Code Sports <\/a>noting comments from the Rabbitohs that there was \u201cno way\u201d they would choose to stand Smith down themselves from their looming clash with the Roosters.<\/p>\nThe NRL can still make its own decision to rule him out.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do know that Brandon has told Souths he will plead not guilty to this,\u201d veteran journalist Phil Rothfield said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n
Brent Read added: \u201cI exchanged texts with Blake Solly and my understanding is they will not stand him down. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs it stands right now he will play in round 27 against the Roosters and as you said Buzz he is going to fight these charges.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rabbitohs released a statement on Monday afternoon, shortly after Smith\u2019s charges were announced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe South Sydney Rabbitohs are aware of allegations made by Queensland Police against player Brandon Smith,\u201d the club statement read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe club has informed the NRL Integrity Unit about the allegations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this matter is part of a Queensland Police investigation, the Rabbitohs will be making no further comment at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith was stopped and questioned by Queensland police in August with police commissioner Shane Chelepy explaining the motives behind the move.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s out in the media now that we have spoken to Brandon,\u201d Chelepy said during the radio interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spoke to Brandon at Coolangatta, when he arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe chatted to him about a number of things and then he was able to go on and play football.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an ongoing police matter that we are dealing with.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrandon was very co-operative with us and he was able to go on and play a good game of football from what I saw.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Melbourne Storm premiership-winner was reportedly heading to the baggage claim area at the airport when he was stopped by police.<\/p>\n
Code Sports reports he was questioned before he was sent on his way to join teammates at the Sofitel Hotel at Broadbeach before their game against the Titans on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Rabbitohs made the NRL Integrity Unit aware of the incident on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NRL has no information relating to a potential breach of the NRL Rules by the player,\u201d an NRL spokesman told Code Sports.<\/p>\n
Smith played the game against the Titans on the Sunday and made an impact for the team starting from the bench in the Bunnies\u2019 20-18 win.<\/p>\n
Originally published as South Sydney Rabbitohs not standing down star after charges<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South Sydney Rabbitohs have stated they will not be standing down star Brandon Smith after he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[69784,64,63,689,69787,14868,9124,69791,69792,69789,2105,2485,4612,69790,4466,69793,761,762,158,677,69785,69786,52960,701,58945,69788,4439,85],"class_list":["post-94417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-alleged-drug-dealing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-betting-offences","tag-brandon-mychal-smith","tag-chris-hyde","tag-crime-gangs-group","tag-dangerous-drugs","tag-drug-offence","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-gold-coast","tag-gold-coast-titans","tag-inside-knowledge","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-milestone-gamejarome","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-oceania","tag-ongoing-police-matter","tag-organised-crime-gangs","tag-police-commissioner","tag-queensland","tag-shane-chelepy","tag-sofitel-hotel","tag-south-sydney-rabbitohs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}