Thanks for the update, Steve.
It’s funny, my immediate reaction when I heard May was banned til Round 5 was “You’ve got to be ****ing kidding.” I, too, found his actions reprehensible & completely lacking in basic humanity or thought for the women involved and their feelings after being filmed without consent.
At the same time, May has spent a year out of the game due to the NRL’s “No Fault Stand Down” policy. The “No Fault” term is a joke - the NRL effectively banned him from the game for a year, and they banned him before he had a chance to prove his guilt or innocence. The policy’s sole purpose is to get the player out of the media and forgotten so the NRL doesn’t have to deal with the embarrassment of media scrutiny.
What happens if a player stood down under the “No Fault” policy is found innocent? Will the NRL compensate the player for losing a year of their playing life? How can they?
So, now after May has had a year’s ban, the NRL, or Todd Greenberg, the Judge, Jury & Executioner, arbitrarily declares that’s not enough punishment. He can stand down for 2 trial games, the opening 5 rounds of the season and be fined 25% of his 2019 salary.
I don’t know if this punishment equates to the loss of dignity, embarrassment & shame May caused the women he filmed. I don’t know if the punishment is enough, or whether it should be more or should be less. What I feel, and what disturbs me, is that the “No Fault Stand Down” policy effectively sentences and punishes players BEFORE their guilt or innocence is proven. And, now that May has pleaded guilty and been legally sentenced, the NRL can turn around and say “You’ve served a lengthy sentence, but that’s not enough. We’re going to tack some more time on as well.”
It really smacks of being the Nightclub That Never Closes. How many kicks in the guts does a player have to take before he’s judged to have been punished enough?
I don’t condone what May did for one second, but my initial reaction is that he’s been hard done by.