{"id":95669,"date":"2021-07-06T00:00:08","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T00:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95669"},"modified":"2021-07-06T00:57:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T00:57:00","slug":"dragons-deserved-better-from-de-belin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=95669","title":{"rendered":"Dragons 'deserved better' from de Belin"},"content":{"rendered":"

The chief executive of St George Illawarra says the club deserved better from Jack de Belin, after sticking by the back-rower through two lengthy court hearings.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 30-year-old was one of 13 players issued with breach notices by the NRL<\/a> after a house party at the Shellharbour property of Paul Vaughan<\/a>, in breach of both public health orders and NRL COVID protocols.<\/p>\n

De Belin only returned to the field just over a month ago<\/a> after more than two years on the sideline as he fought rape charges in court. Two separate juries were unable to reach a majority verdict, and the charges were dropped.<\/p>\n

When police arrived at Vaughan's house, de Belin was allegedly hiding under a bed.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

Dragons boss Ryan Webb said on Tuesday the club has been let down by de Belin.<\/p>\n

"I'm not sure about the bed-hiding, I've heard bits and pieces but I haven't heard that factually from anyone," he told Radio 2GB's Ben Fordham.<\/p>\n

"But the fact he was there is the negative. The other pieces are frustrating. We originally were told that he'd walked past, dropped something off and kept moving, and then that story changed significantly.<\/p>\n

"It's disappointing, we've done a lot to stick by Jack. The club's been through a lot in the last two-and-a-half, three years. The club deserves better."<\/p>\n

Webb confirmed a board meeting will be held on Tuesday to further discuss the club's response to the party, although he wouldn't be drawn on the possibility of sacking any of the players involved.<\/p>\n

Vaughan has received the biggest sanction<\/a> from the NRL, with an eight-match suspension on top of a $50,000 fine. Webb said the club would not be challenging any of the proposed punishments handed down by the NRL.<\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/p>\n

It's Vaughan's second bubble breach in less than 12 months<\/a>, after he made what he described as "a reckless and selfish decision" by attending a cafe last August.<\/p>\n

"No one's happy with what Paul Vaughan's done, actually the whole lot of those boys. I can't preempt any of those discussions and where things will go," Webb said.<\/p>\n

"But everyone's disappointed with what's happened and Paul having multiple breaches definitely doesn't help."<\/p>\n

A downbeat Webb said one of the most disappointing aspects of the breach was the attempted cover-up by the players.<\/p>\n

"It's hard. You go through a few different feelings. A bit of shock, then disappointment, you feel quite gutted because you feel you're building something here at the club and then this is the opposite of that," he said.<\/p>\n

"It's hard when you've got to question answers that you've been given, but we've just got to keep asking questions and making decisions based on what we know."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

How this plays out with Dragons fans, many of whom are currently in lockdown, remains to be seen. The club has a bye this weekend, before a match against Manly next Friday night. That's currently scheduled for Brookvale Oval, where it's unlikely crowds would be allowed given the current COVID-19 situation in Sydney.<\/p>\n

"I have to apologise on behalf of the club," Webb said.<\/p>\n

"People should be able to be proud of their football club and I can't see how anyone right now would be able to go out in front of their friends, family or workmates and say they're proud to be a Dragons supporter.<\/p>\n

"There's a lot of trust that has got to be built back.<\/p>\n

"We'll work on that and hopefully we can win people back over time, but this is a big hit for the club."<\/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<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The chief executive of St George Illawarra says the club deserved better from Jack de Belin, after sticking by the back-rower through two lengthy court […]<\/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\/95669"}],"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=95669"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95671,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95669\/revisions\/95671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}