Really... JDB innocent until convicted and currently cannot play football for anyone
Packer did his time in jail. Dugan was convicted of?
I agree re disruption but thats life.
You've missed the point.
Forget De Belin for a moment.
The fact is that AFB was recruited by Manly and has never looked back.
He was stood down by STI at the beginning of 2015 and pleaded guilty to the charge of assaulting his GF at court in June 2015.
He was handed a $1000 fine and a 12 month suspended sentence. No jail time.
STI then decided to terminate his contract in spite of the fact the he was one of the most promising lower grade players we had at the time and in spite of the fact that he was only 19.
By November 1st, 2015 he had been cleared to train on with Many by the NRL and had started playing again in 2016.
Please tell me how that compares with Packer serving his time and being allowed to play?
Do you remember the process we went through to sign Packer?
We went to great lengths to sign him. We vouched for him. We supported him in so many ways only for him to go to the Tigers for the money.
Did we do that because we were so enamoured with Packer or because we were desperate to sign a high quality prop to strengthen our squad?
Don't get me started on Dugan.
He only came to us after a last minute contractual disaster with the Broncos due to his poor behaviour.
He had an impressive track record of bad behaviour at Canberra before he came to us and yet we chose to be the rehabilitation surrogate.
Does a player have to be convicted of a crime to be a problem?
My very simple question is - we showed enormous empathy and support for these two players.
Why not AFB?
Whose moral compass are we using when making these decisions?
Hypocritical in my view.
N.B. I believe AFB is still in a long term relationship with his GF Ana and they have two kids together.