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MELBOURNE: Wests Tigers NRL star Benji Marshall will not be cowed but may be even more careful in planning his social life after being dragged into a third violent incident in two years, his manager says.
In the latest, on Wednesday night, Parramatta hooker Mark Riddell was glassed in the head and said he'd been going to the aid of Marshall who was being "terrorised" and was slapped by a group of men at The Eastern Hotel in Bondi Junction in Sydney.
Manager Martin Tauber said yesterday Marshall had been trying to act as mediator after some men, who told the group of footballers they were bikies, got into a verbal exchange with his Wests Tigers teammate Ben Galea.
Tauber said another unnamed Wests Tigers player, also one of his clients, told him that one of the alleged provocateurs had a gun.
"Some blokes started picking on Ben Galea and Benji tried to act as mediator and then Mark Riddell stepped in and got a glass over his head," said Tauber.
"The worst of it was that three or four of them were bikies and one pulled a gun.
"It was all just totally unprovoked."
The incident wasn't reported to police, with Tauber saying the players had left it up to Riddell, who had chosen not to.
A police spokesperson said yesterday the matter would not be pursued unless it was reported.
The NRL had spoken to both clubs and neither had mentioned a gun, while none of the players involved could be contacted to confirm a gun had been brandished.
"I'm not sure where Martin is coming from with that. All I can tell you is that it's never been mentioned by either of the clubs, Wests Tigers or Parramatta," NRL chief executive David Gallop said.
Last year Marshall was reportedly assaulted in an attack at a Coffs Harbour pub while Tauber said the 22-year-old was also harassed while on the Gold Coast for the Indy carnival last month.
- AAP
