Papakura Sea Eagles Rugby League Club.<\/p>\n
Despite the club\u2019s suggestion that Roberts acted alone, the Herald understands that at least four letters of complaint have been sent to Auckland Rugby League (ARL) from parents of both Papakura and Manurewa players.<\/p>\n
It is alleged committee members verbally abused the referee and opposing team\u2019s spectators after the match ran over time on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
ARL has confirmed to the Herald that it is looking into the complaints. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working through our complaints process and supporting the Papakura Sea Eagles Club at this time, with no further comment to make,\u201d ARL chief growth officer Duane Mann said.<\/p>\n
Duane Mann is Auckland Rugby League’s chief growth officer. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
The Sea Eagles\u2019 statement also referred to unspecified \u201cserious issues involving Leroy\u201d, saying the club had been working through those matters for some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of respect for everyone involved, and to protect the integrity of the process, we will not be making those matters public. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we can say is that these issues have caused significant disruption to the club and have required legal attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roberts told the Herald that \u201cthe legal action is not from their [the club\u2019s] side and we will be releasing statements about this in the coming days, seeing PSE [Papakura Sea Eagles] brought it up and left it to the imagination of the public\u201d.<\/p>\n
Roberts said that matter was separate from the complaints about Saturday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n
The Sea Eagles\u2019 response continued by saying the club was \u201caddressing the incident that occurred over the weekend\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis behaviour does not reflect the values of our club or the standards we expect from anyone representing the Papakura Sea Eagles.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spectators from Papakura and Manurewa say the match at Prince Edward Park was stopped by one of Papakura\u2019s committee members before it was finished.<\/p>\n
Another Papakura committee member reportedly then went onto the field and allegedly told the referee to \u201cget the f*** off the field\u201d in front of the young players. <\/p>\n
Another committee member reportedly yelled at both teams over the ground\u2019s loudspeaker.<\/p>\n
One letter, from a mother who couldn\u2019t attend the match, said her son came home to tell her all about it: \u201cI had a really cool game today, Mum. I had fun but our game was cut short by a lady from the Papakura team who told Coach Damien to \u2018get the eff off the field\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
Another asks ARL what actions will be taken to address the behaviour and prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.<\/p>\n
A letter from Kura Saints U9’s manager Leroy Roberts apologising for the behaviour of Papakura Rugby League club committee members. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The complaints say the dispute arose after the match ran over time, with another game due to start.<\/p>\n
Roberts said the matches are tightly scheduled, allowing little time for any stoppages. Once one match goes beyond the scheduled finish, the next match is affected. <\/p>\n
Roberts apologies to the players and families of the Manurewa Allstars before taking aim at his own club\u2019s committee. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do NOT condone any of their actions and in no way does it reflect the morals and values of the Saints,\u201d Roberts\u2019 letter said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe swearing in front of the children, the aggressive behaviour, the stomping around calling off the game when we had three minutes left, the name calling all in front of the kids is disgusting. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe again apologise for subjecting your children and supporters to such ugly behaviour from those who are supposed to be running our club.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sea Eagles\u2019 statement said the board has now \u201cformally stepped in\u201d and is carrying out an internal investigation to establish the facts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take this matter seriously and will ensure accountability where required.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spectators from Papakura and Manurewa say the match was stopped after Papakura committee members went onto the field. Photo \/ Alex Cairns<\/p>\n
Some online comments show support for Roberts from his Kura Saints team and the visiting Manurewa Marlins Allstars. <\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for the best hospitality and a brilliant game that was showcased for all our families and supporters. We wish you all the best for the rest of the season from us Allstars.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Herald sought comment from the Papakura Sea Eagles Rugby League Club on the specific allegations. The club has not responded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Papakura Sea Eagles Rugby League Club. Despite the club\u2019s suggestion that Roberts acted alone, the Herald understands that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1903,51,1863,4749,18836,30701,3009,9881,26663,5269,671,26588,14731,13102,111,139,69,1523,86606,4491,6327,3008,213,7187,61,206650],"class_list":["post-480994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-abuse","tag-auckland","tag-back","tag-childrens","tag-club","tag-complaints","tag-eagles","tag-facing","tag-fired","tag-game","tag-incident","tag-junior","tag-league","tag-managers","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-papakura","tag-respond","tag-rugby","tag-sea","tag-sports","tag-team","tag-to","tag-under9s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}