Judges of The Frownlow Medal recently asked whether the Penrith Panthers NRL team could be trusted, and Nathan Cleary, Tyrone May and Stephen Crichton have proven that the answer is no.
The Frownlow Medal is awarded to the player whose off-field demeanour epitomises the values of the modern-day footballer and draws attention to the status of footballers as role models to young Australians. It covers Australia’s four major football codes; the National Rugby League (NRL), Australian Football League (AFL), the A-League (Football) and Rugby Union’s Super Rugby competition. NRL player Shaun Kenny-Dowall won the inaugural medal in 2015, while AFL player Elijah Taylor is the most recent recipient.
Cleary, May and Crichton clearly cannot be trusted with The Frownlow Medal, after they and teammates damaged the NRL premiership trophy during grand final celebrations. Their behaviour resulted in fines and sanctions from the NRL.
May is the least trustworthy. He has been stood down indefinitely and fined $7,500 for a social media post during the victory party which referred to his sex tape scandal from a few years ago. Cleary was fined $7,000 and Crichton $4,000 for disrespecting the famous Summons – Provan trophy, which was broken and placed in a pram and a baby carrier.
Crichton earns his first Frownlow nomination, while Cleary and May are well known to judges. Cleary earned his nomination in 2020 for the famous Tik Tok video, while May was in the running for the award in 2019 after distributing a sex tape without a person’s consent.
The trio have been invited to the Frownlow awards night later this year, but security guards will be on hand to stop them from damaging The Frownlow Medal – unless of course one of them manages to win it.
Image: NuNa
The Frownlow Medal 