Peter V’landys has dealt with plenty of sex scandals since taking over as NRL boss, but as the game reels from a young star being filmed getting intimate in a public toilet, the woman tasked with cleaning up the code makes a startling revelation
- NRL’s gender advisor Catharine Lumby said she had never met ARLC chairman
- Peter V’landys took over the top role in 2019 but she said they had never spoken
- Comes day after video leaked of player having sex with woman in a public toilet
- She said it was an uphill task trying to change league’s much-criticised culture
The NRL’s gender advisor has admitted she has never met rugby league boss Peter V’landys despite him being in charge for more than a year.
Catharine Lumby now has to deal with a bombshell sex tape being leaked online that has rocked the sport.
Video emerged on Wednesday which allegedly showed a Parramatta Eels player having sex with a woman in a public toilet cubicle.
The footage, which was filmed over the toilet door by a bystander, only lasts for five seconds.
A high-profile rugby league player is at the centre of a newly leaked sex tape, which the Parramatta Eels claim was filmed without his consent (pictured, an image from the video)
Lumby on Thursday morning said it often felt like she was ‘hitting her head against the wall’ trying to change the culture among NRL players.
‘I don’t see the same level of commitment I once saw. I am really reconsidering my position,’ she told Sunrise.
She said she would likely speak to NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo on Thursday about the issue, but had never met V’Landys – the chairman of the Australian Rugby League Commission.
‘I was pretty impressed before with the leadership but I wonder whether they are really committed to this,’ Dr Lumby said.
‘It is interesting because we are going through a reckoning, a cultural reckoning on the issue of sexual assault and harassment of women.’
Dr Lumby – who has been the NRL’s gender advisor since 2004 – said the previous ARLC chairman Peter Beattie listened more to her concerns.
‘It is not about me, it is about the issue, but Peter Beattie definitely picked up the phone on the regular to me and I appreciated that because it showed me he cared,’ she said.
V’landys took over at the helm of the ARLC in October 2019.
NRL gender advisor Catharine Lumby on Thursday morning said it often felt like she was ‘hitting her head against the wall’ trying to change the culture among NRL players
Dr Lumby said while an NRL player having sex in a public toilet wasn’t ‘great’, it was not illegal.
‘Distributing material without people’s consent is what concerns me here,’ she said.
The Parramatta Eels on Wednesday confirmed the video involved one of its players.
‘We understand that those on the video have been illegally filmed by another person without consent and that an attempt has been made to distribute the video to media outlet and on social media platforms,’ the club said.
ARLC chairman Peter V’landys. Dr Lumby said she doesn’t ‘see the same level of commitment’ to changing the NRL’s culture from the sport’s top executives
The club said it contacted the NRL Integrity Unit, who are investigating.
Both the Eels and the NRL Integrity Unit are taking the matter ‘very seriously’ as the video is a ‘potential invasion of privacy of those involved’.
There were two other men in the bathroom when the player was having sex with the blonde woman, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The woman involved was topless during the act.
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