Top club considering legal action over pundit comments

Penrith Panthers could be about to ban their players from talking to Fox Sports and are considering legal action against the channel.

Their CEO Brian Fletcher slammed Fox when speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald.

‘We’ve got to protect our players,’ Fletcher told The Sydney Morning Herald. ‘And we’ve got to protect our coaches and their reputations … We will discuss it as a board and we will look at all options.’

‘As a club we understand people are going to have opinions, and they aren’t all going to be good, however it’s … tarnishing a brand that doesn’t deserve to be tarnished, and I think the public are starting to understand this, which is pleasing,’ he said.

‘The fact that we are giving this more oxygen than what it deserves is something I’m not overly happy about and will only allow for another rebuttal … but you can’t allow them to continue to take potshots at the club without comment.’

Fletcher was also appalled by the targeting of coach Ivan Cleary, and the suggestion that he lacks class.

‘The focus should be on the opposing coach after we thrash them, not ours, but that’s not how things play out,’ said Fletcher.

‘As a club, we can’t just sit back and let this go on. It all started a few years ago when there was an article about how strong the Raiders’ reserve grade team was and we smashed them. Then they came out and called our players mug lairs. And now the attacks continue. The latest was the stuff with Jaeman [Salmon].

‘To say, as some have on Fox, that parents shouldn’t send their kids to Penrith is just outrageous. That’s an insult to good people like Kevin Kingston, Joe Galuvao and Glen Liddiard, who work in that area.

‘They say things that attack everything this club stands for and then expect us to play ball and put people on their shows. It’s not on and we have a duty to explore every area to protect our club against the rubbish that is said.’