Page 18 of 25 FirstFirst ... 8 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 ... LastLast
Results 256 to 270 of 370
  1. #256
    Inactive User
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Broady
    Posts
    4,375

    Default

    NRL 2020: Three Gold Coast Titans players stood down for refusing flu shot

    Sam PhillipsMay 8, 2020 — 2.46pm
    NRL asks Queensland government to grant anti-vaxxer pair exemption

    You have 5 free articles remaining

    In times of uncertainty, you deserve understanding.

    FIND OUT MORE
    Already subscribed? Log in
    For our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here.
    The NRL has written to the Queensland government and asked for an exemption that would allow Bryce Cartwright and Brian Kelly to return to training with the Gold Coast Titans immediately.

    The Titans on Friday stood down Cartwright, Kelly and Nathan Peats after the NRL wrote to the three Queensland clubs and informed them all 32 players and 18 staff in their "bubble" must receive a flu vaccination. Peats subsequently agreed to have a flu shot.

    NRL anti-vax storm escalates
    0:48
    NRL anti-vax storm escalates

    NRL star Bryce Cartwright has angrily responded to a growing anti-vax storm, after refusing to get a flu shot.

    Sources have told the Herald the original exemption application from the NRL to the Queensland government - which allowed the Titans, Broncos and Cowboys to train and play in the state - did not include the waiver which players who are against vaccinations have been forced to sign this week.

    When the NRL informed the Queensland government that the waiver would have to be inserted into the agreement, the state's chief medical officer baulked. Gold Coast then had little choice but to stand down the trio.

    Peats later revealed via Twitter that he did not have the vaccination due to a reaction he had to the flu shot while playing for Souths eight years ago.

    "It has nothing to do with some other players and being anti-vaccination," Peats said. "Myself, wife and both my sons are vaccinated. I had a bad experience in 2012 when I was at Souths when I had the flu shot, that’s my only reason behind it.

    Titans forward Bryce Cartwright doesn't want the flu shot.
    Titans forward Bryce Cartwright doesn't want the flu shot.AAP
    "I’ve spoken to the club and will get the jab this afternoon. I had the option to say yes or no and I chose no for that reason. If I knew it would blow up, I would have said yes straight away."

    While Peats has agreed to have the shot, Cartwright and Kelly are not on the same page. The NRL has been forced to apply for an exemption on their behalf, as the pair have not refused the vaccination on medical grounds.

    Related Article

    Bryce Cartwright
    If the Queensland government block that exemption, the players will be stood down indefinitely. That could open up a range of headaches for the NRL, most notably potential legal action from Cartwright and Kelly.

    ARL Commission chair Peter V'landys said he was "comfortable" with the NRL's legal position in informing the Queensland clubs anti-vaccination players must be stood down.

    "We have looked into that. Absolutely," V'landys said. "We're comfortable with where that's at."

    V'landys is also hopeful the Queensland government will follow the lead of the NSW government - which has not taken a hardline stance on anti-vaccination players - and give an exemption to Cartwright and Kelly early next week.

    "We're hoping [the Queensland government] will do the same thing as NSW and they will allow them to train and play," V'landys said.

    The ARL Commission chairman is satisfied the 97 per cent of players who have agreed to the vaccination is an acceptable number to keep those directly involved in the game and their families safe.

    "Even some of those that have refused - it's because they had reactions to it," V'landys said. "They're prepared - if it's hurting the game - to go and get the vaccination. You can't ask for more than that."

    The decision to stand the Titans players down came hours after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared the federal government would back any state-based decision to enforce a 'no jab, no play' policy.

    "Ultimately, states and territories have to determine what the health requirements are as they apply to the NRL," Morrison said. "And if they were to be insisting on that, I would think that is entirely reasonable."

    Australian chief medical officer Brendan Murphy left the decision to the respective states but said he would personally like to see the flu shot made mandatory.

    "I personally have a view that everyone should get a flu shot, and it's important. But I think that's a matter for the relevant states," Murphy said.

  2. #257
    Administrator DIEHARD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Brisbane / HK
    Posts
    39,139

    Default

    NRL 2020: Anti-vaxxer saga highlights NRL’s stupidity, Paul Kent

    Just when the season looked set to resume certain players have undermined the game from within and it’s an embarrassment, writes Paul Kent.

    Paul Kent, The Daily Telegraph


    Dylan Walker nearly died from a prescription drug overdose after a night partying went wrong.

    Won’t have a needle to inoculate himself against the flu, though.

    Every weekend players stick painkillers in their shoulders and in their ankles so they can be numbed enough to get on the field.

    Won’t let anyone put a flu vaccine in them, though.

    Sanity and reason have left the NRL.

    All the players needed to do was nothing — stay home, stay silent, that’s it — and they would have emerged from the tunnel on May 28 to a chorus of cheers and admiration.

    Yet they could not manage even that.

    Instead, just when the season looked set to resume certain players have undermined from within. It is a breathtaking display of collective stupidity.

    And, to show they are no smarter, the NRL humoured them.

    The game embarrassed itself this week.

    Government support is dwindling. Public support is rock bottom.

    Who wants to be associated with this game, where they can’t even manage themselves?

    To get approval for the May 28 resumption the NRL submitted a plan to federal and state governments. This was back when the Government was not being embarrassed by the NRL and there was genuine support from within, and part of that pledge to government was flu vaccinations for 100 per cent of the players.

    The Rugby League Players Association, who support the players who want their money, agreed on this.

    Then it began to unravel.

    Bryce Cartwright was first.

    Cartwright described himself as “pro-choice”.

    “I stand for the freedom to choose what goes into our bodies,” he wrote on social media this week, explaining his refusal to be vaccinated.

    The RLPA stayed mute. It could hardly admonish Cartwright given it had agreed in writing that all players would be vaccinated. And it believed, according to the RLPA, that the pledge to government was only ever a “process on the protocols”.

    Cartwright comes late to the anti-vaxxing debate.

    Wife Shanelle is a social influencer. What this means is she profits from her views on social media, without doing much else, and she posted this week that Cartwright initially disagreed with her views, “Then he read the package insert and a few pages of Dr Suzanne Humphries and saw vaccines under a different light”.

    A package insert and a few pages from a discredited book and he goes against decades of medical evidence.

    Good grief.

    Still, his supporters called it an “informed choice”, which tells you all you really need to know about his supporters.

    Soon many of the game’s Polynesian players joined Cartwright. As best anyone could tell they were claiming cultural beliefs prevented them getting vaccinated.

    I still can’t find any explanation why this is so.

    I do know that this inherited belief is partly why, last September, Samoa suffered a measles outbreak that spread quickly across the island and infected 5700 people, mostly children.

    Only 40 per cent of the population was vaccinated and the disease spread fast through those who were not vaccinated.

    There was tragedy in their ignorance. The lack of vaccination meant 83 deaths, mostly children under five.

    The World Health Organisation directly linked anti-vaccination messaging to the spread of the disease.

    Since then Samoa has launched a vaccination campaign. Now more than 95 per cent of the population is vaccinated and there has not been a death.

    Do the players know this? Why is their ignorance a defence?

    But the embarrassment does not rest just with the players.

    There are countless examples during this COVID-19 crisis of the NRL exposing its lack of intelligence and honour. Failing to bank the players’ distress fund money, short-changing the clubs on emergency funding …

    It has already cost chief executive Todd Greenberg and chief financial officer Tony Crawford their jobs.

    So, with just a gentle noise coming from the players who resisted vaccination, the NRL quietly crumbled like damp biscuits during the week.

    Somewhere, behind a closed door, the NRL changed its pledge to government and quietly inserted a waiver in the document that, if signed, allowed players to take the field without the vaccination.

    It might be worth reading that again.

    After submitting its own rules to the government to show it could be trusted in the community, and getting government approval based on those rules, the NRL then quietly changed the rules to appease the players who did not want to abide by them.

    Somebody at the NRL should be sacked over this.

    Rules made up on the run is the perfect epitaph for the Commission era.

    The disease at League Central is weakness. Nobody outside the ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has the strength to make the right decision if it means it is a tough one.

    Interim chief executive Andrew Abdo has had two big jobs since taking the big chair and underwhelmed in both.

    For too long the NRL has hidden behind committees and highly paid consultants and as such they embarrass the game with their sins.

    Queensland Health Minister Stephen Miles accused the NRL of lying to his government on ABC Radio yesterday.

    “This was their plan, they came up with this, they put it to us,” Miles said.

    Yet the NRL went and changed it. And the RLPA quickly supported it, despite also supporting 100 per cent inoculation.

    The NRL act as though, if they all stay together on this, then no-one will call them on their lies and they can’t be accountable because nobody knows who is really to blame.

    The players behave as if dumb decisions, if met with unanimous support, somehow makes it a smart decision because of their strength in numbers. Somebody tell them this is a safety precaution, not a pub fight.

    Failed logic or agenda does not seem to count in their argument.

    So their support of a few misinformed players remains unanimous even though it puts their return to work, and therefore their income, at risk.

    Do they realise?

    If nothing else, they follow the poor example set by head office.

    So much work has been done to get the season resumption passed through government and yet the NRL, somewhere at management level, changes the agreement retroactively.

    They changed it after Prime Minister Scott Morrison told 2GB this week that part of the rules in place was “no jab, no play”.

    When met with the NRL’s new waiver clause yesterday NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said: “No individual, no organisation is above the health advice.

    “All of us have worked too hard to see anyone flout the rules.”

    She clearly was not a supporter.

    Then the latest insult yesterday, when the Queensland Government was forced to step in to do what the NRL administration did not have the guts to do.

    It told Cartwright and two others based in Queensland to stand down while the policy is reviewed.

    You couldn’t make it up.

    The recent NFL three-day draft rated the highest it ever has on television.

    If ever there was an example of an audience crying out for entertainment, that was it. The NFL is not scheduled to kick-off until September and even that is only if life in America quickly returns to normal, yet fans tuned in.

    Tomorrow the UFC becomes the first global sport to return to air when UFC 249 takes place at Jacksonville, Florida’s headlined by Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje fighting for the interim lightweight title.

    No fans will be allowed, but the UFC is putting on three shows in eight days to get rolling again.

    Such is the desire for live sport even the pacifists might tune in. Or perhaps not.

    ESPN is showing live games from North Korea’s baseball league, one of the few live events being played.

    In this way the NRL has lost its opportunity to be the first major sport around the world to resume its competition, a small boast, but it shows the appetite for live sport and the advantage the game by returning in less than three weeks.

    Some who have argued against the resumption of the NRL point out that all the biosecurity checks in the world are useless once the players begin tackling each other and sweaty bodies begin rubbing up against sweaty bodies.

    The UFC has received similar criticism.

    But two non-infected wrestlers could wrestle until they grew a third arm and not infect each other.

    https://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...d4888217783289
    PUT EM TO THE SWORD! SHOW SOME STEEL!

    Moejoe: "REMEMBER!!!! SLIP - SLOP - SLAP in the sun. Skin Cancer is a growing problem. It could happen to anyone!!"
    TITANS, DIEHARDS, WARRINGTON WOLVES, MAROONS, KANGAROOS, HONG KONG THUNDER

  3. #258
    QLD Cup
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Posts
    913

    Default

    Paul Kents transformation into Buzz has really picked up in the last year or so. Not only is he the definition of doom and gloom but he also buries any facts behind his own bias opinion.

    "Every weekend players stick painkillers in their shoulders and in their ankles so they can be numbed enough to get on the field.

    Won’t let anyone put a flu vaccine in them, though"

    Does he even know if the players in question let them put painkillers in them? Or is he just assuming that all players are the same?

    I honestly don't care if those players don't take the flu jab or not. It won't stop them getting covid, otherwise we would all be taking it. If the NRL has made the rule though then fine. I'm sure the players will sit out if it means that much to them. Let's just move on and stop giving people like Kent the airtime because despite what he saying about the game being brought into disrepute, his ramblings on the matter are only bringing more attention to it.

  4. #259
    Moderator JunctionBlock's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Location
    Upper Coomera
    Posts
    6,279

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by NZFan View Post
    Paul Kents transformation into Buzz has really picked up in the last year or so. Not only is he the definition of doom and gloom but he also buries any facts behind his own bias opinion.

    "Every weekend players stick painkillers in their shoulders and in their ankles so they can be numbed enough to get on the field.

    Won’t let anyone put a flu vaccine in them, though"

    Does he even know if the players in question let them put painkillers in them? Or is he just assuming that all players are the same?

    I honestly don't care if those players don't take the flu jab or not. It won't stop them getting covid, otherwise we would all be taking it. If the NRL has made the rule though then fine. I'm sure the players will sit out if it means that much to them. Let's just move on and stop giving people like Kent the airtime because despite what he saying about the game being brought into disrepute, his ramblings on the matter are only bringing more attention to it.
    I think the opposing view to what the news sites are picking up from the antivaxxer WAGS is important. Whether he takes a pain killer or not is irrelevant when he is covered in tattoos. Possible blood borne diseases include HIV, tetanus, Hepatitus everything. If it's about freedom of choice then perhaps Bryce can choose without his wife interfering too. Sounds like there is plenty of coercion from her side too.

    I think the reason why the flu shot is important has been covered ad nausea. It has nothing to do with contracting covid 19.

  5. #260
    QLD Cup
    Join Date
    Apr 2018
    Posts
    913

    Default

    All fair points JB. To be fair I haven't really payed this fiasco much attention, I've just tried to ignore it and focus on the fact that footy is back soon. I just get a bit sick of the media when they are actively contributing to the problem by giving these people (Cartwright's mrs etc) the time of day.

    The Daily Telegraph mob in particular piss me right off because they write and talk in ways that they think their opinion is gospel

  6. #261
    Rep Player
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    1,899

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JunctionBlock View Post
    I think the opposing view to what the news sites are picking up from the antivaxxer WAGS is important. Whether he takes a pain killer or not is irrelevant when he is covered in tattoos. Possible blood borne diseases include HIV, tetanus, Hepatitus everything. If it's about freedom of choice then perhaps Bryce can choose without his wife interfering too. Sounds like there is plenty of coercion from her side too.

    I think the reason why the flu shot is important has been covered ad nausea. It has nothing to do with contracting covid 19.
    My understanding is that Bryce wasn’t an anti-vaxxer until he met his wife, so unless he has gotten new tattoos since then, it’s not the gotcha that it sounds like at face value.

  7. #262
    QLD Cup
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Ashmore
    Posts
    707

    Default

    The "I am not an anti-vaxxer" line just "pro-choice" is an absolute cop out. People's freedom of action is always compromised in a society that cares for the benefit of the majority over the whims of an individual.

    I heard the same "loss of freedom" arguments when they proposed compulsory wearing of seat belts, but who can deny the overall benefits of wearing a belt compared to the very few cases where a seat belt may cause death or injury. Being anti vaxx doesn't stand up to any close scrutiny when compared to the millions of people who have benefitted from vaccination around the world. That said, the argument should be whether the flu shot is necessary in this case. Whether it is or not, it seems some players are putting themselves above their team mates by not taking it. But then "happy wife, happy life" may be taking precedence here.
    Last edited by Titanic Believer; 12-05-20 at 05:13 AM.

  8. #263
    Moderator JunctionBlock's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Location
    Upper Coomera
    Posts
    6,279

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by willhelm View Post
    My understanding is that Bryce wasn’t an anti-vaxxer until he met his wife, so unless he has gotten new tattoos since then, it’s not the gotcha that it sounds like at face value.
    Well he has his kids birth dates (the ones that made it to full term) tattooed on his arm so I'm gonna go with "gotcha".

  9. #264
    Inactive User
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Broady
    Posts
    4,375

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JunctionBlock View Post
    Well he has his kids birth dates (the ones that made it to full term) tattooed on his arm so I'm gonna go with "gotcha".
    JB at his finest. So brutal and funny. Bravo.

  10. #265
    Rep Player
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    1,899

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JunctionBlock View Post
    Well he has his kids birth dates (the ones that made it to full term) tattooed on his arm so I'm gonna go with "gotcha".
    Brutal

  11. #266
    Moderator JunctionBlock's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Location
    Upper Coomera
    Posts
    6,279

    Default

    NO JAB, NO PLAY … AND NO PAY

    Titans duo Bryce Cartwright and Brian Kelly are facing the very real scenario of not being paid beyond this month if the Qld government doesn’t soften it’s stance on flu vaccinations.

    The Qld government has been the strongest on vaccinations, insisting that all players get the flu shot or they simply will not play in the state.

    However, NRL applied for Cartwright and Kelly to be able to sign a waiver to allow them to return to training and play in the relaunched season.

    If this application is denied, the Sydney Morning Herald reports the duo could face no pay beyond this month and the NRL would support the Titans on this decision based on the two players not fulfilling their contractual obligations due to their beliefs.

    The Herald says the NRL is confident it would be covered in any legal proceedings as refusing the flu vaccination is an act from personal beliefs and not medical grounds.

    An NRL players’ contract says a club can terminate a player’s agreement immediately if “the player would by reason of some physical medical condition be exposed by playing the game to a greater than usual risk to his health, or to a greater than usual risk to injury.”

    The NRL rules also require a player to “make every effort to be and remain fit to play the game and is and will be able to perform his obligations under the agreement, without exposing himself to greater than usual risk to injury.”


    https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...7d92e5d4ed5b7e

  12. #267
    Inactive User
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Broady
    Posts
    4,375

    Default

    I want to know if it does go to court who will be paying for the lawyers? The NRL or Daryl/Rebecca.

  13. #268

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Bods View Post
    I want to know if it does go to court who will be paying for the lawyers? The NRL or Daryl/Rebecca.
    Sound to me a nrl contract so hopefully nrl

  14. #269
    Rep Player ozynorts's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Posts
    1,876

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by JunctionBlock View Post
    An NRL players’ contract says a club can terminate a player’s agreement immediately if “the player would by reason of some physical medical condition be exposed by playing the game to a greater than usual risk to his health, or to a greater than usual risk to injury.”

    The NRL rules also require a player to “make every effort to be and remain fit to play the game and is and will be able to perform his obligations under the agreement, without exposing himself to greater than usual risk to injury.”


    https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...7d92e5d4ed5b7e
    I fail to see a negative here. He hasn't shown that he is a must have player and is proving to be a distraction. If the above article is correct we may have the option of sacking him over this. Awesome, bye bye champ, hello David Fifita…..
    Keep it up Bryce, stick to your guns.

  15. #270
    Moderator lonegull's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Back O Bourke NSW
    Posts
    3,691

    Default

    I wonder with the media speculation about no payment with contract and termination if it changes the players mind, this could be a blessing is disguise to rid the titans of Cartwright huge contract as surely the NRL legal eagles would be already working on what happens with termination.


Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

ABOUT US

    Established in 2005 as the Gold Coast Titans official Chat Forum, we are now known as the League of Titans Independent Website. A place for fans of the Gold Coast Titans to come and touch base with other diehard fans.

QUICK LINKS

FOLLOW US ON

League of Titans designed and cutomised by Matt Glew