St George Illawarra star Ben Hunt has labelled the absence of his Dragons teammates from the club’s award nights as ‘disrespectful’.
Hunt, Zac Lomax, and Michael Melo were the only three players to attend the presentation night, with 27 of their fellow team members absent.
A poor showing after the team finished two wins outside the top eight and in 10th place.
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Hunt, who had a stellar season for the Dragons and finished third in the Dally M leaderboard, expressed his sadness over the abysmal turnout.
However, he noted many of the players had come to him with valid reasons for missing out on the night.
He told Channel 9: “It was a bit disappointing, in a way.
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“But a lot of players came to me when we found out about presentation night and mentioned they’d already booked holidays away.”
However, reports soon emerged that several players were still in Sydney on the night of the presentation, an act that didn’t sit well with the 32-year-old.
Hunt continued: “I did hear after it that there was a couple of guys that were in Sydney and I think that is pretty disrespectful.
“You’re part of the club, you’ve worked hard all year playing for them, you should come and celebrate the year.”
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The Dragons captain’s form this season has earned him a position as part of the Australian World Cup squad.
The halfback is currently in England with the squad whose first game is this weekend against Fiji.
However, in light of the recent presentation night snub from his teammates, Hunt’s mind is already looking at sorting out the drift in the dressing room.
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Hunt added: “Yeah, I’d like to have a chat to some of them.
“Obviously I won’t be able to do it for a few weeks now, not until pre-season. It’d just be good to know their reasons for why they didn’t come.”
Ben Hunt expectedly took out the club’s player of the year award at Pyrmont’s Doltone House.
Despite 27 men’s players missing from the awards Dragons chief executive, Ryan Webb gave a valid argument for the scheduling of the night.
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He said, via Sydney Morning Herald: “We had to wait until the completion of the NRLW season to make sure everyone had the opportunity to celebrate their seasons.
“When you do this it meant our men’s team were three to four weeks into their leave period so many had gone on their holidays.
“It’s a tricky situation for a lot of clubs with both NRL and NRLW teams will have to work out a solution for.”
Topics: Australia, NRL, Rugby League
Jayden Collins