Roberts undergo "education and training programs". He has five days to respond to the breach notice.
Roberts is currently unavailable to play for the Tigers, stuck in quarantine after being a close contact of someone at a COVID-19 exposure site in Sydney which didn't allow him to travel to Queensland with the rest of his teammates.
He is in the middle of his second consecutive quarantine period and has returned multiple negative COVID-19 tests.
Under the restrictions imposed by the Queensland government, windows and doors in apartments have been gaffer taped shut to stop those in the NRL bubble going onto their balconies.
The Sydney Morning Herald report also suggests the NRL is "privately disappointed" at segments of the media who have staked out the quarantine hotel in order to catch players and families in potential biosecurity breaches.
The NRL's proposed suspension for Roberts comes a week after Queensland's chief medical officer Jeannette Young warned that the league could have its privilege of playing in the state revoked due to multiple breaches during the State of Origin series.
"I'm getting very close to it (revoking exemptions)," Young said last Friday.
"I'm very, very concerned about what is happening with these NRL players.
"This is too risky. We just cannot have people deliberately breaching the rules."
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