{"id":99365,"date":"2021-07-13T05:48:41","date_gmt":"2021-07-13T05:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=99365"},"modified":"2021-07-13T05:58:47","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T05:58:47","slug":"dragons-star-didnt-think-bbq-would-be-a-drama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=99365","title":{"rendered":"Dragons star 'didn't think BBQ would be a drama'"},"content":{"rendered":"

St George Illawarra<\/a> forward Josh McGuire<\/a> says the Dragons players thought they would get away with a party at Paul Vaughan's Shellharbour property that breached COVID-19 restrictions.<\/a><\/p>\n

McGuire was one of 13 players caught up in the drama, that saw the NRL hand out $305,000 worth of fines<\/a> and one match bans to a dozen players. Vaughan was suspended for eight weeks and subsequently sacked by the club.<\/a><\/p>\n

Facing the media for the first time since the incident, McGuire said the players didn't expect the party to cause such drama.<\/p>\n

"We can't sit here and cry foul – we put ourselves into a situation at the time [but] we didn't think it would escalate to the magnitude it has," McGuire said.<\/p>\n

"We're very sorry and remorseful. It was a bunch of blokes who made an honest stupid mistake and just didn't think.<\/p>\n

"We did understand [the rules] and can't sit here and say we didn't understand. We were in Shellharbour, a long way away from everything that was happening. The decision going to the barbecue everyone made, and at the end of the day we didn't think it would be a drama and we wouldn't get caught."<\/p>\n

The arrival of police to investigate prompted varying reactions from the players, McGuire said. Corey Norman<\/a> famously left his wallet and car with personalised number plates behind, while Jack de Belin is alleged to have been hiding under a bed.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Josh<\/p>\n

"I stood there," McGuire said. "Some of the boys were scared. A few of us stood there and talked to police. A few boys didn't want to hang around. A few of the boys just stayed where they were and a few of the guys came out and saw the police.<\/p>\n

"It was a poor decision by us. It's hard. We're still quite upset and disappointed. I'm shattered I brought this club into this situation."<\/p>\n

McGuire, who only joined the club this season after stints with Brisbane and North Queensland, said coach Anthony Griffin was understandably furious<\/a> at the events that took place, having warned the players 24 hours earlier not to celebrate a win over New Zealand with a get-together.<\/p>\n

"He didn't say anything about not drinking, he just said don't 'stuff up' or 'make mistakes', and we obviously did," McGuire explained.<\/p>\n

\"Blake<\/p>\n

"It's a poor decision we all have to live with now and have to pay the price for.<\/p>\n

"It was probably one of the harder phone calls I've had to make to Hook [Griffin].<\/p>\n

"He was quite ropeable. I have to earn back that trust and that respect from the group. I'm not shying away from it. I made a poor decision."<\/p>\n

Teammate Blake Lawrie also spoke to the media and expressed remorse for his actions. Like McGuire, he wasn't expecting the BBQ to cause any trouble.<\/p>\n

"It was a get together with a couple of the boys who made a decision," Lawrie said. "We didn't think the repercussions were going to be this big. We are truly sorry what has happened to our wider community, club and teammates.<\/p>\n

"I thought it was harmless. We were in our own bubble. We can't do anything about what we've done. I can't wait to prove to our teammates mainly that we are sorry."<\/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> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

St George Illawarra forward Josh McGuire says the Dragons players thought they would get away with a party at Paul Vaughan's Shellharbour property that breached […]<\/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\/99365"}],"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=99365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99367,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99365\/revisions\/99367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}