Manly star accused of second altercation
Jacquelin Magnay | April 10, 2009
NEW claims have been made that the face of the National Rugby League, the Manly fullback Brett Stewart, was allegedly involved in an altercation surrounding a woman at a Central Coast hotel more than 12 months ago.
League bosses were made aware of the incident several weeks ago and were infuriated the Manly club had not passed on any details about the claims before Stewart was asked to be a key figure in the multimillion-dollar advertising campaign.
But the Manly chief executive, Grant Mayer, said he could not pass on the information because he was not aware of the incident. "I hadn't heard about it, it was unknown to us, we had not been contacted by the police or the motel operators," he said.
"Of course, we would have told the NRL, but we didn't know. Brett Stewart's reputation is important to him and the NRL chose someone with the right image of the game."
Stewart will take the field this Sunday for the first time this season after spending four rounds on the sideline after his drunken behaviour at the Manly club launch on March 6. Stewart also faced Manly Local Court on Tuesday where he pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault on a 17-year-old girl later that night.
However, claims about Stewart's behaviour were allegedly brought to the attention of the NSW Police 14 months ago.
Sources have confirmed to the Herald that police were called to a Central Coast hotel where the Manly team was staying, several hours after being thrashed by the Melbourne Storm at Bluetongue Stadium on February 15, 2008. The hotel operators had rung the police about a scuffle involving two men, one of whom was Stewart. When the police attended the other man involved in the scuffle made accusations against Stewart that concerned his sister. However sources have told the Herald the woman refused to confirm the accusations and the police did not pursue the matter.
When the Herald asked the NRL chief, David Gallop, whether Stewart would have been used in NRL publicity if he had been aware of the Central Coast incident, he replied: "No, clearly if that were so, we would have taken a different view of using him as the face of the advertising campaign."
:?
