Paul Kent column: True cost of Anthony Milford no-fault stand down from NRL revealed
The NRL has sided with social politics, running scared of a vocal minority in fear of a vocal minority and failing to defend one of its own.
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The game and its politics have turned on one of its own.
Milford’s life is a vacancy sign.
Instead of heading to training, Milford returned home to the single room at his parents’ house where he lives with his wife and two children, which is all he can afford.
His house in Brisbane was leased when South Sydney flew him to Sydney last November to take up the contract the Rabbitohs have since kept locked in a drawer, meaning Milford remains unemployed.
The house went on the market last week because Milford still has bills to pay.
Like the storage for his furniture after Souths stopped paying for it.
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Souths failed to lodge the contract and by the time everybody realised, Milford had been charged and the NRL would not register it.
Souths have conveniently leaned on the NRL’s no fault stand down policy to justify not paying Milford what they agreed to pay him, even though the contract was signed well before Milford was charged.
The Rabbitohs, one of the richest clubs in the league have refused to acknowledge the contract he signed for them last July, which was returned to the club on August 18 when a statutory declaration was not properly witnessed. And so he cannot afford to live anywhere except in the small room where the family now sleeps.
He could not take out even a short-term loan to rent a house because he had no job.
His best chance to find compensation for the past six months might be to sue South Sydney for lost wages and damages, which is likely to happen soon.
The Rabbitohs’ policies have cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars and have impacted his career.
They have made a small offer of compensation that does not cover even 10 per cent of the contract he signed, but that is only a starting point.
The NRL is not without fault.
For all the strength the NRL has shown in recent years, swimming against the tide to get the game running through Covid, protecting the game’s reputation by standing firm with its no fault stand down policy, they have dropped a clanger with this one.
The game has let Milford down, panicked and unable to muster the strength this time to stand against widespread opinion like it has in the past when all it had on its side was being right.
Instead, Milford was subjected to the no fault stand down policy, the game refusing to register his contract, despite there being very little evidence to support the charge, as the court found yesterday.
The game needs to be better. More agile and less sensitive to public perception when it has solid ground to stand on.
One of the ugliest collections of words put in a sentence are “violence against women”.
With this in the background, the NRL panicked at how it would defend this even when there was no evidence supporting the charge.
The policy is a good policy but it is not foolproof.
Milford was the exception the NRL failed to realise.
It is important to say here that the NRL was aware of the security vision of the incident that ended up in court but was not made public.
This is the moment the game should have been as brave as the values they represent and said, despite the obvious backlash that would follow, from those who do not know, the Integrity Unit had viewed the footage and declared Milford free to play.
Instead it folded.
What spooked the Integrity Unit, apparently, was a few seconds of vision that, if edited a certain way, could support the accusations of violence against women.
In the crib notes version, relayed here, the security vision shows a drunk woman turning up at a taxi rank minutes before Milford arrives, drunk enough that she falls over, unassisted.
Several minutes later Milford and his wife appear and the two are arguing.
The drunk woman and several of her friends believe it is a good idea to protect her from this, somehow believing they are performing a civic service, and as Milford tries to talk to his wife they continually push him away.
At one point he gets frustrated and throws a rubbish bin which smashes into a taxi.
Milford pleaded guilty to public nuisance and wilful damage for this and was given a $1000 good behaviour bond with no conviction recorded. Not even a fine.
The more serious charges were the three assault charges.
Two of the three were dropped soon after police viewed the security vision.
They basically added up to a couple of drunks complaining, withdrawing their complaints once they sobered up.
The third showed a woman berating Milford and, as the incident unfolds, she pokes Milford in the chest 11 times as she puffs from a vape.
When she blows the vape into his face Milford slaps the vape away.
She turns to pick up the vape and trips over her own feet.
She had shown she was already unsteady on her feet so the police acknowledged the fall was from her own drunkenness and not an assault and withdrew the charge.
If the NRL Integrity Unity viewed this video why did it decide to stand Milford down, allowing South Sydney to decide they no longer had to pay him. They will not explain.
The game had a chance to be strong and defend one of its own and failed, falling again on social politics.
And they allowed Souths, who promote a charitable side to their business, to act without any kindness in their hearts at all.
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