Cronulla captain Paul Gallen faces an NRL investigation for a crude tweet directed towards the league following the Sharks’ decision to fire chief executive Steve Noyce.
Currently serving a back-dated 12-month drug ban, Gallen reacted poorly to the Noyce dismissal, tweeting “Steve Noice (sic) actually cared about players from cronulla’s feelings. Couldn’t say that about any other c*** from Nrl.”
Noyce was stood down on Wednesday in a Cronulla leadership reshuffle following the ASADA investigation into the club’s previous use of illegal supplements. He had been in the job since April last year.
The 33-year-old Gallen now faces an NRL investigation under the league’s code of conduct provisions.
“We have a clear process for those sorts of things, we will have a look at the code of conduct, we will have a look at the comments and we will take a view from there but I haven’t seen the tweet,” NRL CEO Dave Smith said.
“We will consider the comments against the code of conduct and if there is any disrepute or anything we are not not happy with then we will take the respective action but I genuinely haven’t seen the comments.”
Gallen followed up his tweet with a photo on Instagram (below) suggesting he may have been a little worse for wear at the time.
“4 drinks for $5 RSA. OMG no wonder I’m hung. Good times. Time to fly home,” the photo caption read.
Gallen’s ASADA ban equated to just a three-game NRL suspension, also missing the Aussie Four Nations campaign, and is eligible to first return to the club on November 23.
He was involved in a 2013 Twitter exchange with NRL coach Brian Smith after being accused of running away from an on-field hit from Dylan Napa. Tweets were later credited to Gallen’s father.
Photo: Renee McKay/Getty Images
