Editorial
The significant amount of money raised from the fines of the Dragons COVID breachers, should be put into a COVID hardship fund by the NRL.
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More than $300,000 in NRL fines will be gathered from the boofhead players who attended a party at team-mate Paul Vaughan's place on Saturday night in breach of public health orders.
That is an awful lot of money which usually would be directed back into the NRL coffers even if it is under the guise of the player welfare fund and some to grassroots footy.
Yet this is a debt not owed to the game or the players. This is a debt owed to the community.
When these 13 covidiots chose to breach a public health order, they were not only thumbing their nose at the NRL and the club, they were also thumbing their nose at everyone in the community who are doing their upmost to ensure this COVID outbreak ends as quickly as possible.
Many people are doing it at the expense of their own families and businesses.
Instead of putting the money back into the game, this money should be put back into the community with the establishment of a COVID hardship fund.
Maybe open it to the people and small businesses of the Sutherland shire and the Illawarra with $10,000 grants for small business and $1000 grants for families who can demonstrate continued hardship because of COVID this year.
If the NRL doesn't feel capable of handling that process or the fund, see whether the respective councils will take it on.
To NRL chairman Peter V'Landys, who knows the Illawarra region as well as any other, this is an opportunity to give back to this region and mend some of the bridges burned by these selfish, ignorant players.
A chance to prove that this game, its clubs and its players understand what most in this community are going through in this blasted COVID-19 pandemic.
A chance to build something positive out of this sad and sorry saga.
Just an idea.