Do you think Matthew Johns should have been sacked for something that happened 7 years ago?

I think you will find in most jobs held in the public eye there is a moral clause. If they disgrace themself or have a skeleton in the closet that may come out the employer would have the right to dismiss rather than be associated with the employees recklessness.

When this sort of thing is accepted 7,15 or 20 years after it happens it's time to stop calling the human race civilised.

Sex with the first two men may have been consensual but for John's to admit he apologised to her for "the others" screams guilt. Would you let your mates into a room where you were having sex? He had no respect for the young woman or he would have thrown them out. He was witness something that he knows was wrong, he didn't try to stop it and didn't come forward and report it which makes him as guilty as all the others.

Who gives a flying F*** about his career when he could have helped stop a young woman's life from being ruined.

Who raises the blokes out there that think this is ok? What sort of person would believe a sporting "hero" is worth more than a 19 year old woman.

Get a grip people, if it was a young man going with a couple of sporting identities some where for a drink where later he passed out on the bed, half the team came in and helped them selves to him he wouldn't be seen as "asking" for it just because he'd was drunk and couldn't say no.

God help your Mothers, Sisters and Daughters!

No. This happened 7 years ago and it should have been dealt with then. It wasn't rape and it was consensual. However I certainly would not like it if it happened to my daughter or son. Having said that, The man came forward and apologised for his involvement.

Why was the girl there for in the first place, if not for a party etc. I certainly do not condone his involvement, but I do put some blame on him for not stopping the whole debacle.

I do think the other chaps should come forward and give there side, instead of letting Johns take the fall.

In my mind they are cowards and certainly not Sportsman like.

Also the girl knew what she was doing and I did not hear the word "No" come out of her mouth while been interviewed.

Whoever she is probably had issues before this happened 7 years ago.

Otherwise why not complain the day after the situation and not four or five days later.

As far as the NZ police are concerned its a open and shut case. So why are the Media so intent on bringing something like this up now.

Admittedly sportsman particularly the Footy guys need to clean up there act. We have juniors coming up the ranks and the violence that is happening now both off and on the field with and against woman has been a regular occurrence of late. But why bring something that happened 7 years ago that was dealt with then. There have been others that have taken the news by storm, why not use all those as an example. there have been too many to mention.

Whats the go with this person, If not for money. That sucks.

Also others that know the girl have come out and it puts her story in another light.

I gather the journo who put the story out has an issue about Johns and the game.

No I don't think he should have been sacked. It happened 7 years ago and was dealt with by the police at the time and no charges were laid. Why has this woman come forward after 7 years? She made the wrong decision by deciding to go to the motel room - they didn't drag her there did they kicking or screaming! She just wanted to brag about "getting it on" with a well known footballer!

Matthew Johns yes is guilty of adultery to his wife but they had been working through that these past 7 years and now something private has been dragged into the public.

Channel 9's ratings will now go down the gurgler even further and I for one will not be watching the Footy Show from now on!

Yes it was morally wrong for a married man to have sex with another woman. But it was not legally wrong as the police at the time had already decided.

Where are the other players in this scenario? There were other footballers involved - why haven;t they come forward too instead of letting Matt Johns take the rap!

What a joke the whole debacle is!

There is no evidence of rape and after 7 years, Matthew Johns and the other men involved are still claiming it was consensual. Why did it take this woman so long to come forward? If there was a crime it should have been dealt with 7 years ago and then put to bed. Now it's causing pain all over again for everyone involved...especially Johns' wife and family.

It seems to be a problem with young women fans of football...a lot of them leave themselves open to trouble...following the players around and throwing themselves at them. Then afterwards, when they feel sorry for themselves, they come forward. If they didn't put themselves in these predicaments, they wouldn't get themselves into trouble. The sacking of Matthew Johns from both the Storm and Channel Nine is not the silver bullet to remedy an unhealthy culture already deep seeded in Rugby League. Do Rugby League power brokers truly believe that making a public example of Matthew John's moment of weakness, though it occurred some time ago, will provide the guise of an effective zero policy? The opening of an old can of worms is all that has been achieved here and will only further damage the already waning popularity of Rugby League!

Matthew Johns and the other men involved are still claiming it was consensual. Why did it take this woman so long to come forward? If there was a crime it should have been dealt with 7 years ago and then put to bed. Now it's causing pain all over again for everyone involved...especially Johns' wife and family. But, now that women has came out and said something that happened seven years ago and the investigation ended with the police saying no case but shes brang it up after all this time most likely for "MONEY" from the news channels etc..And yeah he's been sacked and he wwasn'twith channel nine at the time it happened and he wasn't with Melbourne Storm either so he shouldn't lose his jobs for this i love Matty Johns he is my hero and i don't think any less of him and watching his interview from tonight May 13, 2009 i believe he does care about what happened to the women and he is taking all blame for it and not blaming anyone else so good on him for taking the interviews telling his part... remember its morally wrong "BUT" it wasn't illegal.

Absolutely Not - the whole thing is a joke.

I just read someone suggesting the girl concerned was raped - she wasn't. She has publicly acknowledged she was a willing participant with Matthew Johns in particular but 7 years on she is still disturbed by the incident.

As a general statement, the behaviour of some rugby league players in the past 5+ years has been nothing short of disgraceful, however this is an isolated incident that happened and was dealt with by the NZ police seven years ago.

I thought Tracey Grimshaw if anything incited the situation as it probably helps her show get ratings but has anyone stopped to think about Matthew, his wife and more importantly his two boys - i don't think the media have at all - Grimshaw and channel nine are a complete disgrace.

With respect to the woman involved (i'm not sure what has motivated her to come out of the closet 7 years later), but should anything happen to anyone in the Johns family as a result of this 'savaging' then the media, in particular Tracey Grimshaw will have a lot to answer for.

The only thing Matt Johns did wrong in my view was being honest to all involved - look where its got him. Once again the NRL and Channel Nine have reacted to the minority and not the majority - have they forgotten about all the positive contributions Matthew has made to the game, the fans and their station over the years?

My wife and I watched the interview last night and if anything walked away feeling even more sorry for the Johns family, not the woman.

I'm gonna get a low rating I know because the women here love a witch hunt.

Firstly, he shouldn't be sacked but should be made to apologize to the public he has let down. We're not Americans we shouldn't impeach him for an indiscression.

Secondly, He has said she was willing, he may be right, he may be wrong. She was obviously a groupie and therefore was there with a purpose.

It's Bill Clinton all over again. What the ex-US President did was wrong but if she had a problem with it, she should have done something about it when she did have a problem and he was still Governor, not years later when he was president and I still think her motives were that of a gold digger.

Like someone else said, she probably stands to make money out of this and that is why I say she may actually have been there as a willing participant and is only coming forward now to make the cash. There may be some dillusional folks out here that think woman don't do this sort of thing, that santa still flies around on the 24th of December in a sleigh and that the tooth fairy leaves money under kids pillows.

This little gold digger makes me ashamed to be a kiwi though.

There is no evidence of rape and after 7 years, Matthew Johns and the other men involved are still claiming it was consensual. Why did it take this woman so long to come forward? If there was a crime it should have been dealt with 7 years ago and then put to bed. Now it's causing pain all over again for everyone involved...especially Johns' wife and family. But, now that women has came out and said something that happened seven years ago and the investigation ended with the police saying no case but shes brang it up after all this time most likely for "MONEY" from the news channels etc..And yeah he's been sacked and he wwasn'twith channel nine at the time it happened and he wasn't with Melbourne Storm either so he shouldn't lose his jobs for this i love Matty Johns he is my hero and i don't think any less of him and watching his interview from tonight May 13, 2009 i believe he does care about what happened to the women and he is taking all blame for it and not blaming anyone else so good on him for taking the interviews telling his part... remember its morally wrong "BUT" it wasn't illegal.

The thing is about this issue - that it is so damn controversial at the moment.

7 Years ago, no one in the public knew that matthew johns had anything to do with this horrific event. But now that we do, surprisingly people are standing by him - then of course there are others that are shunning him.

It was a horrible thing that he did, but as far as im concerned he shouldn't have taken the full blow of punishment for something that was a group act AND the fact that the sex that he had with the woman was consensual.

Yes he did the wrong thing in the sense that he didn't stop other football players and staff from joining in on the sexual act with the woman - but he did the right thing by confronting the problem straight away.

He apologised the next day for not being in control of the situation the night before and it has nearly destroyed his family and career when it was a current event.

So as far as im concerned you can see the anguish and regret in his eyes, when he publicly apologizes.

I think its a terrible thign that he has been SUSPENDED (not sacked) from channel 9 and the melbourne football team.

But again in saying that, he did do a terrible thing.

But i think we all have to realise that it is NOT just rugby league players doing this, and it wasn't just matthew johns - it was staff and other players.

In conclusion, no he shouldn't have had this happen as it is 7 years down the track and had already been dealt with.

just my opinion.

No I do not think he should be sacked. It happened over 7 years ago and police files and tax stuff only stay open for 7 years and then closed I think. Why is she only coming out with all of this now. Why should it only be just Matthew that has the heat on him. Why can't she remember all the other names.How much has she been paid to ruin Matthew's life. The police could not find a reason to gharge anyone so it should have been closed then and there. This should not have been draged up again. The publuc have forgiven other sports stars so why can we not do this for Matthew.What about what his brother did. that too was morally wrong and illegal but he did not go through this much. For god sake leave the guy and his family alone. Tell that silly girl to go get a life. She knew what she was going up to the room for when she agreed to go.

This was all brought before the police seven years ago and they found that they didn't have enough to charge any of the guys.

I have several questions about all this.

1. why then did Four Corners suddenly bring this to light NOW?

2. is the girl after money? As this was delt with all those years ago it makes you wonder and no I'm not on the side of the guys at all.

3. if Matty Johns decided to leave the room when he saw what was going to happen, why didn't he have the guts to try and put a stop to it.

4. Why just Matty Johns? Who are the others that haven't been named yet are permitted to keep their jobs?

What the guys did regardless was unforgivable and if the girl at the time said no, then it should have been 'no more'. This girl was treated as a piece of merchandise to be used, if the men were that desperate why didn't they hire a couple of prostitutes?

As we obviously don't know all the facts - after all only certain facts have made it to the media and we all know how the media likes to blow things out of proportion.

I just can't believe that the NRL has to bring in specialists to educate these men on how to treat a woman. Surely as grown men they aren't that stupid or is the rumour true that they wear their IQ's on their back.

The fact is, a woman has suffered for seven years because of this while Matty Johns and the other men have been leading normal and prosperous lives.

I feel sorry for Matty's wife, it's a horrible thing to know your husband has cheated on you without any publicity behind it all so it must be devastating for her.

I think it's high time though that those men who are found guilty of legitimate rape (and I'm not saying this isn't) are tried and dealt with according to the law even if it means jail.