Panthers premiership-winner Mitch Kenny has been served an NRL breach notice alleging he brought the game into disrepute with a social media post over the festive season.
Kenny has been sanctioned by the NRL Integrity Unit after an investigation into an Instagram story on his personal account in the early hours of December 27.
Kenny’s post was captioned “couple of Boxing Day lines have got me in troubleeee [sic]“.
It was deleted and followed soon after by a second screenshot of a post that read “Happy New Year guys. Enjoy and ignore trolls who grabbed my phone. Happy New Year.”
The post on Mitch Kenny’s Instagram account on December 27.Credit: Instagram
Sources with knowledge of the matter, who were not authorised to speak publicly, told this masthead at the time that Kenny gave the same explanation – that the message was a practical joke gone wrong – to club officials when he was contacted on December 27.
Kenny has five days to respond to the NRL’s breach notice.
“It is alleged Kenny engaged in conduct which has brought the game and his Club into disrepute,” an NRL statement said.
The Panthers declined to comment.
North Queensland Cowboys flyer Valentine Holmes was handed a $25,000 fine and one game suspension after an image of him holding a white bag in his mouth was published on his Instagram account in September.
Holmes told those close to him the post – which was quickly deleted – was a joke gone wrong. He served his suspension during the end-of-year Pacific Championships before being recalled to play for Australia.
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