Read St George legend Craig Young’s reference for disgraced NRL star Brett Fitch

Rugby league great Craig Young has written a glowing endorsement of Brett Finch in a bid to keep the NRL star out of prison after he admitted sharing child sex abuse material.

Young, an NRL Hall of Famer who played 20 Tests at prop for Australia and is now the chairman of St George Illawarra, typed the character reference on club letterhead.

He also gave evidence at Finch’s sentencing hearing in Sydney‘s Downing Centre Local on Monday, his support being all the more noteworthy because Young also had a long career as a detective.

Young told the court he did not believe Finch had any sexual interest in children but had a drug problem and said he wanted to help him recover from his addiction. 

Young’s testimony came on the same day he was quoted describing his disappointment with St George Illawarra’s current culture after just three players turned up to the struggling club’s end-of-season presentation night. 

Finch will learn his fate next month after pleading guilty in August to one charge of using a carriage service to transmit, publish or promote child abuse material. 

He has admitted feeling disgust at himself for leaving sexually explicit messages on a gay chat line in a bid to obtain cocaine as his drug problem ‘spiralled out of control’.

Young has known Finch for most of the troubled ex-footballer’s life, having won the 1977 and 1979 premierships with his father Robert at the Dragons, and the two families have been close for decades.

‘I am aware of the circumstances that relate to Brett being before the court today,’ Young wrote in his reference. 

‘I am also aware of Brett’s long battle with mental health issues, and I have seen firsthand the “dark places” he has been to.

‘I am also aware that that has devastated him, and he is extremely embarrassed and disappointed in himself.’ 

Young was New South Wales team manager when Finch played State of Origin and described the father-of-one as a sportsman who mentored teammates on and off the field.

‘He is a young man that worships his parents, his wife and child and knowing that he has let them down as well has attributed strongly to his devastation,’ he wrote to Judge Phillip Mahony.

‘To put it simply he is highly remorseful for what has happened, and I believe he has learnt the strongest of lesson from this matter.’

Young, who captained and later coached St George, spent 13 years in regional crime squads investigating major offences including armed robbery.

‘In my entire life, working and my sporting profession I am a person that despises this type of behaviour, so I made this reference with this mindset,’ he wrote.

‘Your Honour, as I have stated I believe that Brett is a highly decent young man who has made a genuine mistake in this instance.

‘I also believe that you will never see him before the courts again.’

Young is rugby league royalty. His son Dean played 209 games for the Dragons and represented NSW and Australia, as well as serving as interim club coach in 2020.

Robert Finch, who attended court with wife Deborah, played 118 first grade games for St George and later became director of referees for the NRL then executive manager of football operations for the Dragons.

Brett Finch’s wife Elli is the daughter of Australian Football Hall of Famer and Carlton great Wayne ‘The Dominator’ Johnston.

Finch junior, who told the court he had no sexual interest in children, has spoken publicly about his past problems with alcohol and drugs which have led to three stints in rehab. 

He told the court on Monday he left ‘twisted’ phone messages on gay chat line FastMeet as he thought ‘hypersexualised’ users could be a last resort to score cocaine. 

‘I was disgusted in myself that I would leave these messages in the hope of obtaining drugs,’ the 41-year-old said. ‘Those words should never have come out of my mouth. I regret it now. It makes me sick now.’ 

Finch said his only goal in leaving the messages was to obtain cocaine, telling the court he was introduced to the service by drug dealer connections. 

He said in the Covid-19 pandemic dealers were not on the roads and that he tried every dealer in his phone before turning to FastMeet in desperation. 

At the height of his addiction Finch was going on five-day benders and using 12 to 25 grams of cocaine a week. 

Finch’s barrister Mike Smith said on Tuesday his client would be wrongly labelled a paedophile for the rest of his life, despite him having no sexual interest in children.

Finch had unsuccessfully applied for 300 jobs, was living off Centrelink payments and would be at grave physical risk from ‘hardened criminals’ if sent to prison.

He was so ashamed of his actions he rarely left his home and no longer went to the gym. 

Mr Smith said Finch’s public profile meant the effect of widespread and ongoing publicity about his offending was ‘out of all proportion’ with his actual crime.

He said the reporting of Finch’s conduct had been accurate but the ‘casual reader’ would nonetheless wrongly believe ‘that this man likes having sex with children’.

‘He will be saddled with that forever,’ Mr Smith told the court. ‘He is not a paedophile and is not motivated by sexual attraction to children.’ 

Mr Smith said Finch’s prospects for rehabilitation were good but he had to address his drug addiction, which would not be done if he was jailed.

‘I think Your Honour could be comfortably satisfied there is no real risk of Mr Finch repeating his offending behaviour,’ Mr Smith told Judge Mahony. 

Messages Finch left on the service were revealed in an agreed statement of facts tendered to court and included material too graphic to publish. 

‘Yeah how you going mate?’ Finch asked in one message sent in November 2020.

‘My name is Brad, 35, masculine build, married. Love to have a hot chat, talk about real kinky, having a threesome with a nice 16-year-old boy.’

In another, Finch said: ‘G’day mate, married guy, 39, muscular bod, would love to be outside, you and me in swimmers, a nice little 16 year old surfer boy comes past.’

In December 2020 year Finch sent messages describing a desire to perform sexual acts with a 12-year-old boy. 

Finch told police he was ‘on drugs’ when he made the recordings, he had not initiated any sexual conversation about children and reference to wanting physical encounters with teen boys was ‘just s*** talk’.  

The retired footballer stopped using the chat line in early 2021 after he got a reply from a user ‘who wanted to take me up’ and mentioned ‘granddaughters’, the court heard.

The reply made Finch realise his behaviour could contribute to paedophilia. 

‘It made me utterly sick, I was disgusted,’ he told the court. 

‘I instantly told him he was a sick f*** and to f*** off. I just wanted to strangle the bloke through the phone.’

Finch was disgusted to have left the messages. 

‘That period I really spiralled out of control with my drug use,’ he said. 

Finch had once been in demand as a paid public speaker and had freely given his time to charities but had now ‘lost everything’.

‘I understand why no one wants to come near me,’ Finch said.

‘I’ve got no one else to blame but myself… it’s hurt so many other people and that’s what I’m sorry for.’ 

Psychologist Chris Lennings told the court Finch’s offending was not sexually motivated.

‘In my assessment he does not present as having a sexual deviance ,’ Dr Lennings said.

Finch played 330 first grade games for the Raiders, Roosters, Eels and Storm in the NRL and Wigan in the UK Super League. 

He played three State of Origins for NSW and won a premiership with Melbourne in 2009 but that title was stripped due to salary cap violations.

Finch’s most celebrated playing moment came in the 2006 Origin opener when he kicked a match-winning field goal for the Blues.

After retirement from league Finch worked in commentary for 2GB, Nine and Fox Sports but eventually lost all those jobs. 

Judge Mahony will sentence Finch on November 23.