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'Two sides to every story': Jack de Belin's NRL teammate speaks out

St George Illawarra forward Jeremy Latimore has spoken out in support of Jack de Belin, saying the sidelined star is ‘struggling’.

Latimore said he was disappointed in the Federal Court ruling against de Belin, which threw out his injunction against the NRL’s ‘no fault’ stand down policy.

De Belin has entered a not guilty plea to a charge of aggravated sexual assault, but will be unable to play until the case comes to a close.

The Rugby League Players’ Association, of which Latimore is a board member, has already flagged its own potential challenge to the rules.

The RLPA believe the stand down policy is in contravention of the collective bargaining agreement between the league, clubs and players.

“We’re very disappointed with what happened with Jack,” Latimore said.

“We feel like the NRL has acted outside the realms of the CBA which we agreed upon as players and clubs and the NRL.

Jeremy Latimore says Jack de Belin is 'struggling in the wake of last week's Federal Court ruling. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Jeremy Latimore says Jack de Belin is 'struggling in the wake of last week's Federal Court ruling. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

“I want to see something done because you don’t want to see your teammate found guilty until proven innocent.”

While Latimore said he could understand why the NRL had taken the position they had, he nonetheless considered the consequences to be unacceptable.

“I understand their position, they have to act in the best interests of the game,” he said.

“But there’s two sides to every story.

“He’s been put on the sideline and he’s struggling. He’s around training but he can’t play. We’re really missing him as a playing group.

“It would be good to get the RLPA and NRL together to work on this. They’ve made a decision but hopefully the RLPA can dispute that.”