Knight Counselled Over Comments

[Tom155]

Simon Williams, the young player who made the "cuddle and cab" remark during an explosive television report into group sex, has received counselling from his NRL club.
Williams, a promising under-20 centre with Newcastle Knights, celebrated his 20th birthday on Wednesday with his mobile phone turned off to avoid the fallout from his comments on the ABC's Four Corners program probing rugby league's culture of drinking and group sex.

Former Newcastle and Cronulla international and multi-media personality Matthew Johns became the first casualty on Wednesday, stood down indefinitely from his job with the Nine Network and his coaching role with Melbourne.

Williams has been shielded from the media since telling the program that much of the drama could be avoided if the female involved were properly thanked and "put in a cab".

A Newcastle spokesman confirmed that Williams, from Inverell in New South Wales, was receiving counselling.

Brisbane Broncos chief executive Bruno Cullen, meanwhile, was critical of Newcastle for allowing such a young player to appear in front of the TV cameras.

"The kid talked about treating the lady nice after an action and then taking her to a car and used the words, 'that covers it up'," Cullen said after the Broncos AGM on Wednesday.

"That's a shame. That club should never have allowed that kid to be interviewed because he's probably never been in front of a camera before.
"If he had his time over again, he's never going to use the word cover up - he's not covering up anything.

"But at his age he still doesn't get it and so he's got a mindset, or a culture if you like - 'me and a mate may be able to take a girl into a room, may be able to do something, and as long as we say thanks very much and it was really nice and we enjoyed it and take her out to a cab and pay for a cab fare home, that's all that needs to be done'.

"And that's all wrong."

Cullen didn't think Johns should be the face of rugby league.

"I don't think Matthew Johns should be the face of rugby league at the moment, that's just a very bad look and very bad taste," he said.

"I don't want him to be victimised or ostracised - I don't want to cost him his job - but from a rugby league perspective, and a result of the stories that have come out, Matthew Johns is the wrong person to be any sort of face of rugby league whether that be on the Footy Show, Channel Nine or the NRL, whoever."

Cullen's view that clubs no longer swept things under the carpet, and that players were better educated and behaved, was supported by Titans chief executive Michael Searle.

"Unfortunately these matters have come to light and I think David (Gallop) has dealt with it head on," said Searle, a former player.

"We can at least acknowledge that we are dealing with it.

"It's an ongoing challenge for all codes as it is for society."
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25474076-23214,00.html

 

[aqua_duck]

maybe simon should have said something about filming it on his phone as well, you know take a leaf out of Sam Thaiday, Karmichael Hunt and Darius Boyd's book

 

[antonius]

That comment is now being taken completely out of context. On this mornings news, and in that piece they are implying his comments were refering to the incident involving Johns and the sharks players. When in fact on the four corners programe he was actually refering to a situation being shown on a training video. That is exactly how the media take something and then edit it to suit their agenda. I'm not condoning what happened in any way, or saying that Williams comments are acceptable, just that the media are now using them out of the context in what they were used in.

 

[Joker's Wild]

That comment is now being taken completely out of context. On this mornings news, and in that piece they are implying his comments were refering to the incident involving Johns and the sharks players. When in fact on the four corners programe he was actually refering to a situation being shown on a training video. That is exactly how the media take something and then edit it to suit their agenda. I'm not condoning what happened in any way, or saying that Williams comments are acceptable, just that the media are now using them out of the context in what they were used in.

Creative editing to enhance drama

They do it on reality TV shows all the time and it is no surprise that current affairs shows use the same technique to sensationalise their stories. 1 of the many reasons that shows like ACA and TT are not on my "to watch" list.

 

[Karmawave]

His attitude and use of the words ' thank them for it kinda thing ' and ' cover that stuff up ' was still wrong, whatever way you look at it.

I do feel for the kid, but he has learned a really tough lesson from it.

Its completely pathetic if the media are applying his comments in relation to the Johns Cronulla situation if that is the case Antonius - I haven't personally seen them do that.

What he said at the seminar was bad enough, let alone the media using that and trying to link his statement as if it was talking about Johns and the Sharks.

 

[antonius]

His attitude and use of the words ' thank them for it kinda thing ' and ' cover that stuff up ' was still wrong, whatever way you look at it.

I do feel for the kid, but he has learned a really tough lesson from it.

Its completely pathetic if the media are applying his comments in relation to the Johns Cronulla situation if that is the case Antonius - I haven't personally seen them do that.

What he said at the seminar was bad enough, let alone the media using that and trying to link his statement as if it was talking about Johns and the Sharks.

If you read the first 9 lines of the quoted article above it implies it in that, and on the 2KO news this morning they refered to his comments as being about the Johns/Sharks affair.

 

[Karmawave]

Yes I can see now how the article without directly referencing it, has made it seem that way. They have left the " much of the drama " to be avoided sentence very open while inserting it right after the Matthew Johns outcome.

Its a shame if Williams is copping it for people thinking his comments were aimed at Johns.

It started with him copping some criticism for his ATTITUDE and the wording he used at the seminar - and rightly so - but he doesn't deserve people thinking his quote was intended to make light of the Cronulla situation at all.

 

[t1tan]

Heres a thought- Maybe he shouldnt have said it all,that way he couldnt be linked to anything.
But no,hes a newcastle player so by all means defend him.

 

[Alex28]

"I do see what they're saying about risk; you just never know how a girl's going to react afterwards. You're not supposed to say it publicly, but everyone knows that if you're polite afterwards and pay her cab fare home you usually don't have any problems."

LINK

Simon is copping it deluxe for a quote that was pretty clearly taken out of context...however it is hard to take the above out of context...and this is supposedly from a current rep player!

 

[Serc]

Cullen is an embarrassment to the Broncos, after last year (along with the others who were part of the Hunt/Thaiday/Boyd decision) and having the hide to come out yesterday and open his big mouth about Williams given his clubs own recent history.

Obviously Manly has come out of this past week really badly, the Sharks have taken another big blow, and to any follower of footy with brains having watched Four Corners they could include the Broncos as being amongst those 'couple of teams that aren't changing' that were alluded to. Any fan with brains up here should've noticed the swift slide down that scale over the past year.

 

[Karmawave]

LINK

Simon is copping it deluxe for a quote that was pretty clearly taken out of context...however it is hard to take the above out of context...and this is supposedly from a current rep player!

Some of the players comments I agree with entirely about Gallop ( definitely not the cab bit ), but I find it worse that the player isn't man enough to put his name to the quotes.

Possibly its more so because of the environment the dictatorship that is the NRL and subsequent media agendas create, which is the main reason players who are too gutless to put their names to quotes feel they cannot.

 

[DingoDave]

What a joke

 

[antonius]

It also came out this morning (again on 2KO) from the woman who conducted the four corners programe that the original source of the four corners story was another NRL player. He actually contacted the four corners lady who ran the show and told her about the Sharks affair and Johns involvement, four corners than went out looking for the woman. You have to ask then why that same player has not named any other players, and is happy for Johns to cop all the resultant flack!.

 

[IanG]

The boys on Talkin' Sport have been trying to get the producers of the program on their show to answer a few questions but have had no luck. It's the ABC ie funded by the tax payers and as such should be held to account for what they produce. Not good enough. Just glad we don't have to pay for licences anymore like they have to in the UK.

 

[Hanscholo]

Such hysteria over so simple a thing.