Canberra promise to stand by Jack Wighton, will not consider sacking him
CANBERRA have no intention of ripping up star fullback Jack Wighton’s contract after the 25-year old was stood down by the Raiders.
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RAIDERS chairman Allan Hawke has thrust his heavyweight support behind suspended star Jack Wighton declaring the club has no intention of ripping up his contract.
Hawke is the first club official to speak publicly after Wighton was stood down last Thursday after he pleaded guilty to assaulting five men in a late-night brawl in Canberra in February.
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Wighton — who has Indigenous heritage — will appear before the Galambany Court — a specialised court for Indigenous Australians — in the ACT on Wednesday where his future, both on and off the field, will be determined.
Wighton pleaded guilty to two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, three counts of common assault and one charge of public urination.
The NRL are privately pushing for Wighton to be suspended for the remainder of this season.
Hawke confirmed that Wighton’s time out of the game wouldn’t be considered until after his hearing.
However, having sacked players from their club in the past, including Todd Carney, Blake Ferguson and Josh Dugan, Hawke said the Canberra board would be standing by Wighton on this occasion.
“We don’t condone Jack’s behaviour and he’ll have to face the serious consequences of that,’’ Hawke, a former high commissioner of New Zealand, told The Sunday Telegraph.
“But we’ve got no intention of tearing up his contract. We want to stand by him.
“We want to help him and his family to address the issues that he’s facing.
“He’s got a partner, he’s got two young children and he’s going to have think about the affect, effect on them and his mates who will be playing without him.
“The Raiders always try to do the right thing by our members, our sponsors, our supporters and the Canberra district community.
“On occasions where we have done the right thing, including dealing with player misbehaviour, that has then come back to bite us later on.
“I’m not criticising the NRL on that.
“But since this incident with Jack we’ve kept the NRL informed every step of the way — that’s how they (NRL) got the video footage, which came from Jack’s lawyers through us.
“There’s no pattern of previous behaviour with Jack — that’s a key point when you factor in any decisions we’ve made in the past.
“Jack has no prior incidents of bad behaviour or ill-discipline, so I’m trusting this is a one-off.’’
Wighton was pulled from Saturday’s clash with the Broncos by the Raiders and depending on Wednesday’s outcome, is facing a lengthy stint out of the game.
“Our position is that he remains stood down and we would have further board consideration about the consequences of that (after his court appearance),’’ Hawke said.
“Jack’s remorseful. He feels he’s let his mates down and he’s let his family down.
“Maybe he should’ve thought about that before he did what he did, but he’ll think about it in the future I reckon.
“His future is important to us, his welfare will come first in every decision we make.’’
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