Wild, Wild East

I know its to be expected but I am sick of listening to all that wild wild west rubbish. Scott Fava, Richard Brown, Matt Henjak and Haig Sare have all been involved in incidents. Thats a grand total of 4 players since the Force's inception. Lets look at the hometown of where most of the gutter journalism is coming from and to be fair only look at players for the Tahs since the Force's inception.

Matt Dunning has been involved in a few minor incidents in his time. Many will forget, however, that he punched team mate Des Tuiavii and broke his nose. That was during O'Neills last reign but was anything done about that? Wycliff Palu spent time in prison for assaulting a police officer. He was in weekend detention during the 2003 World Cup. Justin Harrison was suspended and later released by the Tahs for racist comments toward a black player from the Cats. In 2006 Wendell Sailor was suspended from Rugby Union for use of cocaine. His partner in crime/stupidity, Lote Tuqiri, has a list of bad behaviour as big as Jon O'Neill's ego. A recent and most notable example is his shove in the back of Sam Norton-Knight in front of 20 odd thousand fans. Poor sportsmanship if I ever saw it. And lets not forget his little prank calling the Wallabies selectors and putting him on speaker phone.

As much as they tried to keep it hushed up Tah Wonder-Kid Kurtley Beale was caught drink-driving made worse by the fact he didn't even have a license in the first place. That could have killed someone, which would be a hell of a lot worse than anything any Force player has even done. Finally to the ex-player with more mental issues than a meeting of psychopaths anonymous, Mat Rogers. He assaulted someone at a Scottish nightclub in 2004 on top of a handful of other minor no-nos.

I'm sure the list is a lot bigger if any cover-ups were known and/or I could remember any others. The point being that in the last 3-4 years the Waratahs have been worse that the Force in terms of on-field and off-field behaviour. Mind you its very easy to see past that if you are a terrible journalist like Growden of a permanently PMSing mega-bitch like Jacquelin Magnay. But they are so wild in the Eastern States, those Wild Wild Easties.

Great investigative work James. You should send this to the ARU & JO'N with a 'please explain' note!!!

And a request that all these players be suspended immediately......on second thought's he'd probably do that, it'd be likely to improve the 'Tahs chances of coming close to the meteoric rise that the tipsters are expecting of them!

Shep was a Tah when he performed his encore hot shoe shuffle too, although he did cop some punishment though.

Was he Sacked?

I thought you were on holiday?

Don't recall but I think suspended for a match and fined or something and no future.
It isn't holiday but stay tuned for the departing post ;)

Great post James, just shows the double standards within the ARU management and lack of journalistic integrity by Growden or Magnay (whoever
she is, forgive my ignorence but i havent read alot of stuff by her)

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Originally Posted by jargan83

or Magnay (whoever she is, forgive my ignorence but i havent read alot of stuff by her)

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Don't worry Jargan. You haven't missed much.

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Originally Posted by jargan83

Great post James, just shows the double standards within the ARU management and lack of journalistic integrity by Growden or Magnay (whoever
she is, forgive my ignorence but i havent read alot of stuff by her)

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Caught her a few times on 'Offsiders'. I'm guessing this is one of her few forays into Union- usually spends her time finding out which of the Bulldogs (NRL version) is being entertained by the NSW constabulary this week. Maybe the SMH powers that be figured she had experience up her sleeve for the standard issue "teams gone wild" story

I think you should send it to john O and the bloody smh

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Originally Posted by Burgs

Shep was a Tah when he performed his encore hot shoe shuffle too, although he did cop some punishment though.

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Yes he was "transported" to the Swan River Colony with all the other bad eggs. :rolleyes:

Don't forget also that Wycliff Palu was stood down for a few days earlier this year for simply being in a nightclub where an incident happened. He wasn't involved at all but was supplying a statement to the police as he was a witness. And he got stood down for that.

Well, stood down from training anyway - didn't exactly miss the opening game of the Super 14.

As noted, perhaps a better analogue would be the Beale incident mentioned. That was in January : he gets charged with drink driving and driving without a license, doesn't even mention it to the team (and none of the investigative journalists in Sydney notice) and the Waratahs response? They fine him but decline to comment, then allow him to travel to South Africa (fancy that!) and the ARU doesn't make a peep. Everyone is so scandalised that later in the year the SMH is running articles about how funny it is that Beale can win a car during the ARC but not be allowed to drive it.

But doubtless fighting is seen as worse, so how about David Palavi? He is charged in January with one count of causing harm to a law enforcement officer, two counts of obstructing, hindering, intimidating or resisting a Commonwealth official, one of causing harm to a law enforcement officer and an unrelated count of assault on a woman from the previous September. The club declines to act on the matter until it is settled in court, with their spokesman saying that it was too early to tell what sort of punishment the club might impose on Palavi if he is found guilty. He still plays in their preseason game against the Waratahs, and the ARU said...???