Three days after his club was dragged through the mud by the raising of sexual misconduct allegations against 11 players, the Cronulla Sutherland chairman, Barry Pierce, finally emerged from his bunker. And what he had to say is hardly an earth-shattering nor a seismic shift in attitude.

This was a club that had more than a quarter of its players and staff in a room watching and participating in group sex with a woman who made a complaint to the New Zealand police.

And what does the genial Pierce, who is so nicely naive he wouldn't have any concept of night-time activities, but who is also on the board of the National Rugby League, have to say about it?

Well, he reckons it wasn't his fault.

At the time the coach Chris Anderson was ill and Pierce's son, Greg Pierce, was the man in charge of the football activities. The younger Pierce went on to become the club's chief executive but has since moved on to another career. The then chief executive Steve Rogers has since passed away.

So chairman Pierce is the obvious man in charge who has the corporate memory of what went on. He wants the players involved to apologise for their actions but, no, he isn't about to name who those players are.

Ahh, the club's protectionist, insular motives come to the fore yet again. It seems not much has changed.

A few appropriate words are uttered: "The Cronulla club looks back on the events of 2002 with a sense of shame and extends its sympathies to the young lady in Christchurch," Pierce said yesterday."I look back now appreciating that more should have been done on our part."

As for his role seven years ago, Pierce reckons he instructed all players and all officials to co-operate fully with the police, adding the rider: "I was not a part of that process."

He doesn't want to unfairly taint innocent parties, saying it would be incredibly damaging to an ex-player or staff member who had nothing to do with the incident to be named. But he reckons he has helped the code change its attitudes towards women, not quite saying it, but inferring that his position on the NRL board has been truly effective.

OK, so if actions speak louder than words, the Cronulla club has certainly made progress in the past seven years. It has sacked Greg Bird, who glassed his girlfriend, and sacked Tevita Latu for headbutting a woman. But surely more progress and openness are still required.