Josh Dugan is considering taking legal action against Cronulla and the NRL after beating one of the main police charges that contributed to his sacking.
The Sharks sacked Dugan in September 2021 with six weeks remaining on his contract after allegedly breaching the NRL’s COVID-19 protocols for a second time. The decision ultimately forced the former NSW and Australia centre to prematurely end his professional footballing career.
Police charged Dugan after he was pulled over near Lithgow, 150 kilometres from his home in Gymea, while Greater Sydney was in lockdown. Forty minutes later, Dugan was charged a second time when police stopped him while he was travelling away from Sydney towards his property in Yetholme.
In Lithgow Local Court on Friday morning, Magistrate Kasey Pearce found Dugan not guilty of the first charge, but guilty of the second. Dugan received a conviction for the second charge, a decision his lawyer, Paul McGirr, said he would appeal.
“Basically, they couldn’t prove that he knew the laws, which I said nobody knew,” McGirr said of the first charge. “The [COVID lockdown] laws were a joke, they were changing daily, sometimes twice daily.
“In sequence [charge] two, [the magistrate] said once he was given a direction he should have returned to Sydney. But I said that, on that basis, he was in the process of moving to another area and it’s maybe for another jurisdiction. She gave him a 10A, [which is] guilty of sequence two but no penalty.
Josh Dugan is considering legal action against Cronulla over his sacking for alleged COVID lockdown breaches in 2021.
Credit: NRL Photos
“The laws were ridiculous; the police were [enforcing] laws they didn’t even know they were doing.
“It cost Josh his career on the basis he was terminated on that basis. We will be looking into those particular actions of the club, being the Cronulla Sharks.”
The NRL fined Dugan $50,000 for what was allegedly his second biosecurity breach, while the Sharks ripped up his contract. McGirr said the actions of both parties would come under scrutiny after the court ruling.
“We will be looking into it because he was dismissed on this basis,” McGirr said. “We will be looking to recoup some of those monies in relation to the fine that found he wasn’t actually guilty of the particular first offence. That is what started all of this.
“These corporations, including the NRL, appear to be taking a guilty-before-proven-innocent attitude. It should be the total opposite.”
Josh Dugan’s lawyer, Paul McGirr
“This is the problem with organisations jumping the gun and just accepting on face [value] what police think, or the fact that police have charged someone and therefore they are punished.
“These corporations, including the NRL, appear to be taking a guilty-before-proven-innocent attitude. It should be the total opposite.
“I want to look into action against the NRL and whoever punished him for something that it turns out it he didn’t commit.”
Cronulla settled with Todd Carney after the former Dally M medallist sued the club for unfair dismissal following his infamous “bubbler” incident in 2014. Carney was seeking close to $2.4 million in damages before the parties resolved the matter for an undisclosed amount.
Dugan’s sacking reportedly cost him $120,000, the remaining part of his contract for the 2021 season.
“The Sharks have terminated the contract of Josh Dugan following a second Apollo protocols breach,” the Sharks said in a statement at the time.
“The second breach occurred on August 20, with Josh having fronted the Sharks Disciplinary Committee for a previous breach, which occurred back in June. The Sharks will make no further comment on the matter.”
Cronulla was contacted for comment.
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
