Former police prosecutor Garth Brennan is confident that the NRL’s new ‘no fault stand down’ policy will not have an adverse affect on any outstanding legal proceedings still to play out.
NRL CEO Todd Greenberg and ARLC Chairman Peter Beattie on Thursday outlined changes to the behavioural policy that allows the NRL to stand players down if they have been charged with serious offences by police.
Players retain the presumption of innocence and remain within the club environment until those proceedings have been completed but, as is the case with Jack de Belin and Dylan Walker, won’t be permitted to play in the NRL until such time.
RLPA CEO Ian Prendergast made the assertion on Thursday that a playing ban “undermines the player’s right to be presumed innocent”, a view not shared by Brennan.
Brennan worked in the police force and was a police prosecutor for 18 years up until he began coaching full-time with the Panthers in 2012.
The Titans head coach believes the NRL is well within its rights to stand players down while court proceedings are pending.
“As a police officer, if you got stood down on full pay and weren’t able to work as a police officer, that didn’t prejudice you in the court proceedings. I can’t see why the rugby league would be any different,” said Brennan.
“It’s like any profession. Just because you get stood down, it doesn’t mean you’re guilty.
“If that’s the case for police officers and firefighters and those sorts of people to be stood down on full pay if they commit a charge, why can’t it be for rugby league players as well?
“A player needs to be considered innocent until proven guilty but as a police officer, if I was charged with an offence of some sort I would have been stood down immediately subject to full pay.”
Brennan said the game has to be protected from the sort of reputational damage it has suffered in the past few months.
“On the back of the off-season we’ve had, the blight it has put on the game is quite embarrassing for everyone involved with the game,” said Brennan ahead of his side’s final trial against the Broncos at Cbus Super Stadium on Saturday.
“Something needed to be done. I put my utmost faith in Todd and Peter Beattie to make the right decisions and if that’s what they’ve gone with then we should all get behind it and take the game forward.
“It was a tough decision, there’s no doubt about that, and there are arguments on both sides.
“But at the end of the day, no one is bigger than the game and it’s important that the sponsors and fans and members of all the clubs are proud to be a rugby league supporter.
“Over the past six months I don’t think that’s been the case.”