Bulldogs player Adam Elliott and NRLW star Millie Boyle have been sanctioned by the NRL for their toilet tryst at a Gold Coast restaurant.
Elliott was fined $10,000 and must complete education and training, while Boyle was given an official warning and will also be required to undergo “education and training regarding the obligations of NRL and NRLW players in public”.
The Bulldogs are still yet to decide whether or not to sack Elliott, who has been at the centre of several alcohol-related controversies over the course of his career.
The Canterbury board was expected to determine Elliott’s fate after the NRL’s investigation was complete.
Now that the NRL’s process is complete, the Bulldogs will likely act swiftly to determine their course of action.
Speaking on Wide World of Sports’ Six Tackles with Gus podcast yesterday, Bulldogs football boss Phil Gould made it clear that Elliott was no certainty to retain his employment.
And Nine NRL reporter Danny Weidler this afternoon tweeted that the back-rower would likely be “asked to show cause as to why he should remain at club”.
Elliott has five working days to respond to the breach notice.
“In Adam’s case, and what I tried to explain to Adam, while you think this might not be a major issue, it is actually because it allows the media to regurgitate all that stuff, and that’s apart from ‘what the hell were you thinking anyway’ and why did you put yourself and get yourself into this position,” Gould said on the Six Tackles with Gus podcast.
“You may think that it’s only a minor issue but it’s actually not and they’ve got to learn to understand why that happens.
“In isolation sometimes they’re not major issues but they accumulate over time and sponsors and members and fans and, as I say, staff, everyone starts to get worn by it and tired by it and when it’s the same culprits all the time, that’s when they start to get intolerant of it to be honest.”
While the axe is a distinct possibility, NSW coach Brad Fittler said the club would be hoping not to make that decision despite reports that the Bulldogs are looking to move players due to salary cap issues.
Speaking on Wide World of Sport’s Freddy and The Eighth, Fittler said that even if the cap is bent out of shape, Elliott wouldn’t be the type of player the club is keen to move.
“He’s not the one they want to sack,” Fittler said. “I don’t think they’re sackable offences, the other couple (of incidents in Elliott’s past) were extremely unsavoury but I don’t think this is a sackable offence and to me he looks like the type of player the club would most probably want to keep.”
Fittler speculated that the Bulldogs would prefer to move players on from the backline, where they have recruited heavily for next season, adding that the forward pack wasn’t of a high enough quality to remove Elliott for the sake of cap issues.
“They’ve recruited a lot of backs,” Fittler said. “They haven’t recruited many forwards. On his day he’s most probably their best forward at the moment, so he’s someone they wouldn’t want to lose.”
Fittler said that if Elliott wanted to rehabilitate his reputation and continue on as an NRL player he should seriously consider the advice of Bulldogs major sponsor Arthur Laundy and “get off the drink”.
“I liked Arthur Laundy’s advice, get off the drink,” Fittler said.
“Simple as that. I think he’ll stay at the Bulldogs, I’m not sure if there was anything illegal (in the incident involving Elliott on the Gold Coast), I’ve got no idea, I’ll let others decide that, but his footy’s not going that fantastic and there seems to be, he just keeps getting in trouble on the drink, so I thought it was good advice by the leading sponsor, who owns pubs.”
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