Canterbury chief executive Todd Greenberg says he’s frustrated the NRL club’s reputation has been dragged through the mud following allegations of inappropriate comments made by players to a television reporter during mad Monday celebrations.
The unidentified players were recorded shouting from a room inside Belmore Oval as the team assembled for their post-season celebrations 24 hours after their grand final loss to Melbourne.
“We are really disappointed, they are not the values that we set in our club,” Greenberg said on Tuesday evening at Canterbury Leagues Club.
“We’ve tried hard over the last five years to show the Bulldogs in the right light and we’re very proud of that.
“What we saw yesterday wasn’t that. But having said that, we’re not perfect and we all make mistakes.
“We have apologised unreservedly to the Channel Nine reporter and I did so personally again today.”
Greenberg said the matter will be dealt with under the club’s code of conduct and said the report that has been demanded by ARLC chairman John Grant would be ready at the end of the week.
However, he said it may be difficult to work out who made the comments, with suggestions they may have come from an associate of one of the players who was at the party.
“We’ve not been able to attribute those comments, and it may be difficult to do that, but there are some things we weren’t happy about and we’ll investigate it,” he said,
“But we’re not perfect, we make mistakes.”
The incident is another blot of a wretched week for the club, who face losing prop James Graham for a lengthy ban after he allegedly bit the ear of Storm fullback Billy Slater. The England international was referred straight to the NRL judiciary on Monday and will face the three-man panel on Thursday.
There was better news for the club on Tuesday with five players included in the New Zealand Test squad to face Australia in Townsville next Saturday.
Big prop Sam Kasiano ended speculation that he would be playing for Queensland by finally pinning his colours to the Kiwi flag.
Kasiano will join Frank Pritchard, Sam Perrett, Krisnan Inu and Greg Eastwood in Stephen Kearney’s team to face the Kangaroos.
“It’s a dream come true,” Kasiano told AAP.
“I can’t believe it’s happened.”
When asked if he ever seriously considered becoming a Maroon, Kasiano simply said: “No.”
Josh Morris is also included in the Australia side for the match.