Radley, Politis’ zero tolerance with drugs edict and an inconvenient truth

3 months ago 26

Opinion

September 1, 2025 — 5.30am

The Roosters may find it inconvenient, but, it’s an inconvenient truth.

Their former player, Brandon Smith, now at arch-rivals South Sydney, is accused of supplying drugs to the Roosters’ favourite son Victor Radley, a local lad made good.

It’s a fact that Smith has been issued a summons by Strike Force Maxima, a Queensland Police organised crime task force. It’s also a fact that Radley’s name is on the summons.

This isn’t an accusation from a beat copper outside a nightclub who suspects something is in someone’s pocket. Or a grainy video released by a duplicitous friend. This is from an organised crime task force, whose methods centre around observing individuals and monitoring and intercepting communications.

In this instance, they have, at the very least, the contents of the alleged drug dealers’ phone as well as what they found on Smith’s phone at the Gold Coast airport when he arrived with Rabbitohs teammates to play the Titans in early August. Sources speaking on the condition of anonymity because they did not have permission to discuss the issue publicly have told this masthead they have more.

Yet, if you listened to Roosters coach Trent Robinson’s press conference on Thursday ahead of their Friday clash with the Storm, you may have been left wondering whether the whole thing was a fiction.

It was quite a clever press conference. Robinson defended his playing group, as is his right. You wouldn’t expect anything else from an experienced multiple premiership-winning coach whose team is in finals contention. His backs-to-the-wall effort with the Roosters this year is to be admired.

But he didn’t have a right to accuse “people”, of “connecting the dots” and playing a “game”, as if it was all some wild goose chase with no substance. Is he talking about senior strike force detectives or the media?

He also decried that “nothing’s been presented to us at the moment”, giving the impression there was actually nothing much to see.

There’s plenty to see. It’s in the summons which is in the possession of the NRL integrity unit and has been for a week.

As a lesson in geography, NRL HQ is a mere 300 or so metres from the Roosters’ mostly taxpayer-funded high-performance centre decked out in the bowels of the fully taxpayer-funded $828m Allianz Stadium that the club plays out of.

Stroll over and have a look. You won’t miss Radley’s name as it is written in capital letters. Names always are on summons sheets.

But let’s be fair dinkum, they would already have read it.

For those who haven’t, the summons says Smith is to appear in the Southport Magistrate’s Court on September 18 on two charges: one of disclosing “inside knowledge” of team changes for the purpose of betting, and one of “unlawfully supply a dangerous drug, namely cocaine, to a VICTOR DEREK RADLEY at Currimundi in Queensland on June 7, 2025″.

Radley is named because, in order to prove an alleged charge of supply, police must prove who the drugs were allegedly supplied to.

Trent Robinson during his press conference on Thursday morning.

June 7 was the Saturday of the King’s Birthday long weekend when the Roosters had a bye.

Currimundi is a nondescript suburb out the back of Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. On that weekend, Radley was half an hour up the road at Twin Waters’ Golf Resort with six Roosters team-mates on a golf weekend.

How do we know that? Because it was all over the players’ social media accounts.

Chad Townsend’s own YouTube Channel and Instagram feed had ‘coverage’ of the weekend, which began with Radley standing on a tee, club in hand, saying: “Alright boys, welcome to the inaugural Sydney Roosters Sunshine Coast Open”. They weren’t expecting any female viewers, apparently.

Why was it all over the players’ social media accounts?

Roosters players during their golf trip.

Because, unlike other mere mortals, their privileged position as elite NRL players at a high-profile club means the weekend was sponsored by Drummond Golf at Stanmore, and they had to pay the piper by loading up on the social media references.

Having a high profile means you can cringingly get your specially embroidered golf trip polos supplied. Happy days.

But it also means you have responsibilities because, nothing in life is free. No amount of football skill equates to a leave pass from scrutiny no matter how powerful the people who back you are.

As it stands, they are police accusations, and none of the players have been found to have done anything wrong. Smith’s lawyer says he will plead not guilty. A not guilty plea means the police will call witnesses and present evidence. Quite the inconvenience.

The Roosters aren’t under the pump because “people” unfairly connected dots.

It’s because their own chairman and benefactor, Nick Politis, declared in a blazing pre-season interview that his club had a strict “zero tolerance” to drugs policy.

“My view is if somebody’s caught doing cocaine or leaning over snorting something, we’re going to get rid of them,” Politis told The Sunday Telegraph in January.

“Our stance is zero tolerance. We are very strong on it. Trent [Robinson] is very strong on it.”

If the allegations are proven, Politis’ might well have made quite the inconvenient statement. Unless they aren’t very strong on it.