Penrith punish rusty Roosters
6 hours ago | Aidan Edgecomb
The Bulldogs will be stripped of four competition points if there is another major incident directly involving their fans, the NRL said today.
A lengthy NRL board meeting tonight declared that the league would get tough on any club whose supporters could not behave themselves at matches.
Tonight?s meeting confirmed the Bulldogs as the first club to have four competition points held in 'suspension' as the result of fan behaviour.
The points will remain credited to the club on the competition table but should any game in 2004 see a major eruption of violence as a result of the behaviour of Bulldogs fans, the club would lose those points in addition to any further penalty that may be imposed.
"Clearly though there were some issues that related directly to Bulldogs supporters and we can't ignore these," NRL CEO David Gallop said following the meeting.
"While on one hand we will work with police to ensure that anyone, whether they are Bulldogs or Roosters fans, who took part in Friday night is punished, on the other we need to accept that the Bulldogs have been dealing with specific and on-going crowd problems.?
The NRL say the Bulldogs will be required to contribute to additional security at away games with the league having the power to determine the extent of additional security provided.
"Families have to be able to come to our games in comfort and safety and we will do everything we can to ensure that takes place,? Mr Gallop said today.
As fans continue to threaten to boycott Bulldogs matches, the NRL say they are determined to stamp out bad crowd behaviour.
"Obviously this is a strong measure and it will not be used lightly, but the sort of behaviour that we saw at Aussie Stadium cannot be allowed to re-occur,? Mr Gallop said.
"The fans have to accept their responsibility just as the clubs have to accept responsibility for their fans.
"While the current penalty relates to the Bulldogs, any Club that encounters consistent problems in this area can expect the same measures to be invoked.?
Clubs will be ordered to ensure that security staff at all grounds be advised that any fans who deliberately taunt or start trouble among Bulldogs supporters should be removed from grounds, and could themselves face bans from all venues.
It?s understood that the NRL are angry that trouble continues to surround the Bulldogs club, but expelling them from the competition has not been seriously discussed.
Meanwhile, Police re-interviewed a number of Bulldogs players today regarding the alleged sexual assault of a young woman in Coffs Harbour earlier this year.
The Director of Public Prosecutions will this week receive a report from detectives investigating the alleged sexual assault.
Police say that the re-interviewing of players is all a part of general protocol.
"There was always a need to re-interview players, and I can say that the Bulldogs organisation have been cooperative with that process," a Police spokesman said.
Police denied that the houses of a number of Bulldogs players had been raided this afternoon.