St George Illawarra’s Junior Amone is set to have his playing contract deregistered after the NRL issued a notice to the young five-eighth following his conviction over a hammer attack.
Amone faced court in Wollongong last week and was found guilty on a number of charges including intimidation and assault occasioning actual bodily harm after an incident with a tradesman last year.
The 21-year-old was given a two-year intensive corrections order, will do 300 hours of community service and also fined.
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The NRL on Tuesday confirmed it had issued the notice, which is the first step towards deregistering Amone’s contract, reportedly worth $500,000 a season.
The player has five business days to respond.
Amone, who is under contract until the end of 2024, had already been stood down from all club activities by the Dragons.
The promising young playmaker had played 54 NRL games with St George Illawarra and has been capped by Tonga.
It topped off a horrible 24 hours for the Dragons, who missed out on signing North Queensland five-eighth Tom Dearden and New Zealand Warriors prop Addin Fonua-Blake.