Broncos under scrutiny in Qld drug scandal

Fears Brisbane are about to become the latest Queensland sports team involved in the cocaine scandal resulted in some bookmakers suspending betting on the NRL club’s season opener against South Sydney next week.

The Broncos claim to have “no concerns” about speculation they’re poised to be drawn into the growing scandal which has already resulted in Queensland Reds star Karmichael Hunt and five Gold Coast Titans facing charges of supplying and possessing a dangerous drug.

No other people were served notices to appear on Wednesday but rumours several Broncos players were caught up in the scandal forced TAB Sport and BetEasy to suspend betting markets for the March 5 clash with Souths at Suncorp Stadium.

TAB Sport’s Matt Jenkins said it would be irresponsible to punters to allow bets to be placed on the game until more information is known.

“As this story develops we have decided to suspend betting until more news happens,” Jenkins told AAP.

“We don’t know how big this is going to be so it’s protecting the punters more than anything.”

Gerard Daffy of TattsBet said they were not closing their market on the game.

He said there was a lot of rumour and speculation but they had heard nothing concrete.

“So many codes and teams have been mentioned … if we closed a market every time there was a rumour we wouldn’t haven’t anything to bet on,” he said.

Another club reportedly in the crosshairs of the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) is the AFL’s Gold Coast Suns.

Hunt had only just ended his career with the Suns before switching to Super Rugby’s Queensland Reds during the period the CCC allege his offences occurred.

Suns coach Rodney Eade said club officials had given any players who felt they may be under investigation the chance to come forward on Monday but none had indicated they were involved.

Eade said he had his fingers crossed and had to take the players at their word.

“We haven’t had any players come forward at this stage,” he said.

“It’s just been business as usual to be honest.

“That’s all you can do with anybody, ask them a question and that’s the way it is.

“It’s fingers crossed. Any sporting team in Australia, male or female, you’re never going to be 100 per cent certain of anything.”

Eade wasn’t at the Suns before Hunt left but he admitted several members of the squad looked up to Hunt as a mentor.

He said those who were thinking of contacting the 28-year-old might be better off staying away until the affair is resolved.

“I don’t know if they are (in contact), probably in this scenario you probably would (stop contact), but I’m not aware of that,” he said.

The club at the centre of the storm, NRL’s Titans, kept a low profile on Wednesday but board chair Rebecca Frizelle took time out to praise the support the Gold Coast community had given the embattled club.

“I don’t think you can ever fool the public and on the Gold Coast we’ve seen the Titans reel from one crisis to the next but this time they saw that it had hit rock bottom,” Frizelle told Brisbane’s Triple M Grill Team.

“They were able to see through everything and say `wow, if we don’t get behind this club, there’s every chance we may lose it’.

“The Gold Coast read the temperature of how dire things were and really started to get that groundswell going.”

Two of those facing charges, Titans outside back Kalifa Faifai Loa and former player Joe Vickery, attended a Gold Coast police station with their lawyer on Wednesday afternoon for fingerprinting.

The Titans will be back in the public eye on Thursday evening with the club’s season launch to be held.

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