Paul Vaughan has played his last game for the St George Illawarra Dragons, with his contract torn up at an emergency board meeting on Tuesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The decision came as the club continued to express their anger at the forward and 12 of his teammates who attended a gathering at Vaughan's house on Saturday night.
The party was in breach of both the NRL's biosecurity protocols and NSW public health orders and players were fined $1000 by police.
The 30-year-old had been walking on thin ice for some time, the former NSW Origin star suspended last year for a breach of the NRL's COVID restrictions.
On that occasion he used a fake name to dine at a Wollongong cafe, and he was forced to isolate for two weeks and fined $10,000.
The NRL handed Vaughan an eight-game ban and $50,000 fine for the latest breach, a punishment the Dragons deemed not tough enough.
Instead, the forward has been released from his contract.
Vaughan was signed to the club until the end of 2022, however whispers had emerged in recent weeks that St George Illawarra were looking to move him on.
Vaughan's teammates were also handed additional sanctions by their club, on top of the one-match suspensions and fines of varying values announced by the NRL.
The players have been fined by the Dragons, the money to go to local charities while they must also perform community service.
"The board haven't taken any of the 13 players' actions lightly and reinforced this on Tuesday morning by taking these additional actions including the termination of Paul Vaughan's contract," Dragons CEO Ryan Webb said.
"The club maintains it holds no reservations over the punishments already handed down by the NRL Integrity Unit and New South Wales Police.
"These additional penalties have been determined in such a way that the beneficiaries will be those affected by the players' misconduct."