Broncos take aim over drug claims
Brad Walter | August 4, 2009
FURIOUS Brisbane chief executive Bruno Cullen and some of his star players are threatening legal action against newspapers owned by the club’s major stakeholder, News Ltd, over drug allegations – and the media giant will not intervene to stop them.
The bitter fallout between News’s flagship NRL club and some of its newspapers comes as Brisbane international Justin Hodges denied CCTV footage broadcast on The Daily Telegraph’s website of a man at a Surfers Paradise kebab shop in the early hours of July 12 – just days before Origin III – was him.
In a related matter, the Herald was told that reports Hodges had been reprimanded by Maroons management for breaking curfew in the lead-up to the match were also incorrect.
Cullen said lawyers had been consulted over the raft of allegations against the club and its players following the reports that a Brisbane, Queensland and Australian star was battling a ‘‘major drug problem’’ and that Broncos management had turned a blind eye.
With only five players fitting that criteria, Cullen suggested the representative stars could also take their own legal action.
‘‘‘I’m really disappointed in that and we’re seeking legal advice at the moment,’’ Cullen said. ‘‘It’s scurrilous, it’s ridiculous, it’s untrue.
‘‘We’ve been a leader in drug testing for some years now and we continue to be. We target test, we do what we have to do in regard to the league’s drug policy. We probably do four or five more tests than anyone and that’s right across the board, from the skipper down to the [under] 20s.
‘‘To suggest for one moment that me as a CEO – and I know my name wasn’t mentioned but the club was and I currently have the reins of that club – that I would either not test or hide test results of a player is scurrilous and we’re seeking legal advice.’’
News holds a controlling share in the Broncos but Cullen fails to see this as a hurdle to pursuing legal action – and the company’s corporate affairs director, Greg Baxter, said such decisions would be left to the club.
‘‘I’ve seen Bruno’s comments in relation to the story and he is fairly emphatic in his view, so I don’t think it would be appropriate to make any comment,’’ Baxter told the Herald.
‘‘If he is contemplating litigation that is something he is entitled to do and News wouldn’t interfere in that. However, from News Ltd’s perspective, litigation, and not just in rugby league, is usually a waste of time and money and most people tend to find that.’’
Cullen refused to disclose the identity of the player at the centre of the allegations but was confident he was clean.
‘‘He’s been tested a number of times over a long period of time, including the recent State or Origin series,’’ he said. ‘‘There has been no positive tests whatsoever.
‘‘The major content of the story is totally incorrect. This club is not hiding anything from anybody in regards to drug testing.
‘‘I wanted to make sure the ground I’m coming from is solid and I’ve done that today. And the ground I’m coming from is very solid. I don’t believe the player they are naming has anything to answer for.’’
Meanwhile, Hodges last night told reporters he was not the man circled in CCTV footage at a Surfers Paradise kebab shop in the early hours of the Sunday before Origin III, saying he was back at the team camp at Sanctuary Cove.
Cullen is also convinced it is not his star centre in the footage.
‘‘I’ve looked at the footage and it doesn’t look like the player at all,’’ said Cullen, who also denied another report that the club had secretly fined a player $10,000 in the past fortnight for mixing the sleeping drug Stilnox with energy drink Red Bull, a party trick allegedly used in the Maroons Origin camp.
