Greenberg defends NRL's controversial 'no fault' stand down rule

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg took the stand on Tuesday afternoon as Jack de Belin fights the game’s decision to stand him down.

Greenberg, NRL chief commercial officer Andrew Abdo and Melbourne Storm chairman Bart Campbell were all expected to testify in the Federal Court over Tuesday and Wednesday.

De Belin is suing after he was stood down under the game’s controversial “no fault” stand down rules which were rubber-stamped in March.

The Dragons lock forward was stood down indefinitely after he was charged with the aggravated sexual assault of a 19-year-old woman in a Wollongong apartment. He has pleaded not guilty and the case is scheduled to be mentioned in Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday.

Under the “no fault” rules, the game can stand down any player charged with a serious crime which carries a jail term of 11 years or more.

But Greenberg made the admission he had no evidence the policy would help curb off-field scandals before it was introduced.

He admitted however the league introduced the hard line stance in the hopes of quashing the “numerous issues we were facing”.

“It was urgent for us to get that rule in place before the start of the season,” he said while giving evidence.

Greenberg told the court it brought the rule into place to give the public the perception the league was serious about addressing the ongoing off-field issues of player misconduct.

De Belin’s barrister Martin Einfeld had a small victory on Tuesday morning after Justice Melissa Perry said evidence around the Net Promoter Score (NPS) would be given little weight in her judgement.

The NPS, an index which measures how likely a person is to recommend the NRL to family and friends, was a key justification in the NRL’s decision to implement the rules and what they said was an attempt to protect their brand.

On Monday, the court heard that during December, the month in which De Belin was charged, the NRL’s NPS score had dropped six points to negative seven and its score among females had nosedived 15 points to negative 12.

According to the NRL, since it began using the NPS in May 2017, they had observed a correlation between it and television ratings and crowd attendances.

Judge Perry said while the evidence went to the NRL’s thought process, it was unable to be tested and therefore she would disregard it in making her decision.

The case continues before Justice Perry.