COMMENT: Packer backflip by Knights
By ROBERT DILLON Jan. 13, 2014, 10:30 p.m.
NEWCASTLE Knights officials can put whatever spin on it they like.
The bottom line is this simple: they knew what Russell Packer had done, they knew he would plead guilty.
Yet still they harboured hopes that he would be allowed to run out in the NRL wearing the red and blue, representing the people of the Hunter Valley, at least until magistrate Greg Grogin kicked those plans into touch eight days ago.
All these phrases such as duty of care and legal process are best answered by a two-word reply: Marvin Filipo.
Last year the Knights sacked Filipo after an off-field altercation that did not result in criminal charges.
Exactly what Filipo did has never been revealed by Knights management, who indeed did not even disclose that he had been terminated until the Newcastle Herald contacted them more than a week later.
But suffice to say that, given he did not end up in court, let alone jail, it is unlikely Filipo beat a complete stranger unconscious and continued to punch him and stomp on his head while he lay motionless, leaving his victim with a fractured eye socket.
The difference between Filipo and Packer is that the former was a fringe first-grader with a handful of NRL games to his name, and hence expendable. The latter was a key signing on a four-year contract reported to be worth $400,000 a year.
The Knights were apparently so desperate to keep Packer that they were willing to forgive his moment of madness. Call it bending their own rules.
So they liaised with the NRL and were jumping through the required hoops, in the hope that the former Kiwi Test prop, whose registration had been withdrawn by the governing body, would eventually be given the all-clear to resume playing.
All they needed was magistrate Grogin to hand down a good-behaviour bond, community service and/or suspended sentence.
Instead he sent Packer to jail for two years, leaving Knights management in a dilemma of their own making and dealing with a backlash from fans and the media.
Yesterday the club issued a statement announcing the 24-year-olds contract had been terminated and attempting to justify their course of action.
Any delay in dismissing Packer was attributed to legal process and the need to deliver the news face to face in prison.
But in analysing yesterdays release and comparing it to the considered response the club posted on its website last Tuesday, 24 hours after Packer was jailed, two points stand out.
Firstly, CEO Matt Gidleys comment yesterday that there was never any doubt we would terminate Russells employment following Mondays sentence.
The key word here is following.
Why did the Knights have to wait until after Packer was jailed to reach such a decision?
As stated previously, they knew what he had done. They knew he would plead guilty to a brutal crime.
When Knights coach Wayne Bennett was at Brisbane the club sacked sacked Neville Costigan, Brett Seymour, Ian Lacey and John Te Reo for alcohol-related incidents before any of them had appeared in court. So much for legal process.
That brings us to point two. In last weeks considered response the Knights stated that they would allow the legal process to be completed before making any decision on [Packers] future.
Given that his appeal will not be heard until February 11, how is the legal process complete?
The obvious conclusion is that it finally dawned on the Knights that there was no point trying to defend the indefensible.
The whole business was a public-relations nightmare and every day they delayed a decision was tarnishing the clubs reputation.
With a sack Packer online petition in the process of going viral and his appeal hearing still almost a month away, Knights officials performed a backflip.
All of which could have been avoided had they shown a modicum of common sense and dismissed the former Warriors forward as soon as they learned full details of his crime last November and his intention to plead guilty.
Had they done so, while stating their intention to honour their duty of care to Packers wife and their two young children, they would probably have been commended.
If the Knights failed to grasp the gravity of Packers offence, that should perhaps be no surprise.
This is the same club who complained bitterly last year when players such as Jeremy Smith and Kade Snowden received long-term suspensions for incidents that left opponents unconscious and with a broken jaw respectively.
It is also a club who have been willing to sign players with controversial pasts, apparently because they could toughen up a team Bennett felt did not cause rivals too many sleepless nights in his first season.
In the case of Packer, while he was a first offender in the court system, that was hardly the case on the field of play.
Three episodes during his short-lived career stick in the memory: elbowing Darren Lockyer in the face in a Test match in the champions comeback from a broken cheekbone, urinating through his shorts before kick-off in a game against Brisbane last year, and a heavyweight punch-up with Knights prop Kade Snowden at Mt Smart Stadium last season.
Clearly discipline was not Packers strong suit, although apparently this escaped Newcastles due diligence.
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Nobody, of course, could have foreseen his drunken brain explosion last November. But the Knights response has been inexplicable.
In trying to salvage the career of one player, a blow-in who had not even made his Newcastle debut, they have allowed the clubs name to be dragged into the gutter.
Better late than never, but it should not have taken until yesterday for sanity to prevail.
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/2020929/comment-packer-backflip-by-knights/?cs=306
