{"id":139236,"date":"2021-10-05T06:01:01","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T06:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=139236"},"modified":"2021-10-05T11:58:01","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T11:58:01","slug":"storm-ceo-fires-up-over-drug-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=139236","title":{"rendered":"Storm CEO fires up over drug question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne CEO, Justin Rodski, has revealed the three Storm<\/a> players penalised for being filmed in a hotel room where there was a white substance on the table have not been drug tested.<\/p>\n

Rodski fronted media via Zoom this afternoon, flanked by the three players in question – Cameron Munster, Brandon Smith, and Chris Lewis – after the NRL and the Storm announced heavy sanctions for the trio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All three players read from a pre-prepared individual statement before Rodski rejoined the interview to answer questions from journalists.<\/p>\n

He was asked directly whether the players had been drug tested. The Storm's official position is that none of the three players can remember what the white substance on the table was.<\/p>\n

"No I don't believe they were (drug tested)," Rodski said.<\/p>\n

\"Cameron<\/p>\n

"The NRL's testing policy, which covers illicit and hazardous drugs, does not extend into the players' off-season, so that would be one reason why.<\/p>\n

"But apart from that you would have to ask the NRL.<\/p>\n

"I don't know what it was. I wasn't in the room.<\/p>\n

"The club is not permitted to drug test the players. Drug testing is done by the NRL, that is part of the players' CBA."<\/p>\n

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Rodski confirmed the Storm did not request a drug test as part of the investigation into the incident, which occurred the day after Melbourne's season ended in a preliminary final loss to Penrith.<\/p>\n

The CEO said he believes his players are telling the truth that they can't remember what the substance was or remember ingesting any of it.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, I believe they were incredibly intoxicated (from alcohol)," he said.<\/p>\n

"The vision was really difficult to look at and watch. We are extremely disappointed they put themselves in that position."<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

Rodski was then involved in a bizarre exchange with a reporter when he was challenged on the claim the club couldn't determine what the white substance was.<\/p>\n

The reporter labelled the Storm's position on the incident a "farce" to which the CEO fired back.<\/p>\n

"Have you not listened to anything I've been saying? This is not a farce at all," Rodksi said.<\/p>\n

"This is a serious, serious situation that the club is dealing with, and has imposed significant sanctions on each of the players.<\/p>\n

"Have you not listened to anything I've been saying? Have you though? I'm not sure you have.<\/p>\n

"To say the club's response to this is an embarrassment is a really poor reflection on you and that you haven't been listening to what we've said today.<\/p>\n

"It's not spin."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melbourne CEO, Justin Rodski, has revealed the three Storm players penalised for being filmed in a hotel room where there was a white substance on […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139236"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139238,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139236\/revisions\/139238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}