8 Mar 2016

Sharks boss clears players over bar fight

9:56 am on 8 March 2016

The Cronulla Sharks chief executive Lyall Gorman insists NRL players Valentine Holmes and Jack Bird have no case to answer over their involvement in a Sydney bar scuffle.

Cronulla's Jack Bird scores a try.

Cronulla's Jack Bird scores a try. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

Australian media have reported that Holmes was briefly knocked unconscious and Bird king-hit after the pair stepped in to defend Sydney Roosters winger Shaun Kenny-Dowall in an argument with a patron at the Coogee Pavilion on Sunday.

But Gorman said the players were not struck and the situation only escalated after the Sharks pair walked away.

"We understand there was an incident in and around several NRL players at which Jack Bird and Val were present," Gorman told Fairfax Media.

"There were no assertions at all that Jack and Val did anything inappropriate in any shape or form."

The NRL say they are yet to be contacted by Cronulla regarding the incident, while the Roosters also claimed that Kenny-Dowall was not involved in an altercation.

None of the trio of NRL players were asked the leave the venue.

Holmes was last month suspended from representing Queensland during this year's State of Origin series after breaking curfew during an emerging Maroons camp.

The Sharks winger was one of eight players blacklisted by Maroons management after he was issued with an infringement notice when he became involved in an argument with a cab driver in a taxi queue in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley.

-AAP