RL: Bulldogs begun repairing battered image

AAP General News (Australia)
04-30-2004
RL: Bulldogs begun repairing battered image

By Brent Read

SYDNEY, April 30 AAP - As the Bulldogs came to terms with a police decision not to
charge any of their players following the Coffs Harbour sex scandal, chairman George Peponis
put in a call to former chief executive Steve Mortimer.

The two were brothers-in-arms for more than a year, helping re-build the famous club
after the salary cap scandal in 2002.

But unlike Peponis, Mortimer - a Bulldogs legend - never saw out the Coffs Harbour saga.

He was a high-profile casualty of the two month scandal, resigning his post at the
height of the police investigation into the alleged sexual assault of a 20-year-old woman
in Coffs Harbour on February 22.

Peponis was keen to catch up with his former teammate and share a coffee.

The restoration process was underway.

"I maintain that the actions that were taken were taken for the betterment of the club,
with the club at heart and it was a shame that it was so costly," Peponis said.

"But the club had to come before individuals.

"Some good people have gone down during all this.

"But what's happened has happened. We have to move forward from here."

The major task confronting Peponis and new chief executive Malcolm Noad will be repairing
the club's image, which took a battering during the two month police investigation.

The Bulldogs lurched into crisis when a woman alleged she had been gang raped at the
Pacific Bay Hotel in Coffs Harbour during the pre-season.

What followed was two months of front page headlines, few of which were positive.

The club was turned upside down.

Football manager Garry Hughes was the first to go, sacked for failing to enforce the
code of conduct and for "not acting in players' interests".

Four days later Mortimer resigned before his brother Peter, a board member, also stepped aside.

Allegations of group sex and lurid behaviour resonated with rugby league fans of all
genders and cost the Bulldogs more than $1 million in sponsorship.

The financial price was exacerbated when the NRL slugged the Bulldogs with a $150,000
fine - with another $350,000 payable if the Bulldogs transgress again before 2006.

But by far the heaviest hit was to the club's reputation.

The Bulldogs were once known as the 'Family Club' - but that moniker doesn't sit well
at the moment.

It may never again.

"I think there are some changes from this but I do think we would like to retain that
sense of family at the club," Peponis said.

"But there's been so many things that have happened that that's going to take time
to re-establish.

"I think there's a lot of good people around here who are very loyal to the club."

The club has a solid foundation from which to re-build.

Noad, who took over from Mortimer, has promised to improve relationships with the media.

The players have mostly said the right things since police decided they didn't have
enough evidence to lay charges.

The club and players were disappointed they weren't given a more conclusive clearance,
with police insistent there was evidence that there could have been a rape at the Pacific
Bay Resort in Coffs Harbour.

"That to me was a little bit disappointing in that there's either nothing to be called
in for or there is something to be called in for," captain Steve Price said.

"I think it's as cut and dry as that. I think it's certainly left a little bit of speculation
in the air."

But Price, an ornament to the game, said the players now realised they were public property.

"I'm sure everyone in rugby league will have learned a lesson from this," said Price.

"It will certainly change our ways for everything we do whether it is behaviour, our
lifestyle ... everything has to change from this day onwards.

"If we do misbehave in the future we are going to cop it in a big way."

Peponis for one thinks the club has changed for the better.

"We won't be able to repair in a day and I think when it is repaired we'll be the better
for it because obviously we have to have a good look at ourselves," he said.

"There's no reason why it can't re-build and re-establish itself ... but Rome wasn't
built in a day."

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