“Mum, I’m too young to die,” the then nine-year-old said after Lodge punched a hole through the bathroom door he was hiding behind with his mother.
That night he also terrorised the little boy’s mother and another woman who was fleeing 118kg Lodge as he screamed “This is the night you will die”.
Lodge’s rampage in NYC in 2015 is not the only blight on his character. He once threatened to “bash” a young gay man on a train and uploaded it to social media. He was moved on from the Melbourne Storm because he wasn’t the right “cultural fit” — a nice way of saying he was a terrible character to have around despite his incredible footy talent. There’s the time he wrote “C**T” on his arm to fire himself up for under-20s State of Origin. There was the refusal to leave a Kings Cross venue that saw him arrested in 2015.
Then there’s the range of alleged domestic violence offences he faced when he was at the Wests Tigers, but were later dropped.
Couldn't think of a more appropriate club for this scumbag to play at. Says a hell of a lot about the culture at the Boncos that they're happy to bring this sack of shit on-board.
Agreed, Candy. The Broncos are the best chance to rehabilitate this young man, and seemingly are the only ones willing to put in the hard yards for him. They definitely are the most appropriate club.
The Broncos will put out a headline or two pretending they give a shit about character and the code’s ‘fit and proper person’ requirement while everyone ignores the damaged arsehole still owes 1.6m in damages for what he did in New York.
That $1.6m is an amount doled out by the Civil system that was separate to his charges. While I do think he should pay his victims compensation, $1.6m? Really? And people are amazed he hasn't paid any of that on a Redcliffe wage. I mean seriously, who would?
The amount reflects the crime. Who knows what damage he did to the kid he terrorised and anything else a judge would take into account. Even if the amount is too much for him he hasn’t yet paid anything. He’s fresh airing the whole incident and his victims. What a cunt.
Yeah but he's a good footballer and that's all the Boncos care about. They've happily put jerseys onto rapists, crack-heads, women-bashers etc before if they're quality players so why stop now?
Well I don't agree that the amount reflects the crime, but this is the US Civil courts.
I don't think he's actually bound by Australian law to pay it back. It's an interesting one, the only real chance of paying any meaningful amount is to earn a wage paid by playing NRL football, but a fair portion of the public want him to have been paying it off on a wage when there really is no incentive of doing so.
Anyway, isn't Lodge on a minimum wage contract? So $80k? He's just become a father, so unless his partner is earning a solid wage I can't imagine much of that compensation being paid.
Madmya wrote:How do you know the kid didn't deserve it?
Anyway, isn't Lodge on a minimum wage contract? So $80k? He's just become a father, so unless his partner is earning a solid wage I can't imagine much of that compensation being paid.
Look at this guy defending a woman basher and child abuser just because he currently wears the jersey. Wow.
Don’t you love the credit arseholes like Lodge get for ‘turning their lives around’. Good on you son - credit to you for going from violent criminal shithole to normal. Because don’t we all get credit for being normal.
If this guy's as good at football as they reckon, Broncos are getting him at about a $500k a year discount from his market value. Maybe they could pass those savings on to his victims? I'm sure the NRL would agree not to count it under the salary cap.
Saw the security vision of Lodge's offending last night. Why would the NRL and Brisbane bring this much heat on themselves by re-signing this POS? Good footballer or not it doesn't add up.
Peppermint Lounge wrote:Saw the security vision of Lodge's offending last night. Why would the NRL and Brisbane bring this much heat on themselves by re-signing this POS? Good footballer or not it doesn't add up.
You've reached that conclusion based on the CCTV footage? I'm curious as to what you thought must have happened before this footage was leaked. I had imagined some bloke with death in his eyes going on a rampage but the reality is Lodge is fucked up on some kind of substance, loosely throwing punches and staggering everywhere. You could push him over.
I'm also curious as to why you're so passionate about this and you were silent over Russell Packer's re-entry in the competition a couple of seasons ago. Imagine the CCTV footage they would have had on that? He king hits a bloke and fractures his eye socket, he falls to the ground and hits his head, Packer continues to lay into his head whilst on the ground before finally stomping on his head. That could have so easily resulted in death and was rightly thrown in jail. Packer was 24 when he committed this crime but was given a second chance by the game with little resistance. Lodge was 20, clearly out of his mind on some substance, and didn't nearly kill anyone yet there is fierce resistance to his re-entry.