I'm definately more angry with the media and who ever was responsible for allowing this case to go as far as it did than I am the NRL. But none-the-less, their punishment insinuated guilt. I still can't believe they didn't MAKE SURE to make contact with him. They say that they tried through the Manly club, but surely they shouldn't have trouble contacting someone within their organisation and talking to them before handing down a punishment. They obviously had no problem getting through to him when they wanted him in their advertisement campaign. I realise it was a tough situation for them, but this doesn't excuse them from not talking to him first. Obviusly Gould agrees otherwise he would not have highlighted that question.
The NRL were probably forced to react at the time, but in hindsight the suspension and a couple of poorly chosen comments from an angry NRL board at the time were unjustified considering they had not heard Stewart's side of the story. All we want from the NRL is for them to admit that 'in hindsight the punishment of an innocent man was unjustified'. As Stewart said, he couldn't have done anything else to avoid a situation.
