Penrith star Nathan Cleary fined $10k for flouting self-isolation guidelines

Drew Darbyshire 28 Apr 2020 11:01 AM

Penrith half-back Nathan Cleary has ben fined £10,000 and suspended for one match for breaking self-isolation guidelines.

Images emerged on social media of the Panthers playmaker with a group of women at his home on Saturday.

The New South Wales representative was fined $10,000 and suspended for one match by the NRL for “bringing the game into disrepute” – but 60% of the fine will be suspended for the rest of the season.

NRL interim chief executive Andrew Abdo said: “It’s important the players understand that they are held to a higher account.

“I think we’ve got to look at this in two phases. The players are not in the care of the clubs at the moment, they’ve been stood down and are subject to the public health order.

“As we enter into the training period and the second phase the protocols are significantly higher. We are all humans, humans make mistakes and there are consequences for those mistakes.”

Australia internationals Latrell Mitchell and Josh Addo-Carr have also been fined $50,000 for flouting social distancing measures.

Explaining why the pair received harsher sanctions than Cleary, Abdo said: “What’s happened with Latrell and Josh is they’ve gone on a planned holiday in which there were activities that involved camping and a wide number of people.

“That’s very different to someone being at home and whilst it’s still against the public health order, it’s a very different context to someone attending to your home in a very short and unplanned period of time.

“I’m not going to make a comment on everyone’s perception around what’s appropriate from a cultural perspective. The matters have been treated on the actions of the individual. This has nothing to do with culture or race.”

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