Cronulla’s Toby Rudolf was handed an official warning letter from the NRL for “offensive and derogatory comments” after the Sharks’ 32-18 win over the Dragons.
Rudolf was interviewed on Fox League post-match and responded to a question about how he was going to celebrate the win.
“Probably about 1000 beers. Go to Northies, try and pull something. Anything will do,” Rudolf said.
“No, honestly it’s all about recovery these days. I’ll be going straight home, straight to the ice bath and staying very, very quiet.”
Rudolf’s comments were criticised by NRL executives, and Andrew Abdo told the Sydney Morning Herald that the comments were “offensive” and “not how we are as a game anymore”.
Despite agreeing with the NRL’s stance on showing respect to women, The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio believes the situation should have been handled differently.
“I can appreciate the NRL wanting to take an alternate view and stating the absolute priority of wanting to show respect to women,” Riccio said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“However, I just have a small problem with the way they handled it yesterday.
“I don’t think they needed to send a warning letter to the Cronulla Sharks and Toby Rudolf.
“I thought Andrew Abdo or someone in management could have picked up the phone and said. ‘Toby, we appreciate and understand the context of which it was said. But, next time lets think about our wider audience and think about a response more accommodating to our audience’.
“I think it was over the top, I didn’t think the official warning letter was necessary.”
It is believed the Cronulla Sharks will counsel Rudolf and their players about the situation.
