News.com article saying Okunbor facing being sacked. CHN facing 8-12wk suspension.

[Shire Dog]

This outcome, if true, is consistent with what I said from the beginning - a violation of the Working with Children legislation from Okunbor.
Such matters are taken very seriously and the consensual sex and age of consent component of the whole story have very little do with it - except for the poor light in which it places the club / loss of sponsorship etc.
Hence why CHN may cop a heavy sanction, but may not lose his job.
We will see...

No matter what our personal opinions are on this matter the players need to abide to a code of conduct which is set out very clearly
I hope Okunbor has a strong support base through family and friends to deal with the potential termination
I know our club will assist him as best they can
What a nightmare for this young man

 

[Typical dog]

The club doesn't have to hand out the 12weeks. Could give him 4weeks but they are scared of the backlash from the media.

 

[CrittaMagic69]

Wouldn't surprise me if Okunbor gets permanent deregistration from the NRL. I wonder how much of a fine the club will get on top of this. Surely they will take the current economic hardship on the club into account before smashing us again financially.

They're going to fine us $6.4m and hand out 400k to each club to help them out (we get 400k back so it's really just a $6m fine). Sounds fair?

 

[Nasheed]

Again, who is punished from a 12 week paid suspension?

The player who gets to go to Bali, or the fans cooking losses and tuning out

 

[DinkumDog]

No matter what our personal opinions are on this matter the players need to abide to code of conduct which is set out very clearly
I hope Okunbor has a strong support base through family and friends to deal with the potential termination
I know our club will assist him as best they can
What a nightmare for this young man

I agree with support through the outcome - no-one takes any pleasure in seeing a young man's career potentially finished from one very costly mistake.
After all, we're not talking Ben Barba here.
But I don't view this as an opinion - based on what I know about the legislation I think there's simply no choice for the club.
If anyone can provide any evidence in the legislation that shows otherwise I'd be happy to be wrong.

 

[Nasheed]

The club doesn't have to hand out the 12weeks. Could give him 4weeks but they are scared of the backlash from the media.

so what happened to all this talk in the other thread I read this morning about Buklsogs not caring what others think and doing it their own way as per Gould’s comments ?

The bulldogs need to learn the art of playing a situation down. Trump does it, as do good salespeople

 

[Spoonman84]

If that's all that transpired, perhaps yes, but given the loss of sponsorship on top of that, plus the damage to the club's reputation in the region - the punishment likely has to be greater.

They could have nipped it in the bud to some extent and distanced CHN from Okonbur and softened the blow.

CHN's offence was very minor and that alone wouldn't have loss sponsorships it looks so much worse because he was stood down and under investigation at the same time Okonbur was.

 

[speedy2460]

Reported on TV that the NRL do not have a proper Code of Conduct, only the clubs have it.
If so, how can the NRL suspend anyone when "they" dont have legislation to cover it?

 

[Shire Dog]

The club doesn't have to hand out the 12weeks. Could give him 4weeks but they are scared of the backlash from the media.

We can give him 4 weeks
It’s the NRL to decide if it’s fair punishment
I don’t think our management cares for the media at all or what they print

 

[Spoonman84]

The club doesn't have to hand out the 12weeks. Could give him 4weeks but they are scared of the backlash from the media.

It doesn't really matter what the club hand out. The Raiders only gave Wighton 6 weeks after his incident and the NRL didn't like it and gave him 10.

 

[DinkumDog]

They could have nipped it in the bud to some extent and distanced CHN from Okonbur and softened the blow.

CHN's offence was very minor and that alone wouldn't have loss sponsorships it looks so much worse because he was stood down and under investigation at the same time Okonbur was.

Maybe, yes, but I'm guessing they did the stand down based on the information they had at the time - and as we've seen more information came to light after that.

 

[Shire Dog]

I agree with support through the outcome - no-one takes any pleasure in seeing a young man's career potentially finished from one very costly mistake.
After all, we're not talking Ben Barba here.
But I don't view this as an opinion - based on what I know about the legislation I think there's simply no choice for the club.
If anyone can provide any evidence in the legislation that shows otherwise I'd be happy to be wrong.

I don’t think they have a choice either
Our management would have gained legal advice on this matter
A players future and wellbeing is not taken lightly

 

[bradtalo]

Why can't they just fine CHN only ?. I'm sure that's enough of a punishment. Why make it game time ? That only makes fans and the team suffer

 

[Spoonman84]

Maybe, yes, but I'm guessing they did the stand down based on the information they had at the time - and as we've seen more information came to light after that.

Yeah that's true we have no idea how much information they had on hands last Tuesday.

I do think if they were a bit more savvy they could have got CHN off with a much smaller suspension but it's high pressure situation and you'll never get everything right.

 

[Brendan7]

It's not 12 weeks it's 12 games.

It will be games mate. The NRL are stupid but they aren't THAT stupid

 

[Brendan7]

Lol fuck off, 12 weeks? Just fucking sack him also if the suspension is as long and ridiculous as that. What a fucking beat up.

Watch another side pick him up then...

 

[BULLDVGS]

Watch another side pick him up then...

Im very sure old mate was being sarcastic

 

[Brendan7]

Im very sure old mate was being sarcastic

I'm past being sarcastic on this topic though!

We are a great club but jeez can we not take 3-4 weeks to make decisions?

 

[Delta]

can we get a poll up to see what kennelers think should happen to Okunbor? Genuine interested to see what others think.

I would say dropped to reserve grade for 1 season is a big enough punshiment + fine. (Losing the sponsor I believe is what should make the punshiment big)

 

[NPC83]

I would prefer CHN only got 8 weeks or even less but given the fall out of losing a sponsor and the distraction to coaches team mates etc for game one maybe even other losses we are not aware of... I think the club had little choice but to come down hard..and I feel for Oka’s but what can you do... it’s cost us as a club massively...