@Tiger_Steve said in [Corona impact on NRL\.\.\.?](/post/1146312) said:
? KENT TAKES AIM AT NRL SUPERSTARS ?
Paul Kent has unleashed on the NRL and it’s ‘out of line’ stars on Fox League Live. Kent joined the panel to discuss the punishment(s) handed out by the NRL to Josh Addo-Carr, Latrell Mitchell, Tyrone Roberts-Davis and Nathan Cleary.
In his six plus minute rant, this is what Kent had to say:
“I can’t believe what I'm hearing to be honest. They’re 24-year-old men, the entire country is under the same circumstances, they’re not being treated than anyone else.
“Nobody has asked them to do anything but stay at home, that’s all they’ve been asked to do and they cant even do that.
“It’s not because they don’t know, or they're naive, it’s arrogance, they think they're above the law.
“They get mollycoddled their whole lives, so when the rest of society has to shut down these guys don’t think it applies to them.
“You can put all your little caveats on there, about these guys shouldn’t be crucified. They should be crucified!
“They are potentially jeopardising tens of millions of dollars for all the other players, because the Premier has come out and said: ‘no more’.
“The deputy Premier, who has done more to help through all the political channels than anybody said: ‘this is your chance rugby league’.
“I don’t know why these guys have to push their toes to the edge, until they get to that point and then be stopped.
“The fact is they are grown men.
“Josh Addo-Carr has a pregnant girlfriend, he’s about to be a father. Like, fair dinkum.
“What don't these guys get? Stay home. They can’t stay home, they can’t manage that.
“So to sit there and try and make excuses for these guys, and to try and come up with reasons why they possibly did it, the whole country is, in fact, the whole world is in the same situation and these guys try and carry on like they’re unaware.
“Seriously? And to sit there and make excuses for them, and to sit there and say they don’t understand lets look after them this is their one chance, they’re lucky they’ve got one chance.
“A lot of people are jobless right now, but these guys are still getting paid, and if they get their act together and they start playing in May, and they won’t get near as significant hit as what they have already agreed to take.
“But they’ve gone on jeopardising that, why? because they want to get out of their house, or invite people into their house. It’s not that hard.”
Kent argued that the NRL’s punishment of $50,000 fines for Mitchell, Addo-Carr and those of $10,000 for Cleary and Roberts-Davis – all of which had 60 per cent suspended – was nowhere near far enough.
“They should have been suspended, the NRL’s excuse, you guys have spoken from a very rugby league angle, so let me put it this way,” Kent continued.
“The NRL came out and said because they’re not under club jurisdiction they didn’t want to punish the clubs by suspending them.
“You tell me when our at football training and a guy makes a lazy effort, or doesn't run his 400m the way he should, makes his mistake. What’s the thing the coach does?
“You’re doing it again, you’re one in and all in. This administration had the chance to set a benchmark penalty, this shouldn't have been a penalty to punish these guys as a deterrent, to every other player in the competition who’s thinking I might go up to the farm this weekend, I might go and have a party, whatever.
“That’s what the penalty should have been, we saw a minister lose his portfolio because he drove to his holiday home on the Central Coast.
“Lost his portfolio out of it, why are these guys different? What’s different for them? So many people are trying to get them going again and they’re the ones that are going to blow it!”
Kent’s point most emphasised being, the players themselves are going to be the ones to stop the game from returning to our TV screens.
While Paul Kent may be a controversial reporter, is what he said wrong?
You may not like him as a reporter/person, but it’s hard to disagree with his comments.
From Fox League tonight. Text lifted from NRL Diehards Facebook page
Kent is 100 % right for once