Dragons players are being investigated over an alleged house party, held despite Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown and the NRL's biosecurity bubble rules.
Nine rugby league reporter Danny Weidler broke the news on Sunday, revealing that St George Illawarra veteran Paul Vaughan had hosted the party at his house and multiple teammates attended.
The Dragons acknowledged the incident on Sunday, describing it as a "breach" of both NSW Government and NRL rules.
"St George Illawarra are aware of a New South Wales state government stay-at-home order and NRL biosecurity breach involving a number of players," a club statement said.
"The Dragons will not make comment at this time, while the investigation into the matter with the NRL Integrity Unit and NSW Police continues."
https://twitter.com/Danny_Weidler/status/1411503217473585153?s=20
Weidler elaborated on the incident on The Sunday Footy Show, saying that players were detected at Vaughan's house at about 5pm on Saturday.
"The NRL are trying to tell me around half a dozen gathered for a party. I believe that it could be even more than that and that is breaching the rules that the NRL players are supposed to be under, biosecurity rules and the rules that are designed to keep the game going ahead," Weidler said.
"I understand that the way the players may have got in trouble was via a noise complaint which may have been relayed to the police. If that's the case, these guys are putting the entire competition in jeopardy, because they're breaching the rules that are supposed to be in place and it's just unacceptable.
"It's early days, so we can't condemn them as yet, but the details I'm getting, the Dragons have really stepped out of line. If it's 15 of them, it's a massive issue. If it's half a dozen, it's a very bad look."
The NRL is under level-four restrictions due to highly infectious strains of breaking out in the community. Those restrictions prohibit players from having visitors in their homes.
Cronulla's Josh Dugan and five Bulldogs players – Dylan Napa, Brandon Wakeham, Aaron Schoupp, Sione Katoa and Corey Waddell – have already been sanctioned over biosecurity breaches. NRL great Paul Gallen said that the Dragons players could expect bans and fines if proved guilty of a major breach.
"I'll always do my best to stick up for players … but if this is true and there's more than half a dozen players there, this is a huge issue and they will be punished severely," Gallen said on The Sunday Footy Show.
"I can see something severe happening here, big fines and time out of the game. This is going to be huge."
Vaughan was last year stood down for two weeks after breaching NRL biosecurity protocols. He was branded "selfish" by then-coach Paul McGregor.
The former Test and NSW Origin prop went to a cafe while bubble regulations were being enforced and was placed on a 14-day COVID hold.
The Dragons beat the Warriors 19-18 in golden point on Friday. They are seventh on the NRL ladder with an 8-8 record under new coach Anthony Griffin.
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.