Brisbane Broncos halfback Ben Hunt has handed a big warning to teammate Josiah Karapani over his second off-field incident this season.
Head coach Michael Maguire insists he won't move to sack Karapani despite his second slip up this season, with the outside back revealed by the club earlier this week to have been handed a court infringement notice by police.
"He was allegedly travelling at 119km/h in a 100km/h zone and received an infringement notice for the speeding offence along with further fines for ‘Failure to display P plates', ‘Driving an unregistered vehicle' and ‘Driving an uninsured vehicle'," the club wrote in a statement.
"Following the roadside stop, Josiah was taken to Holland Park Police Station where a breath analysis was conducted, returning a reading of 0.037.
"As a provisional licence holder (P Plater), Josiah is subject to a zero-blood alcohol concentration.
"He has been issued with a notice to appear in court on July 21 in relation to the drink driving offence."
The incident follows another earlier this year where he was spoken to by police on a night out.
For that, he spent a game on the sidelines, with Brisbane's senior playing group electing to hold him to standard.
He has been dropped again by the Broncos, but Maguire indicated he wouldn't be sacking his outside back.
“No. He's still part of the Broncos family and we'll work through what needs to happen," Maguire said to NewsCorp.
“He's made a mistake.
“It's about the expectations of what we need from him and what he needs to do as a representative of this club.
“He's really disappointed in himself. We'll work our way through this.
“He's got to learn a good lesson from it. It's about the standards and expectations we have and it opens the door for someone else to get an opportunity.”
Hunt though, part of the Broncos' senior playing group and having recently re-signed with the club for 2027 to put a final stamp on his career where he will go past 400 games if he remains in the team, said Karapani needs to shape up or he risks finding himself out of the club.
“We had a conversation about that and Kotoni's pretty close with him, so he went and had a pretty good chat with Josiah and he's been stood down,” Hunt said.
“He knows he's in the wrong, but he also knows it's the second time he's made that mistake and you can't keep making those mistakes or you're gonna find your way out of this club pretty quick.
“So he definitely knows where he stands, and as a leadership group we're happy to move on with where we're at. After that first mistake he made, you you sort of feel that he's on the right track and he's doing everything right, but he's just slipped up again.
“I really like Josiah. I get along with him, he's a great fella, and he knows he's in the wrong. He knows he's made a mistake. We've all been young kids before and we'll get around him and look after him and he'll find his way back.”
The Broncos have not made it clear at this stage how long Karapani will be stood down for, but with the club's crippling injury list, it's the last thing the Red Hill-based outfit needed as they attempt to end a long losing streak and get back into contention for the finals.
The loss of Karapani is offset by the return of Deine Mariner for this weekend's clash with the Cronulla Sharks.
