“They should be crucified”: Paul Kent blasts four disgraced NRL players

Paul Kent has sprayed disgraced NRL players Latrell Mitchell, Josh Addo-Carr, Nathan Cleary and Tyronne Roberts-Davis during a live cross on Fox League Live.

Kent believes the quartet have been giving insufficient punishment after they were given fines and suspended bans by the NRL. The punishments come after videos surfaced on social media showing the players breaching social distancing restrictions and government protocol.

On Monday, a trip to Taree landed Mitchell and Addo-Carr in hot water, while new videos have emerged of Cleary dancing with a group of women which had been posted on Tik Tok on Wednesday.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing to be honest. They're 24-year-old men, the entire country is under the same circumstances, they're not being treated [differently] than anyone else, Kent said on Fox League Live.

"Nobody has asked them to do anything but stay home, that's all they've been asked to do and they can't even do that.

"It's not because they don't know or they're naïve. It's arrogance, they think they're above the law.They get mollycoddled their whole lives, so when the rest of society has to shut down these guys don't think it applies to them.

"I don't know why these guys have to push their toes to the edge, until they get to that point and then be stopped.

"The fact is they are grown men. Josh Addo-Carr has a pregnant girlfriend, he's about to be a father. Like, fair dinkum.

"What don't these guys get? Stay home. They can't stay home, they can't manage that.

"You can put all your little caveats on there, about [how] these guys shouldn't be crucified. They should be crucified!

"They are potentially jeopardising tens of millions of dollars for all the other players, because the Premier has come out and said: 'no more'.

"The deputy Premier, who has done more to help through all the political channels than anybody said: 'this is your chance Rugby League'.

Kent was annoyed that many were making excuses for the four players.

"So to sit there and try and make excuses for these guys, and to try and come up with reasons why they possibly did it, the whole country is, in fact the whole world is in the same situation and these guys try and carry on like they're unaware.

"Seriously? And to sit there and make excuses for them, and to sit there and say they don't understand lets look after them this is their one chance. They're lucky they've got one chance.

"A lot of people are jobless right now, but these guys are still getting paid, and if they get their act together and they start playing in May, and they won't get near as significant hit as what they have already agreed to take.

"But they've gone on jeopardising that, why? because they want to get out of their house, or invite people into their house. It's not that hard."

All four players were handed one-game band which were suspended. The NRL also suspended 60 per cent of the $50,000 fine for both Mitchell and Addo-Carr and the 10,000 fine for both Cleary and Robert-Davis. Kent believes those fines were nowhere near good enough.

"They should have been suspended, the NRL's excuse, you guys have spoken from a very rugby league angle, so let me put it this way," Kent went on to say.

"The NRL came out and said because they are not under club jurisdiction they didn't want to punish the clubs by suspending them.

"You tell me when at football training and a guy makes a lazy effort, or doesn't run his 400m the way he should, makes his mistake. What's the thing the coach does? You're doing it again, you're one in all in.

"This administration had the chance to set a benchmark penalty, this shouldn't have been a penalty to punish these guy as a deterrent to every other player in the competition who's thinking I might go up to the farm this weekend, I might go have a party, whatever. That's the penalty should have been.

"We saw a minister lose his portfolio because he drove to his holiday home on the Central Coast. Lost his portfolio out of it.

"Why are these guys different? What's different for them? So many people are trying to get them going again and they're the ones that are going to blow it!"