Underage footy sex preying alleged

NRL players invited underage girls to their homes so they could ply them with alcohol and have sex, said Charmyne Palavi, 39, who appeared in Monday's controversial Four Corners program.

NRL players invited underage girls to their homes so they could ply them with alcohol and have sex, said Charmyne Palavi, 39, who appeared in Monday's controversial Four Corners program.

The ABC report about degrading group sex rites among NRL players, which threatens the careers of some of the game's biggest names, attracted more than 1.01 million viewers.

It was far from Ms Palavi's first foray in the spotlight, as she has celebrated her romps with footballers in British newspapers and magazines, and appeared in a documentary about her sex life.

She went further in the interview with the ABC's Walkley-nominated Sarah Ferguson. In a part of the tape that didn't make it to air but is available on the ABC website, she said footballers invited girls who were too young for nightclubs to private homes for sex.

She said the girls, who hoped to be football girlfriends, were filmed on mobile phones having sex with half the team.

The report named The Footy Show's funnyman Matthew Johns and former teammate Brett Firman as participants in a group sex session with a 19-year-old girl in New Zealand in 2002.

Police investigated but no charges were laid.

Johns, who fled to Broome with his family this week, will meet Nine chief David Gyngell this morning to discuss his future.

NRL chief executive David Gallop said yesterday Johns's career was under "a massive question mark".

"He was part of our membership campaign," Mr Gallop said.

"That's finished now, but I'm aware that he'll be talking to his employers on various levels.

"Everyone involved in the game must accept that they need to change their attitudes towards women or find another job. Violence against women is abhorrent and sexual assault and the degradation of women is just that. So much of what we saw last night (on Four Corners) was fundamentally indefensible."

Social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook were alive with the story yesterday, as was the ABC website.

One poster wrote: "A good friend of mine is an ex-rugby player and the stories are all true. The first guy leaves the door unlocked so the others can come on in and they all have their way with whatever naive girl they bring back."

But another poster said women prowled nightclubs looking for footballers to take to bed "one-on-one, two, three, whatever ... they are predatory go-getters, after the big catch, on the make. They are treated by these guys as badly as they allow themselves to be treated."

Mr Gallop said there was no space for "clubs and players to complain about the media or the fact that victims have spoken out".

NSW Opposition spokesman for women Pru Goward said women should go to court against footballers who abused them, "because otherwise, the ugliness of it all smears everyone".

"It's extraordinary after all these years of allegation that nobody has ever been charged," Ms Goward said.

Ms Palavi reached the peak of her fame last year, when the "Cougar of Coogee" told a British tabloid she had romped with England veteran Keith Senior.

She says she meets footballers in tanning salons, where she has worked, or in nightclubs and has been photographed embracing players, including Darren Lockyer and Greg Inglis.

Footballers send her videos of themselves masturbating.

She told the ABC she knew of a team "where they get 16 to 17-year-old girls over, because they can't get into nightclubs".

"There is one players' house that is the one place they come to," she said.

"They ply these girls with alcohol ... and they disappear into a room with boys."