NRL need to act on criminal element trying to associate with the game

TWO players from a troubled club and another NRL star consort with criminals, one is caught with illegal drugs but all the NRL can do is issue a sternly worded email, writes Rebecca Wilson.

It’s been a tough week for Corey Norman.

THREE star players sit at a table with a group of alleged and proved criminals two nights before a rugby league game. One of the stars is allegedly found within minutes of leaving the banquet possessing a vial full of ecstasy pills.

That player is Parramatta star Corey Norman, rated only slightly behind that other champion, Kieran Foran, who spent last Thursday night checking out of rehab, returning to Sydney and watching as $75,000 disappeared from his betting account. Nobody knows who made the bets on dogs and horses but the money has gone all the same.

A few days after the meal at the Chinese restaurant, the police issued the three football playing dinner guests with consorting warnings, which is an old fashioned way of alerting those without criminal backgrounds to steer clear of those who have been up to no good.

The now infamous shot uploaded to Junior Paulo’s Instagram account from Corey Norman’s night out which ended at The Star. Picture: Supplied

In the meantime, the NRL, with its supposed state of the art Integrity Unit, does practically nothing. This is, of course, a club issue. This is, of course, going to be handled brilliantly by that club with no problems at all out at Parramatta.

I’m instantly reassured that a team busted for salary cap rorting, third party arrangements and the secret squirrel deals can handle a player facing drugs charges.

Coach Brad Arthur says Corey just loves playing footy and having fun. What a relief! We are in good hands.

The coach is not going to discipline Corey and nor is the club (because there is nobody left to instil discipline anyway). Yes, Corey is still allowed to play footy even though police allege a vial of pills was in his hands last Friday night.

Todd Greenberg, who is the big boss in case you might have forgotten his name, will not interfere. Why would he?

It’s been a tough week for Corey Norman.

He has a club on its knees. He has players consorting with known criminals. He has a multi-million dollar business that relies on honesty and integrity for its well being. Best to leave all of this with the Eels who have never shown us any reason not to trust them.

What the hell is going on in rugby league? Even some members of the league media reckon it’s a player’s choice who he decides to befriend. You can be mates with anyone. No harm done.

They’re all just mates and the more fans we have in league, the better.

For one sobering moment, let’s return to that notorious media conference of February 2013 when the hapless Jason Clare and Kate Lundy bumbled their way through trying to tell us that drug cheating was rife, organised crime was moving in for the kill on professional sport and match fixing was but a heart beat away.

Didn’t we love poo-pooing that stuff. Over the next two years, we were slapped into reality with the Essendon and Cronulla drug scandals, but we happily went on our merry way about the other bad bits. Australian sport was free of this nonsense.

Corey Norman at Eels training this week. Pic: Mark Evans

I’m not suggesting that anything untoward happened around that Chinese banquet table last weekend. Who’s to say some of Sydney’s more colourful identities might not simply want to befriend league players out of genuine mateship. That they are merely part of the rich tapestry of Sydney; that rugby league is part of that same wonderful mix.

The fact remains that the police would not have issued the players with consorting notices without a genuine concern and however wrongly, match fixing springs to mind.

Betting on league is, it is fair to say, out of control.

When I can turn on any match and see an integrated presentation from an anchorman who is exclusively giving us the odds, who will tell me that I can now bet on how many offloads a player has per game, my alarm bells are screaming.

But just as we have so often denied that ‘colourful racing identities’ have anything to do with betting plunges that rock the entire nation, we will do the same at any suggestion one of the sacred cows of Australian life — the footy — might be falling foul of same problem.

Meantime, Greenberg brushes off his nice suit warns the players about consorting with dodgy types but otherwise tells the clubs to sort it out.

He even stoops to telling the worst administered club in the league to sort it out. That crack integrity unit of his will trawl through 700,000 pages of salary cap records but there’s no way it’s heading down this slippery slope.