By Michelle Cazzulino and Anthony Peterson
May 20, 2004
RUGBY league was plunged back into infamy last night after a NSW State of Origin player allegedly left an obscene voice message on a woman's phone.
Hours after league officials met to try to repair the battered image of the sport, he asked a young woman to join him and three friends for sex.
And in a second incident, three other members of the NSW Origin squad also faced allegations of misbehaviour while returning from the bonding session to the team hotel in Coogee, on Sydney' south side.
Yesterday reporters met the woman who received the voicemail message, which can still be accessed from her phone.
It said, in part: "[Victim's name], where the f*** are you? There's four toey humans in the cab . . . and you're in bed. F*** me fire up."
The woman who received the message said she barely knew the player involved.
Last night he denied he made the call and claimed he lost his phone while at Star City Casino in the early hours of yesterday. The player admits he was still out at the time the call was made.
He did not notice the phone was missing until he woke yesterday at the team hotel.
"I just want to say I lost my phone and it wasn't me," he said. "It's got nothing to do with me. It was out of my control. I just had a couple of beers and lost my phone like other people have.
"Obviously someone has picked it up and made these calls."
The woman has since lodged a complaint with the rugby league club he represents.
Labelling the message "disgusting" and "inappropriate", she said her initial plan had been to ring the player to confront him about leaving it. But she decided a more appropriate course of action would be to lodge a formal complaint with the player's club.
"These guys are representing our country . . . there's a code of conduct for these guys, and they're not abiding by it," she said.
"If they thought that anything was going to educate them, you'd think that the last couple of months would have."
The woman said she had passed her number on to the player in question about six weeks ago, after he had expressed some interest in dating one of her friends.
The player said he intended to contact her to clear the air.
The behaviour of three other Origin players was also under scrutiny after they were allegedly involved in an incident yesterday.
The trio was trying to catch a taxi from Leichhardt between 7am and 7.30am but when one didn't arrive jumped on a State Transit bus.
They were allegedly involved in unruly behaviour including throwing food but denied the allegations.
A spokeswoman for the NSW team said neither State Transit or team management had received a complaint.
May 20, 2004
RUGBY league was plunged back into infamy last night after a NSW State of Origin player allegedly left an obscene voice message on a woman's phone.
Hours after league officials met to try to repair the battered image of the sport, he asked a young woman to join him and three friends for sex.
And in a second incident, three other members of the NSW Origin squad also faced allegations of misbehaviour while returning from the bonding session to the team hotel in Coogee, on Sydney' south side.
Yesterday reporters met the woman who received the voicemail message, which can still be accessed from her phone.
It said, in part: "[Victim's name], where the f*** are you? There's four toey humans in the cab . . . and you're in bed. F*** me fire up."
The woman who received the message said she barely knew the player involved.
Last night he denied he made the call and claimed he lost his phone while at Star City Casino in the early hours of yesterday. The player admits he was still out at the time the call was made.
He did not notice the phone was missing until he woke yesterday at the team hotel.
"I just want to say I lost my phone and it wasn't me," he said. "It's got nothing to do with me. It was out of my control. I just had a couple of beers and lost my phone like other people have.
"Obviously someone has picked it up and made these calls."
The woman has since lodged a complaint with the rugby league club he represents.
Labelling the message "disgusting" and "inappropriate", she said her initial plan had been to ring the player to confront him about leaving it. But she decided a more appropriate course of action would be to lodge a formal complaint with the player's club.
"These guys are representing our country . . . there's a code of conduct for these guys, and they're not abiding by it," she said.
"If they thought that anything was going to educate them, you'd think that the last couple of months would have."
The woman said she had passed her number on to the player in question about six weeks ago, after he had expressed some interest in dating one of her friends.
The player said he intended to contact her to clear the air.
The behaviour of three other Origin players was also under scrutiny after they were allegedly involved in an incident yesterday.
The trio was trying to catch a taxi from Leichhardt between 7am and 7.30am but when one didn't arrive jumped on a State Transit bus.
They were allegedly involved in unruly behaviour including throwing food but denied the allegations.
A spokeswoman for the NSW team said neither State Transit or team management had received a complaint.
