EXLCUSIVE: Andrew Johns questions COVID-19 trio's punishments in light of Bulldogs' sackings

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has questioned the punishments handed down to Latrell Mitchel, Josh Addo-Carr and Nathan Cleary in the wake of the Bulldogs schoolgirl scandal.

Mitchell, Addo-Carr and Cleary all escaped playing bans after breaking laws amid the coronavirus lockdown, but received large fines for flouting social distancing restrictions.

Following the fines, a number of pundits have raised the question as to whether the trio got off lightly.

Canterbury Bulldogs duo Jayden Okunbor and Corey Harawira-Naera had their NRL contracts deregistered last month after the pair were caught up in a schoolgirl sex scandal during a team trip to Port Macquarie in February.

Johns admitted he's been inundated with questions asking how the punishments handed down to the trio over their COVID-19 breaches stack up against the sanctions the Bulldogs players were hit with.

"Some people have asked me, what's the difference between what Latrell and Josh have down, and what the Bulldogs players have done – What's worse?" Johns told Wide World of Sports' Freddy & the Eighth.

"The Bulldogs players have had their contracts torn up. Where one's a criminal matter and the other one's more of a moral issue.

"A lot of people are asking questions about that."

The Newcastle great also admitted the issue of mobile phones needs to be addressed once again.

Johns says the players let down ARL Commission chairman Peter V'landys who's been in the public eye over the past month, attempting to relaunch the NRL season amid ongoing conversations surrounding appropriate coronavirus measures.

"Initially when I saw it, I thought how stupid," Johns added.

"Once again the mobile phone comes into play which we've spoken about at length. Turn your phone off, get rid of it – whatever you're going to do with it, whatever you're getting up to.

"We've got some people in the game, particularly Peter V'landys who's putting his neck on the line, he's putting his integrity on the line to get us back playing before anyone in the world.

"He's obviously going into meetings with biosecurity people, high level people in government giving them assurances on what we're going to do.

"Then they go up there and do this, not only do stupid stuff, but film it and put it on social media. I just want to headbutt a wall, I just can't believe it."

Fellow NRL great Brad Fittler admitted the game has a number of issues with social media.

The Roosters legend believes players' egos have damaged the reputation of the NRL, declaring the game will need to mature again for the public to see the league in a much more positive outlook.

"I don't understand the need to be on social media, to get that gratification, I don't know how much they need. Their egos are out of control," Fittler said.

"I feel the game for a while looked like it matured. I think our game needs to mature to go to that next level where players come into the game and see there's a standard of behaviour and then that becomes our base.

"It sort of just got brought down again and now we just have to fight again to change the way people think about rugby league.

"The biggest thing right now is how the politicians feel about rugby league and how the health experts feel about rugby league because our future is in their hands."