The NRL target tested four of the Roosters players falsely accused on social media of taking illicit substances the night before their Magic Round clash with Cronulla.
Which immediately begs the question: why?
Why is the NRL reacting to grossly inaccurate scuttlebutt on Twitter?
Why isn’t it backing its players instead of cocking a suspicious eyebrow while asking them to submit a urine sample?
“It’s an abhorrent abuse of power,” Rugby League Players Association boss Clint Newton said. “The players opt into this policy. If this is the way it’s going to be rolled out, we’ll have a serious think about blowing it up. This is not the way it is intended to be used.”
A quick recap for those playing at home …
A still from the video featuring Terrell May, Zach Dockar-Clay and three other Roosters teammates.
On Friday night, prop Terrell May live-streamed an event on a platform called Twitch alongside teammates Brandon Smith, Spencer Leniu, Zach Dockar-Clay, and Naufahu Whyte.
They were giving away jerseys, boots and caps to fans, giggling all the while. It was good, clean wholesome fun the night before the match of Magic Round against the Sharkies.
By Monday, a small clip taken from the 89-minute live-stream had made its way onto social media, allegedly proving the players had taken illicit substances, presumably cocaine.
Like most of the theories floated on social media, it was BS.
Roosters hooker Brandon Smith.Credit: Getty
Because one player had rubbed his nose and another licked his lips, the mob was convinced they were doing something untoward.
One reporter didn’t help when he suggested on Twitter that a “video of a big-name player doing some white powder is about to go viral”.
I gave up on social media long ago. When the video made its way into the mainstream media, I checked it out …
There was no white powder. No reenactment of the final scenes from Scarface. It didn’t even show players in a mind-altered state. You didn’t have to be a DCM nightclub regular in the late 1990s to conclude they were as sober as Wayne Bennett at church on Sunday.
Understandably, the Roosters were furious about the whole thing, prompting them to take the extraordinary step of issuing a lengthy media release smacking down the bogus accusations.
“The clip reveals no use of illicit substances or any other breach of NRL rules,” the statement said, adding the club’s lawyers were scouring the internet for “defamatory statements” and that “legal action” would be pursued.
Imagine the club’s surprise, then, when NRL drug testers lobbed at training at Moore Park on Tuesday to target test four of the players in the video.
The Roosters declined to comment, but numerous well-placed sources at the club speaking on condition of anonymity in order to comment freely confirmed the players in the video were singled out for testing.
‘Like most of the theories floated on social media, it was BS.’
The NRL’s illicit drugs policy is separate to the WADA code, which tests for performance-enhancing drugs on game day and can result in a four-year ban.
Players can be target tested, according to the NRL, if it has information the player may have been using drugs, although it depends on the time of year.
In 2021, Smith and then Melbourne Storm teammates Cameron Munster and Chris Lewis were each suspended for one match and fined a total of $49,000 after a video emerged of the three players in a hotel room with a white substance on the table.
Storm boss Justin Rodski confirmed at the time that the trio wasn’t tested because the incident occurred out of season, if only by a few days.
Valentine Holmes with a white bag in his mouth.
Last September, North Queensland star Valentine Holmes was suspended for one match and fined $25,000 for posting on Instagram a selfie of himself with a bag containing white powder.
Because the incident happened while he was on annual leave, he could not be target-tested as per the collective bargaining agreement.
More recently, Sharks players were target tested three days after five-eighth Braydon Trindall allegedly failed roadside illicit drugs and alcohol tests the morning after their round-seven win over North Queensland.
The NRL, which also declined to comment, uses an independent pathology laboratory to do its testing. It has no say in who or when clubs are targeted. It’s done at arm’s length.
Its policy also states that it “should be impossible for an individual player to know how many tests he may face” and “the timing of each testing session varies so that there will be no pattern discernible to the players as to when tests will take place”.
Nevertheless, Newton wants clarification about when target testing is allowed.
“Someone at the NRL needs to explain what the threshold of a target test is because that’s what this was,” he said. “Anyone who says different may as well change their name to Pinocchio.”
If Pinocchio were an NRL player, he’d be target-tested every week.
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