The NRL career of Todd Carney is in limbo after the Cronulla Sharks sacked the five-eighth following the emergence of a photo showing the former Dally M winner performing a lewd act at a urinal.
The image, which showed Carney urinating in his own mouth at a Cronulla hotel, went viral at the weekend after it was uploaded on Twitter. With outrage from sponsors and fans growing, the Sharks board took swift action yesterday. In a prepared statement, the Sharks said Carney had breached behavioural clauses included in his contract.
“When Todd was first signed to the Sharks, he was made well aware of the responsibilities both on and off the field, to himself, the club and to the game in general,” the statement said. “However, the photo that appeared last night on social media does not meet the values and standards the club is looking to uphold and take into the future.”
The Sharks are the third club to sack Carney after the Canberra Raiders and Sydney Roosters also parted ways with the troubled playmaker earlier in his career. Alcohol was behind much of Carney’s woes when he initially found strife, but it appeared the former NSW representative had reformed his bad-boy ways since moving to the Sutherland Shire.
Carney’s agent, David Riolo, slammed the Sharks for not giving his client a chance to explain himself before terminating his $3.5 million, five-year contract. “I’m not defending the photo or anything like that,” Riolo told Fairfax Media. “But I think he deserved an opportunity to at least front the board to put forward a statement on his own behalf before they terminated a five-year contract.”
