The Raiders respond to the Joel Monaghan scandal.

I’ve rarely read such a load of pompous self opinionated rubbish Skid.

Put yourself in Furner’s shoes and do enlighten us with the course of action you would have taken given the pressure from NRL, sponsors, Media and supporters.

Who is looking after the dog? About now it needs a new home.

Please oh please don’t say its going to live with Victor!

Can I bring my dog to games now?

All in all, he’s not the best looking guy, and we all know how desperate a camel-balled young lad can get on the grog.

Skidbladnir said :

…published list of sponsors…

List is actually here: http://www.raiders.com.au/default.aspx?s=sponsors-directory
For some reason the RA post has the linky text, but not the link itself.
(I swear it was there originally…)

Don Furner and the Raiders have handled this terrible situation as well as can be expected.

Skidbladnir: well put.

The 2011 Raiders jerseys have been released, and CFMEU has been replaced with The Tradies as front sponsor. Second casualty of Mad Monday?

(http://www.goodscore.com.au/images/pics/nrlclothing/raiders11/1.jpg)

Sigh, its like these players need full-time minders to keep them out of trouble. Perhaps its time to have a complete sports-wide ban on alcohol, 365 days.

“The Raiders endeavour to prepare our players for life on and off the football field by providing them with sound structure, discipline, setting goals and most importantly education.”

Correct me if I’m mistaken, but don’t you need to be an adult to play professional rugby league.

“Unfortunately incidents like the one involving Joel do harm the reputation of the club”

What do you mean ‘unfortunately’? Incidents like the one involving Joel definitely should harm the reputation of the club. There is nothing unfortunate about it.

“but we will continue to try and achieve the highest standards we can as a team and as a community leader.”

Head. Wall. Bash.

“the behaviour of one of the teams players”

There were also 30 other people associated with the club at the house when the incident took place and Joel didn’t take the photo by himself. It’s all very convenient to blame the one individual who can be quickly dispatched out of the way.

I have registered my dog as a member. He feels there has been little support for his canine colleague.

Stuff them. I for one think they handled the whole incident badly – as they have done before with other incidents. They still have to learn how to manage these situations better, because there will be more to come. In my estimation Joel grew ten feet tall from the way he responded to the situation.

While I am at it, that Gallop shot his mouth off before he knew the full facts and should be careful before he sets himself up as judge and jury – an arsehole indeed!!

Do they plan on offering a promotional buy one adult membership package, get one for your dog free?

PrinceOfAles said :

So the big question. Are you going to become a member?

No, but the dog is!

Dear Mr Furner,

I refer to your recent form letter, provided in response to RiotACT’s correspondence concerning one of your players being photographed with his cock in-or-near a dog, while visibly pulling its face towards his genitals.
Since you clearly decided that any team supporters who were concerned enough to personally write to your Club weren’t worth the respect of a personal or self-authored reply, I am returning the favour by replying in an open forum, and hope that you will eventually do the same.

While the photograph in question certainly suggests a certain penetrative quality, I understand that the Raiders’ official position, after the thorough five minute analysis prior to the media conference, is that the former player’s penis never dog made physical contact, and no fluids were exchanged.
Throughout the rest of this letter I will defer to the Canberra Raiders’ Board’s judgement as to any lingering issues such as how a Canberra Raiders player should satisfy a dog’s emotional needs after such an incident, or when a shotgun wedding to a dog is appropriate, since clearly the Canberra Raiders Board now are the NRL’s most prestiged and eminent experts in human-canine relations.

In relation to your comment
…Joel has paid a high price for putting himself into a situation…:

While this attempt to protect sponsor financial support is worthy of applause from a corporate point of view, in a context of social responsibility, and as a source of role models for impressionable youngsters, it would appear that you are merely trying to turn Joel Monoghan into an exiled scapegoat, and were very quick to pass over any mention about Joel Monaghan’s canine enthusiasms, which were the only subject of the twenty-three word question asked.
To be clearer: You did not answer the question. Having had almost two weeks to formlate a reply to the media, I am surprised that you missed that.

You have also glossed over the fact that it wasn’t just Joel who put himself in ‘the position’ (being your chosen euphemism meaning almost fellated by a dog), and pity that Joel obviously wasn’t the one taking pictures, since his hands were quite visibly busy, enthusiatically clutching that dog’s face against his genitals.
The linked article indicated not only that other players were at the event in question, but that they were encouraging local talent at this party.

It would also seem that you have attempted, as in previous media comments, to try and excuse this behaviour with both a “Boys will be boys” response to binge alcoholism and any poor behaviour, and an attempt to blame social media for telling the story.
This attempt to prevent audiences hearing about bad behaviour, instead of preventing bad behaviour in the first place has not gone unnoticed.

Your making excuses as Club CEO for the strange, indecent, and potentially criminal acts of (near) bestiality from your otherwise rational adult human employees does no credit to your players, nor to the team, nor the Club which pays them as employees.
If they were as incomprehensibly stupid as you make out, we would neither let them clothe nor feed themselves, since they would be incapable of doing either without serious injury.

In relation to your comment
…The Raiders endeavor to prepare our players for life on and off the football field by providing them with sound structure, discipline, setting goals and most importantly education…:

While your media managers are clearly very effective at managing the spin in short-term cycles, clearly this incident is not an isolated case of NRL Club employees behaving badly, and the recent history of NRL Clubs and Managers making excuses or defenses of terrible player behaviour has highlighted potenital structural vulnerabilities in player judgement, and certainly the corporate education and related lessons they have learned so far.
If professional educators in either a public or private system were to have students so clearly disregard their attempts to educate, they would be fired for having never taught lessons effectively in the first place.
In this respect, the NRL Club’s role as social mentor seems to have either comprehensively failed, or have been supremely inappropriate.

As evidence to support this claim, I offer you the following high profile examples, which is only those I can remember as clearly occuring in the last twelve months:
– 14 January 2010: Todd Carney sets fire to a man ‘as a prank’.
– 28 January 2010: Melbourne Storm player Kevin Proctor is fined $400 in the Gold Coast Magistrates Court for behaving in a disorderly manner.
– 1 March 2010: Newcastle Knights player Chris Houston is suspended indefinitely and served a notice to attend court on charges of supplying ecstasy and cocaine.
– 29 March 2010: Brisbane Broncos skills coach Allan Langer is photographed dancing on a table in his underwear in a public bar and was subsequently charged with drink driving, after being three times the legal blood alcohol limit.
– 13 April 2010: Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles player Tony Williams is charged with drink driving after blowing .106, twice the legal limit.
– 3 May 2010: Penrith Panthers players Maurice Blair and Brad Tighe are given police infringement notices for failing to leave licensed premises when asked and verbally abusing police.
– 6 June 2010: Sydney Roosters player Jake Friend is arrested and charged with two counts of possessing a prescription drug (valium) without permission.
– 18 June 2010: New South Wales assistant coach Andrew Johns resigns after Timana Tahu walked out on the team, after Johns called Queensland player Greg Inglis a “black cunt”.
– 29 June 2010: Canberra Raiders player Josh Dugan is arrested for negligent driving and driving while disqualified.
– 17 September 2010: North Queensland Cowboys player Johnathan Thurston is arrested and charged with public nuisance after an alcohol-related matter at Brisbane’s Treasury Casino.
– 27 September 2010: Wests Tigers halfback Robert Lui is charged with nine offences, including assaulting his pregnant girlfriend.
– 4 November 2010: Canberra Raiders player Joel Monaghan admits participating in a drunken sex act with a dog. Conveniently forgets who took his photo.

I further note in your response that while these vulnerabilities of judgement\ failures of education were well documented and high profile, you have neither offered any comment nor subtle indications that the larger issues which these incidents represent will ever be addressed.

With this in mind, while I will not go out of my way to boycott Raiders’ sponsors, I will occasionally check your published list of sponsors, and should I remember the names of those businesses on it while goods or services be available at similar prices from their competitors, I may actually favour the competitor with my business, since I do not feel that your and the NRL’s responses to this and previous incidents have neither been appropriate nor adequate.

Should you (or your receptionist) like to do the public the honour of responding with any form of thought, instead of relying on pithy form letters to dismiss problems with your Club, RiotACT would almost certainly be willing to publish your response.

Kind Regards,
[Name Witheld]
Fearsome Man from the ACT

So the big question. Are you going to become a member?

Too bad that a fantastic year by the Raiders has been overshadowed by this scandal. I’m sticking with my team though, through good times and bad, and I’ve already got my membership for next season. Hopefully everyone else will feel the same.