‘Kept my mouth shut’: Ex-NRL bad boy breaks 25-year silence on infamous poo scandal
Ex-Maroons star Julian O’Neill has finally broken his silence around the infamous poo scandal, 25 years later.
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Former Maroons fullback Julian O’Neill has finally broken his silence around the infamous poo scandal, 25 years later.
O’Neill is infamously known for an incident during a 1999 pre-season trip with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, where an unsuspecting shoe was defaced by the former NRL bad boy.
This shoe ended up belonging to teammate Jeremy Schloss.
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This led to O’Neill notorousily declaring: “I just shat in Schlossy’s shoe,” in the early hours of a cold Dubbo morning.
The 51-year-old has finally lifted the lid on the scandal on Andy Raymond’s Unfiltered podcast, admitting fault but more or less revealing he took the rap for other teammates.
“I extremely regretted my part in the whole incident,” O’Neill said.
“It was a prank that went wrong (but) there were a lot of other things that transpired that night.
“(At that time), with sides being omitted from the ARL and others being included in joint ventures, the best thing to do was close shop.
“I just shut my mouth and I got (blamed) with most of it. I took everything. I should never have turned down that road in the first place. Everyone can say that in hindsight.
“It’s better to own up and cop it than running around pointing fingers, which creates more murky water.
“I never really had a chance to talk about it. That was the state of play back then. I was asked not to (talk publicly) by the club and I didn’t – I kept my end of the bargain.
“It was good to get back across that white line (sideline) after that six week suspension. It was probably the hardest six weeks of my life. The club (Souths) were extremely good to me.”
In addition to the six week suspension, O’Neill was also fined $10,000 by the NRL.
Interestingly, O’Neill explained how quickly his life changed from being a country boy to living in the bright lights of the city.
“It was tough,” he declared.
“I still think I was still just a country boy down in the city, and all of a sudden I’m on the back page of the paper.
“Probably the worst thing, I didn’t really read papers back in the day, so I was always the last one to find out I was in trouble.”
O’Neill also revealed how his first coach and mentor Wayne Bennett helped him through the off field dramas.
“Wayne’s always said to me, if you didn’t do it, you didn’t do it. But, if you did it, it’s better to own up to it.
“I did it.”
This wasn’t the only time the 238-game veteran was in the media for all the wrong reasons.
He was also accused of urinating at Townsville’s Jupiters Casino, underneath a blackjack table.
He was also alleged to have attempted to set fire to a dolphin mascot suit that was being worn by a 13-year-old boy in yet another team trip.
Originally published as ‘Kept my mouth shut’: Ex-NRL bad boy breaks 25-year silence on infamous poo scandal
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