If the Broncos boys want a bit of group action then good luck to them. They didnt hurt anyone.
Except, you know, the girl. Who was allegedly sexually assualted.
Webcke tested positive for probenecid, which the NRL kept from the media until he retired in 2006.
Webcke was obviously ok with this. His own halo is tarnished.
Which was assigned by an idiot doctor who did the same thing to a high-profile Union player because he couldn't be bothered to read the Banned Substances list both codes had provided him.
The NRL decided to give him a pass because they had a clear chain of causality and knew exactly what had happened.
Which is more than a little different than the scenario you're attempting to imply.
Maybe he was too gutless to face Gus Gould in a drug admission interview.
Yet he was able to write it in
warhorse, have it published in newspapers that are distributed in multiple states, and do it despite the fact that nothing had leaked about the story. Johns only appeared because he had been caught red-handed.
Webcke chose to be honest. After the fact, yes, but even then a choice rather than having had his hand forced.
TBH i dont care about Joey's lifestyle. He has done nothing criminal apart from take recreational drugs, which is merely a reflection of society, of every one of you people in this forum. If you want to be outraged i suggest you have a look at yourselves, your friends and acquaintances, and see where these things need to be rectified, and do something about it yourself.
Bipolar disorder or not, he still spent years on the juice. Being a League player, he had resources and support he could have tapped to get treatment far better than the average sufferer. Instead, he
chose to use illicit substances. Not once or twice, but
repeatedly. And then he
chose to lie about it. And then he
chose to deny the allegations levied against him, only to finally face up to it when the proof became incontrovertible.
There's nothing admirable in what he did. He never would have come clean if he hadn't been caught with drugs in Britain by their Police.
Webcke's right about Andrew Johns, just as he's right about Boyd, Hunt, and Thaiday. They should have been stood down, effective immediately. Personally, I would have gone a step further and punted the lot of them. No player is irreplacable.
Johns' behaviour wasn't limited to purely off-field incidences. He claims he never played or trained under the influence of drugs, but does that jive with the other things he has said and what else is known about Bipolar self-medicators? Not in the slightest. And if you believe otherwise, I have a nice bridge across Sydney Harbour I'd like to sell you.
As I said when this came out last year, the Broncos had the chance to walk the walk when it counted. They'd talked tough when they got rid of Costigan and Seymour, but when it was players that were more necessary to win, the hard-line stance suddenly... wasn't.
You can always find more players. Hunt is not irreplacable; Hodges is a fullback. Thaiday is not irreplacable; we had more forwards, and if we'd dropped him, we could have kept David Stagg. Boyd was already leaving for the Dragons, and as we've seen, Yow Yeh and Winterstein are reasonably good at what they do.
So standing them down would have meant loosing the game. Big deal; we lost any way.
Before this mess, Thaiday was one of my favourite players, a cult figure in Brisbane who was always seen trying to set a good example for everyone, but particularly indigenous kids. Then this came out, and I no longer applaud him when he takes the field. I don't know if I ever will again.
