'Drunk' Eels star faces slippery slope
Email Print Normal font Large font 'Thrown out of pub' ... Parramatta's Tim Smith.
Photo: Tim Clayton
August 18, 2006 - 12:04PM
Parramatta rugby league halfback Tim Smith is at risk of being sacked by the NRL club after allegedly being thrown out of a pub for drunken behaviour last night.
Smith was warned by the club in June that he would be fined $10,000 and his contract would be in jeopardy if he was caught drinking again after several alcohol-related incidents.
Macquarie Radio today reported Smith was allegedly refused service and kicked out of a pub last night along with teammate Eric Grothe.
Smith was fined $1000 by the club for a drunken scuffle with Test cricketer Michael Clarke at a pub in Cronulla in June and agreed not to drink for the rest of the season.
He had turned up to training affected by alcohol on May 15, the same day Brian Smith quit the club as coach.
Management from the Intersection Tavern at Ramsgate in Sydney's south confirmed to Macquarie radio there had been an incident.
The tavern said after one patron was refused service, another member of the group attempted to be served and the players were asked to leave.
In an email to Macquarie radio, an eyewitness claimed the players were "drunk beyond all belief".
The eyewitness said the players were swearing and Smith was spitting on the carpet.
When the players were refused service, Grothe allegedly started banging the walls until teammate Daniel Wagon, who was reportedly well behaved, escorted him out of the pub.
In June, Parramatta chief executive Denis Fitzgerald had called an alcohol summit with players after several incidents.
Winger Jarryd Hayne was fined $1000 in June after admitting he bit a woman on the arm while intoxicated at The Roxy nightclub in Parramatta.
Fitzgerald and the club's media spokesman were unavailable for comment.