Why NRL decided Roberts can stay in bubble after balcony breach

The NRL has resisted pressure from the Queensland government to kick James Roberts out of the sunshine state bubble after the Wests Tigers centre breached biosecurity regulations on Tuesday by going out on his hotel balcony.

As far as the bureacrats were concerned that shoud have been it. Gone. Season over. Career over, probably, considering he is off contract with the Tigers at the end of the year and has struggled to recapture the form of old.

But the NRL didn’t agree and yesterday chose instead to fine Roberts $7500 and suspend him for one game.

Roberts found himself in hot water after breaking a Gaffa tape seal to hang his towel on the balcony of his level 20-something Gold Coast hotel after a gym session.

The move from head office will prove popular with the clubs, who had wanted ARLC chairman Peter V’landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo to stand up to the government for the sake of the players and their families. The Roberts balcony breach was seen as a relatively minor misdemeanour.

Sources with knowledge of the situation say the governing body had some sympathy with that argument and was reluctant to remove Roberts from the bubble and send him home to NSW.

That is not to say there has not been some frustration over Roberts’ actions in the hotel where he is staying with the partners and families of the NRL players as they quarantine for 14 days.

James Roberts is being investigated by the NRL Integrity Unit for a potential Queensland Health balcony breach.Credit:Getty Images

People from Sydney hotspots cannot leave their rooms â€" including a mother with a newborn, pregnant women suffering from morning sickness who have been denied exemptions to open their doors and a mother who has children with allergies. They have all been restricted from setting foot on the balcony.

Still, there is also sympathy for Roberts. While he knew the rules and he broke them, in what world did we imagine someone risked being kicked out of a state for such a seemingly inconsequential misdemeanour? Afterall, he is allowed to go outside to use the gym and pool to stay in shape for his return to the NRL bubble.

In the book of NRL indiscretions, this wouldn’t rate a mention.

The past few weeks have been tough on the players, not least Roberts, who has long struggled with mental health issues since leaving his family home as a nine-year-old.

When he made his State of Origin debut for NSW in 2018, coach Wayne Bennett said: “This is not his greatest achievement. His greatest challenge was not to be rotting away in a jail somewhere. Or worse.”

Right now, the NRL and its $200m broadcast deal is at the mercy of the Queensland government for the rest of the year. Some would say that is fair enough, considering it is helping the NRL keep its season alive by relocating the competition.

But Queensland gets plenty in return from the NRL, too - more than $45 million will be injected into the state’s economy over the next three months. The state has already had Magic Round and three State of Origins and will now, in all likelihood, host the grand final.

One particular disgruntled partner made her feelings known to Abdo on a group Webex call last night.

She expressed frustration that Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had shifted the goal posts for wives and families in the NRL’s Operation Relocation.

Some wives and girlfriends are saying they would not have flown to Queensland with their children had they known the conditions around their quarantine would change.

Originally, the families were told they would arrive in Queensland a few days after the players. That was subsequently delayed by four days.

They were also told they would be allowed to roam around the hotel during their quarantine period. But that changed on their arrival, although they were allowed to mingle with others on their floor.

Things started to turn really sour after the partners of two Warriors players, who have been having dinner together every night and have spent the past year with each other in the team hub on the Central Coast, exchanged food from their balconies. The balcony doors in all rooms were subsequently sealed shut with Gaffa tape.

The NRL is privately disappointed with certain sections of the media, who have been staking out the hotel and flying drones outside rooms to catch out the families and players.

In the case of Roberts, the only reason he is at the hotel and not with his teammates in Brisbane is because he was in quarantine after being confirmed as a close contact to a positive case in Sydney and had not been able to travel with the side.

He is now in the middle of his second consecutive quarantine period. He has been tested for COVID-19 multiple times and came back negative.

There’s no sympathy among the families for Jai Arrow and Api Koroisau. Arrow snuck a woman into Queensland Origin camp, while the married Koroisau also breached the bubble with another woman.

Arrow was given a two-game ban, but effectively missed none. He was always going to have to quarantine for 14 days after breaking the bubble. Koroisau has also been banned for two games.

The Queensland government warned the NRL that another indiscretion would place their welcome in jeopardy. If there’s a repeat of the events that involved Arrow or Koroisau, few would argue they shouldn’t be sent packing.

But if the Roberts misdemeanour is where the bar has been set, good luck getting through the season.

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Michael Chammas is a sports reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald

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