It’s a shame to Canterbury as their players Jayden Okunbor and Corey Harawira-Naera have been out of NRL after they were alleged with sex scandal with high school girls when they were on a team outing to Port Macquarie in February.
The 23 yr old Jayden and 24 yr old Harawira were accused of reaching out to the girls through social media asking them to come to their place of stay for consensual sex post their visit at their school for NRL promotion.
Their actions were ‘inexcusable’ by NRL in their statement and the club Bulldog accepted the decision by the board to dismiss their contracts.
NRL Chief Todd Greenberg stated that: “The behavior of both players was inexcusable and a very serious breach of the code of conduct.”
He further added: “The game will not tolerate such conduct and as such both players have had their registrations canceled.” “This decision should send a very clear message to all players of our stance on such behavior.”
The players were not charged legally as the girls were major. The news was out prior to Bulldogs’ first match against Parramatta and the match was canceled and the teams are said to have a loss of $2 million from their sponsorship due to the allegations.
Though the players had time till March 24 to prove why they should not be punished by NRL, they couldn’t do it as the news overpowered amidst the pandemic lockdown.
A combined statement was written by Chairperson Lynne Anderson and Chief executive Andrew Hill and their coach Dean Pay that the boys did not respect the fact and there is no excuse for their behavior.
The statement said: “The conduct of the two players, on the eve of our final trial match, demonstrated an unacceptable lack of respect for their teammates, their coach and club officials, our hosts in Port Macquarie and fans of the game everywhere.”
They continued that: “An important part of the role of being a professional rugby league player is to promote the game and act as an ambassador for your club and the code and there can be no tolerance for any abuse of the privileged status the game affords its leading players.”
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